Carpal Tunnel - dealing with it

[Solvability]

I have developed carpal tunnel in my right (dominant) wrist - anyone had to deal with and treat this - any suggestions. Pain in the palm area and numbness on the sides of a couple of fingers - no measurable loss of grip strength. Other than surgery my Dr was not much help.

Thoughts?

[Tom Mainus]

Been a carpenter for 24 years. Wear wrist braces at night when you go to bed. It will help a little bit.

Tom

[lrf]

I am lucky enough to have it at age 28. I had an injection that made it stop for six or seven months late last year, now I think I need to consider surgery because I am a weekend warrior guitar player as well. As mentioned above, keeping your arms straight at night does help.

I can go shoot a match and it doesn't bug me a whole lot but I cannot do dryfire reps to practice or I get some good pain and numbness.

[DoubleL]

A coworker of mine had his fixed at the Brown Hand Center. He has had zero problems since, just under two years since he went in. His bothered him bad, couldn't hold a screwdriver. He is good to go now.

Maybe surgery wouldn't be so bad. If I remember correctly, he was out for a week when he had it done. Came back like new. Good luck.

[Canuck223]

I had both wrists done one winter.

If you have a physical job, you'll need a few weeks to recover enough to return.

If you are more of a desk jockey, you can be back the end of the same week.

As for just dealing with it, in my experience the splints/braces, etc were not terribly effective.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

More than 20 years ago, I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands by a very progressive surgeon at the UMASS Med Center Hand Clinic in Worcester, MA. At that time, he advised me to put off any surgery as long as I possibly could.

Fast forward, I have been having more and more trouble. No feeling in three fingers on right hand and 2 on left. Yes, I can not feel a trigger. Grip strength is going. I waited too long.

I had the EMG study a couple weeks ago. Hurts like hell but confirmed no transmittal in three fingers right hand, two on left and minimal on third.

I wear braces to bed every night and it used to help.

Deep massage to the forearms gives some relief. Surgery is my final answer and it will be done right after Thanksgiving. Right or wrong, I am seriously considering having both hands done the same day to keep my down time limited. I am self employed. No work, no income. Dr claims I will have use of hands when I leave the facility though there will be some pain. I figure the pain can not be any worse than I have now.

Moral of the story is, do everything you can to put off surgery it does come back. BUT, don't wait too long like I did. Some things do not regenerate and although I am hoping to get some feeling back, I am not overly optimistic.

[hvsmith]

Had both carpel tunnel & cubital tunnel syndrome in my dominant hand, had surgery earlier this year, cuts on both my hand & elbow (7"). Best thing I could have done, missed 1 day of work, took off 3 weeks from shooting (Open), & now have full feeling & strength in my shooting hand. As my surgeon told me, you will never recover from this syndrome, it will only get worse & it's best to have it repaired & be back fully functional, glad I took his advise.

[GrumpyOne]

Get it fixed now! Wait, and it will kill the nerves and you will always have the tingling. Had it in my right wrist 15 years ago. Surgery hurt like hell, but its all better. Friend had the surgery a few months ago, and he said it wasn't so bad, apparently they have changed the way they do it.

[SteveU]

Most common feedback 2 weeks after surgery:

"I should have done this years ago"

[atbarr]

FYI, Steve did the Carpal Tunnel surgery on my wife.

Most common feedback 2 weeks after surgery:

"I should have done this years ago"

[Solvability]

Thanks guys - looks like I have something to look forward to. I appreciate the answers.

[FAZZ]

I dealt with this back in 2006 and was very painful, first I thought I had just pinched a nerve or something until I went to the Dr. and they ran there test. They tried to fix it by just shooting me up with a couple of shots at the bottom of my hand but was so damaged they eventually had to perform surgery. The surgery is not that bad they only make about a one inch incision at the bottom of your hand. Recovery was about 4 to 6 weeks but took me a little longer because of my job which was delivering with a hand truck all day long. This was the cause of why my hand was so bad because of the years of delivering and the constant motion of the hand back and fourth. My hand did still feel kinda fuzzy for about 6 months or so but today I am pain free and am glad I can compete in competitive shooting.

[38SuperWes]

If you are not quite to the stage where you need surgery... there is a method of "maintaining" that I use. I play guitar for a living, right now am doing tons of studio work, sometimes five hours a day and a few live gigs where I play for four hours after the studio. I have been dealing with the wrist issues for 8 or 9 years now. I went to see a specialist that developed a device that has really saved me. www.forearmpain.com It gives you the ability to perform deep massage when you need it... and keeping the muscles "loose", helps take the pressure and strain off of those nerves. I hurt a lot, but as the doctor said...there is no fixing it unless I stop what I do...just the ability to keep it in check. I dry fire a lot...and then play guitar for hours... I get a lot of wrist and elbow pain..so then I massage the forearms heavily with the Forearm RX and then ice up...and so far have avoided surgery... He designed the unit for "rock climbers"... it's not a gimmick.... it's saved me. Good luck.... Wes

[tambarika]

I have developed carpal tunnel in my right (dominant) wrist - anyone had to deal with and treat this - any suggestions. Pain in the palm area and numbness on the sides of a couple of fingers - no measurable loss of grip strength. Other than surgery my Dr was not much help.

Thoughts?

Get the surgery. I have had both hands done. If you let it go too long, the nerve will become bruised and the numbness will never go away. You will probably not shoot a gun for about a year after surgery -- it takes about that long to rebuild the thumb-pinkie grip strength.

Once you have been diagnosed with CT, you eventually must have the surgery. All other treatments are bandaids. I did have a very good chiropractor work on my arms 2-3 times a week. It delayed the surgery for a year.

[Hi-Power Jack]

Moral of the story is, do everything you can to put off surgery

I've heard that about one-third of people with CT are benefitted by

taking 50 mg of Vitamin B6 daily. Most pharmacies stock them, or

B50's or B100's.

Very inexpensive to try it - might not help, but it's sure cheap and

easy if it does.

I have mild CT, and the B6 has kept it in check for 35 years now

May have no effect on severe CT - BUT, it's worth a shot.

Good luck.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

Moral of the story is, do everything you can to put off surgery

I've heard that about one-third of people with CT are benefitted by

taking 50 mg of Vitamin B6 daily. Most pharmacies stock them, or

B50's or B100's.

Very inexpensive to try it - might not help, but it's sure cheap and

easy if it does.

I have mild CT, and the B6 has kept it in check for 35 years now

May have no effect on severe CT - BUT, it's worth a shot.

Good luck.

Thanks, I take a B Complex

Here are the Top Five Benefits of Vitamin B6:

1. Vitamin B6 helps maintain healthy brain function.

2. The vitamin plays a key role in synthesizing antibodies that are needed to fight various diseases.

3.Vitamin B6 helps in maintaining normal nerve function. It plays a crucial role in the synthesis of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. It also assists normal nerve cell communication.

4. The vitamin helps in forming red blood cells.

5. It helps in breaking down and digesting proteins. So, the higher the protein intake, the greater is the requirement of vitamin B6.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Top 5 Health Benefits of Vitamin B6

[Matt Griffin]

I'll just point out that you want to be careful of a CT diagnosis by anyone who isn't an orthopedic specialist that has done MRI or some other deep investigative technique. It's common to call every problem that results in wrist and finger pain CT when there's a spectrum of issues that present similarly. I had nerve entrapment in my right arm that caused, you guessed it, wrist pain and tingling/weakness in my fingers. Scar tissue had built up along my arm from working a desk job for too many years and captured my ulnar nerve. Where CT requires some pretty heavy surgery to correct, nerve entrapment can be fixed with a variety of stretching and Astym, a method of scraping the arm with a dull blade to break up the scar tissue.

I went from six years of progressively worse pain and weakness to 100% recovered in two months. It was phenomenal. Cut to today when I'm still recovering from tennis elbow/ligament reconstruction on my LEFT elbow, for which PT did nothing.

So, different answers for different conditions, be dead sure it's CT before you go down that treatment road.

[Solvability]

I'll just point out that you want to be careful of a CT diagnosis by anyone who isn't an orthopedic specialist that has done MRI or some other deep investigative technique. It's common to call every problem that results in wrist and finger pain CT when there's a spectrum of issues that present similarly. I had nerve entrapment in my right arm that caused, you guessed it, wrist pain and tingling/weakness in my fingers. Scar tissue had built up along my arm from working a desk job for too many years and captured my ulnar nerve. Where CT requires some pretty heavy surgery to correct, nerve entrapment can be fixed with a variety of stretching and Astym, a method of scraping the arm with a dull blade to break up the scar tissue.

I went from six years of progressively worse pain and weakness to 100% recovered in two months. It was phenomenal. Cut to today when I'm still recovering from tennis elbow/ligament reconstruction on my LEFT elbow, for which PT did nothing.

So, different answers for different conditions, be dead sure it's CT before you go down that treatment road.

Thank you this is good information.

[RippSpeed]

I dont know if I have carpal tunnel or something else. My hands feels like they're falling asleep only when I'm txting on my cellphone or when I'm sleeping. Its not constant and it never happens when I go shoot or doing something repetitive...

Funny thing is people say its because of shooting too much. But the worst one is my weak hand ( left ) not my strong hand... I'm going to go see my Doctor about it soon because its getting worst and worst. Braces dont help they only amplify the tingly feeling in my hand.

[CDRGlock]

If it is moderate to severe, then surgery is the only answer to prevent long term neuropathy and muscular atrophy secondary to denervation. I had surgery on my right wrist 2/2011. My left wrist is also affected, but I don't type as often as I used to so it has improved.

[CDRGlock]

I'll just point out that you want to be careful of a CT diagnosis by anyone who isn't an orthopedic specialist that has done MRI or some other deep investigative technique. It's common to call every problem that results in wrist and finger pain CT when there's a spectrum of issues that present similarly. I had nerve entrapment in my right arm that caused, you guessed it, wrist pain and tingling/weakness in my fingers. Scar tissue had built up along my arm from working a desk job for too many years and captured my ulnar nerve. Where CT requires some pretty heavy surgery to correct, nerve entrapment can be fixed with a variety of stretching and Astym, a method of scraping the arm with a dull blade to break up the scar tissue.

I went from six years of progressively worse pain and weakness to 100% recovered in two months. It was phenomenal. Cut to today when I'm still recovering from tennis elbow/ligament reconstruction on my LEFT elbow, for which PT did nothing.

So, different answers for different conditions, be dead sure it's CT before you go down that treatment road.

Great success story. Thanks.

Great points, too. There are so many confounding diseases such as cubical tunnel syndrome, cervical radiculopathy, that confuse many clinicians.

[Round_Gun_Shooter]

I was diagnosed with CT 20 years ago. I put up with it. Now the pain is severe and I have loss of grip strength. I had a nerve study done and have no nerve transmission in three fingers of my right hand, two fingers of my left hand and limited transmission in a third finger on the left hand. I have been feeling grip through my forearms for a couple years now and can not feel a trigger.

Surgery scheduled for November on both hands with the hopes the pain will be gone. If the feeling comes back that will be a plus.

Moral of the story is don't put off treatment too long like I did.

[JulieTheCat]

Might be a dead thread here, but worth a shot.

Pain in my left (support) upper forearm under the elbow developed last week after a heavy week of dry fire practice. I've realized that I spent way too much time gripping very tightly while practicing target transitions. Won't do that again. I'm also undecided if my weightlifting (specifically cleans and front squats that load the wrist in the front rack position) are the culprit.

Now my left hand is getting some tingling. Thumb, webbing between thumb and index, and index specifically.

I'm 25 and work at a computer, but I can't imagine that 3 years of desk work has created carpal tunnel.

Has anyone here experienced acute onset of these symptoms?

[RippSpeed]

I was battling carpal tunnel and joint pains and knee problems the whole last 6months of last year...

I then was told by my friend about aspartame side affects... And I drink nothing but diet tea w/ has nothing aspartame. And I was @ the end of my rope and starring @ surgery. I said I'd give it a shot ... I went straight cold turkey from my diet tea ... Been off it for 3 to 4 weeks now...

All the pain in my hands and joints have gone away... I also lost 12lbs from not eating rice ( SHOCKER !!! a Filipino without rice is like a fish with out water) and my knees have stop hurting as bad... I've been stretching my hands and wrist as well ... And it has gone close to almost gone...

I wanted to share this and maybe this would help someone else out...

[chipdouglas]

Im an electrician and expecting this sergury one day. right now streching is all i do. Interesting about the aspartine. I will have to mention that to my wife she drinks diet crap all the time.. I don't konw how anyone can pallet it tastes horrible.

CHeers