Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
Discussion
I suffer from CTS brought on by activity. It used to take serious and prolonged physical effort before it became a problem. But more recently it comes on after a day or two of manual work.
Been doing some DIY over the weekend nothing too strenuous and last night it woke me up, always comes on at night.
What is the likelihood of a GP doing anything? The snipping of the carpel ligaments seems to have some success.
Been doing some DIY over the weekend nothing too strenuous and last night it woke me up, always comes on at night.
What is the likelihood of a GP doing anything? The snipping of the carpel ligaments seems to have some success.
Hi - I have CTS in both hands.
Left hand was worse than the right hand so I went for the surgery to snip the tendon under a local anesthetic.
I found the whole process extremely uncomfortable and painful and found the results - for me at least - were not worth the pain, so opted out of the right hand surgery.
I now have Dupuytren’s Contracture on the left hand causing the ring finger to pull in towards the palm. GP says it was probably not caused by the surgery for CTS - but I would not have it done again
1/2p.
Left hand was worse than the right hand so I went for the surgery to snip the tendon under a local anesthetic.
I found the whole process extremely uncomfortable and painful and found the results - for me at least - were not worth the pain, so opted out of the right hand surgery.
I now have Dupuytren’s Contracture on the left hand causing the ring finger to pull in towards the palm. GP says it was probably not caused by the surgery for CTS - but I would not have it done again
1/2p.
halfpenny43 said:
Hi - I have CTS in both hands.
Left hand was worse than the right hand so I went for the surgery to snip the tendon under a local anesthetic.
I found the whole process extremely uncomfortable and painful and found the results - for me at least - were not worth the pain, so opted out of the right hand surgery.
I now have Dupuytren’s Contracture on the left hand causing the ring finger to pull in towards the palm. GP says it was probably not caused by the surgery for CTS - but I would not have it done again
1/2p.
Worth knowing thanks.Left hand was worse than the right hand so I went for the surgery to snip the tendon under a local anesthetic.
I found the whole process extremely uncomfortable and painful and found the results - for me at least - were not worth the pain, so opted out of the right hand surgery.
I now have Dupuytren’s Contracture on the left hand causing the ring finger to pull in towards the palm. GP says it was probably not caused by the surgery for CTS - but I would not have it done again
1/2p.
Did they offer anything else?
My wife has had this in both wrists and had open release surgery on both, though not at the same time obviously. It has been completely successful and no recurrence or any other problem so far (2 or 3 years now). She was lucky enough to have private medical insurance and could choose her surgeon so got one in London who specialises in this.
drmark said:
Injection and surgery options but first line is normally exclude medical cause (rare in men) and trial of wrist splint for six weeks (worth a try). Day and night - or night only if that is a struggle. See Futuro splint.
Problem is it does go away if I don't do any heavy/repetitive work but I'd rather this not be an option. It would mean not working on cars, gardening or doing DIY for example.I suffered for CTS for 10years, wearing wrist splints with no success. Eventually went for surgery - best decision I have made. Had it done in my left hand about 2years ago, and my right about 6 months later. Wish I had done it sooner. Can't believe how limited I had become. I hah no issues with the surgery or recovery.
I had CTS several years ago. It got to the point where i couldn't hold my hand on the wheel for more than a few minutes at a time, at which point, I went to the Dr.
He decided that they had to exclude more sinister issues, (which I imagine was stuff like Multiple sclerosis) so I had some nerve conduction studies done, then I had an op. This was open wrist surgery, and apart from the nuisance value of having my hand raised in a cast-type-thing for a short while, it was no problem at all. Its done under local, you can't see the op going on because they stretch your arm way out to the side where you can't see it. I genuinely felt nothing at all, although there was a disconcerting crunch as they trimmed the cartilage away
. 10 mins and its over, really.
I was fortunate enough to get it done privately through work and the whole process from diagnosis to op was about 3 weeks. I was told the waiting list, just for the NCS was about 9months in my area, which was why i went private. recovery took a few weeks to complete; i had to do some mild physio., but I can't recommend it enough. I will need the other one done in a while and I will go the same way.
I would not have been happy with steroid injections as, because it WILL come back and in my view, this just kicks the can down the road and I'd rather have necessary operations while I am relatively young and fit (and covered by private insurance), than wait.
He decided that they had to exclude more sinister issues, (which I imagine was stuff like Multiple sclerosis) so I had some nerve conduction studies done, then I had an op. This was open wrist surgery, and apart from the nuisance value of having my hand raised in a cast-type-thing for a short while, it was no problem at all. Its done under local, you can't see the op going on because they stretch your arm way out to the side where you can't see it. I genuinely felt nothing at all, although there was a disconcerting crunch as they trimmed the cartilage away
. 10 mins and its over, really.I was fortunate enough to get it done privately through work and the whole process from diagnosis to op was about 3 weeks. I was told the waiting list, just for the NCS was about 9months in my area, which was why i went private. recovery took a few weeks to complete; i had to do some mild physio., but I can't recommend it enough. I will need the other one done in a while and I will go the same way.
I would not have been happy with steroid injections as, because it WILL come back and in my view, this just kicks the can down the road and I'd rather have necessary operations while I am relatively young and fit (and covered by private insurance), than wait.
ChocolateFrog said:
What's a ball park cost for private treatment?
I had my left hand done at Rowley Hall private surgery about 8 years ago. It came to around £3000 altogether, but that involved several tests and visits, prior to the actual operation. I WISH I had had both hands done at the same time, but I was worried about being laid up for weeks, and I still had a job offshore to go to....
The reality was they told me to start using the hand as soon as I could, to do stretching exercises several times a day.
The odd thing was, those stretching exercises worked so well on my un-cut hand that I rarely got CTS afterwards in it!!! If I'd known about it before.....
A friend had his done on NHS, and they told him to rest it for a week before using it, the total opposite to me. His came back worse than ever. His hand looked like a road traffic accident, whereas you can't actually see my scar.
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