Re: upcoming CTR surgery

In Reply to: upcoming CTR surgery posted by DMM on December 06, 2003 at 17:55:59:

: I have a question for any of you who had the carpal tunnel release and work in a manufacturing environment where 2 hands are absolutely necessary to do the job. How long did it take you to get back to work?
: My other concern is this, my "shock test" was done in 2002, and it was borderline surgical candidate then NCV of 4.1ms. Over the last year it's been up and down until lately.I have had the wrist get steadily worse over the last 6 weeks, and no relief with splinting etc. I have also had problems with hand strength and hanging onto things of late. I also notice that I'm a bit clumsy with that hand if I'm not watching what it's doing. This tells me, based on my research, that the problem's pretty bad. I have no idea how this level of severity will affect recovery. Has anyone had similar problems? How did recovery go?
: I'm scheduled to have an open CTR done with local anesthetic in about 10 days.

: Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi DMM,
I can only answer your second question as I do not work in a manufacturing enviroment. I had endoscopic release in early Sept on my dominant hand. My "history" with the hand was similiar to yours. I was diagnosed in May after having mild symptoms for a year or two and just ignoring them. In May wrist pain started waking me up at night, that made my decision to see a doctor. Throughout the summer I tried different remedies, nothing helped. In July/Aug my symptoms became much worse very quickly, alot of pain 80% of the time and droppiing things, clumsiness (sp?), ect.. That's when I decided on surgery. The surgery was no big deal, somewhat painful, but less than the day to day pain I was having. I recouperated VERY well and had use back in no time. Based on my own experience I wouldn't worry that this would be worse cuz your hand is worse this time. But everyone is different and I just wanted to share my experience with you.
Best of luck and keep us posted!
Oh also, could you share with us your experiences with your other hand? You mentioned you had surgery 8 years ago, do you consider that a success? How has that hand been the past 8 years? We really need some long term feedback on this board regarding surgery.
Thanks
Kitty