Have you had carpal tunnel surgery?

[SjoGirl]

I am in the process of scheduling surgery for carpal tunnel for my left, non dominate, hand. The doc says easy peasy and that I will be able to move my fingers and should have dressing off in a week and start to move even more. Was this your experience?

I work online and need to be able to type, I don't want to schedule then discover that I can't really keyboard. Thanks for any info you can offer.

[irish]

I have had both wrists done and it is true the bandage is off in a week, but the hand movements come slower. You will be able to do things but if you plan on keyboarding a lot I would not count on it. Also, when you do too much activity following this surgery it puts you at risk for increase in adhesions or scar tissue where the surgery was done and that is not a good thing.

You will also be given a sheet of exercises and will have to do these several times a day to keep up the strength in your hands and help them retain their mobility. It is not worth it to push too fast cause you will pay for it down the road with pain and possible decrease in the use of you hands. Good luck Irish

P.S. It is not a painful surgery and as Caroline says it it low on the list when it comes to interfering with life.....but you need to use your head. I did too much following my left hand surgery and that hand had more numbness down the road in fingers years post op. Irish

[Carolina]

I had my left wrist done when other surgery was scheduled (two for one) to release a trigger finger.

It was a walk in the park.  No pain, no OT, a bit slow for a while, but nothing I can't live with.

I did not know I had carpal tunnel, by the way, it showed up on an EMG on my arms.

I had it in both hands (now only one).


I am baffled at why this surgery isn't performed immediately when people have trouble with Carpal Tunnel?  It is outpatient, easy, no complicated recovery and evidently stops the problem.

I don't know if it stops the pain, etc, cause I didn't HAVE any pain, that I knew of.

But  I have a very high threshold for pain.  And I already had the beginning of small fiber neuropathy in my upper body.

Oh, well, have the surgery, carry on.  There are lots of things that are really hard, this surgery doesn't even  make a footnote in the list.

Hugs,  Elaine

[Jenny]

Yes, I had both done. It was fairly easy and relieved all of my symptoms.

[SjoGirl]

Thanks all. My biggest challenge will be taking it slowly. I"m already asking folks to be patient as I communicate while recovering.