A lot of people think that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome started when people started using their computers. Well, let me tell you, it isn’t!
About 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with CTS. I had no idea what it was and so I looked it up and was I surprised!
CTS first began showing up in the medical records of people as far back as the beginning of the 20th century.(Long before computers!)
Some of the causes are aggrivated by conditions such as, diabetes, menopause arthritis and obesity. It has to do with doing repetitive and or heavy work. Or using your hands for gripping items for long periods of time.
Mine, I was told came from a combination of menopause, arthritis and painting, drawing and writing. Oh, and by the way, the Dr. said that the repetitive use of hand while smoking also aggrivates it! (And I do smoke)
CTS begins when the tendons in your wrist become inflamed and it slowly affects the nerves in your wrists, fingers and arms.
It starts with a burning, itching feeling and progresses to tingling, numbness and finally to severe pain beginning with your thumb, and progressivly moving from finger to finger, up your thumb to the wrist and further up the arm.
The beginning treatment is to wear braces that cover your hands and go up to your elbow, to keep the wrist immobile. When it progresses, cortisone shots are given to ease the pain, and in my case, my next step is surgery.
The surgery(Through the wrist) removes the pressure of the tendons from the nerves. I am scheduled to go for the surgery in about 8 weeks. The Dr. said the surgery works in about 75% of the cases, and the other 25% of the time the patient has to undergo surgery again.
So, while I have these braces on, it makes it hard to type, paint and write. It also makes it hard to do my job(Baking), but the cortisone shots do eleviate the pain(Somewhat)
The numbness in my fingers isn’t too bad and the pain isn’t too bad when I’m not using my hands, but even now, as I’m typing, I can feel the pain beginning. It kind of shoots up my arm and makes my fingers feel strange.
Well, those are the basic facts about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, straight from a sufferers mouth. If you feel any pain, tingling, burning or strange itching(That won’t stop) in your fingers and hands, I urge you to see your Dr.
=) Abbey