Carpe Tunnel

[dmarley]

One day, I will post about this stuff before it's nearly all over. Honest.

So, for the last couple of months I've had some nasty carpal tunnel symptoms. I haven't been able to knit at all, *sob!* or type more than a few sentences at a time (you will possibly note that nearly all of my posts of late have been heavily comprised of copied and pasted templates). I went to the doctor about three weeks ago, and he said that I had all the classic symptoms of carpal tunnel...except that my outer two fingers were also becoming numb (though not at the same time as the thumb and first two fingers). To make sure that he knew what was going on, he ordered a nerve conduction test to determine which nerves, if any, might be damaged. The results would determine if I a) had carpal tunnel or b) problems with my ulnar nerve or c) both and d) possibly give some indication of whether or not I needed surgery.

Well, the test results came in yesterday, and they were negative. My nerves were in tip-top shape, no sign of damage. I will add that the test hurt like a son of a b%$#@!.

"WTF?! Am I going crazy and making this up?" thought I.

"WTF?! Go see a specialist," said my doctor.

So, at 8:15 this morning I went to an orthopedist. He told me that about 20% of carpal tunnel patients have normal nerve conduction tests (Ah ha!), and the good news is that those patients--if they do have carpal tunnel--can often be cured with a shot of a steroid cocktail. "Shoot me up," I said.

The doctor says that I should feel some improvement within a couple of days (?!!!), and I'm scheduled for a follow-up visit in four weeks.

Comments

[vaklam.livejournal.com]

Gah! Ow.

I hope the steroids help.

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! Glad you had a good time at the con, and congratulate Melissa for me. Yay!

The steroids have, in fact, helped a great deal. I'm typing fairly freely now, and I'm going to venture into knitting soon. We'll see. :)

[vickita.livejournal.com]

I have heard this about those tests, that they hurt like a mother@#%$!!!. ::pets you::

Re: imminent improvement -- Yay! ::sends healing vibes::

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

Thanks muchly for the healing vibes! :)

The shot has worked amazingly well. I'm typing relatively painlessly now, a week later, and I might venture some knitting in a few days. We'll see. I don't want to overdo it.

[ladypredator.livejournal.com]

Sounds a lot like the problems I have from the bad disks in my neck. Nerve pain and numbness is nasty. Steroids can be very helpful, hope they work!

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

They have, in fact, worked like magic. So far. I really did start to feel improvement about three days after, and today, a week later, I can type almost all I want without it hurting. But I haven't pushed it. :)