Question About Injections For A Wheelchair User
Hello, I'm a wheelchair user and I've been told that I have moderate carpal tunnel in my right hand, diagnosed with an EMG. I could also possibly have arthritis. I'm not too keen on surgery, but I've been thinking about trying an injection. My question is--would I be able to take care of myself after the injection? Can you put pressure on the wrist? I would plan on resting in bed as much as possible and I know that my husband would be willing to help me, but I'd prefer to go to the bathroom on my own. Just worried that I wouldn't be able to transfer myself on and off of the toilet after the injection, as I would need to push down with both of my hands. Any information would be much appreciated. :) I am just completely unaware of the restrictions after the injections and also how much pain would be caused if I had to transfer myself.
There's a wide variety of advice given to people about what to do after injection and quite a variety of different steroids and doses that can be used, with or without the addition of a local anaesthetic so it's hard to give advice that may conflict with what you get told locally. We use 40mg or triamcinolone without adding a local anaesthetic and we find that the vast majority of patients are able to carry on with their normal activities ten minutes later. A few patients get hand/wrist/forearm pain which may require simple analgesia and last up to about 3 days. This does not usually stop people using the arm completely though. We have one patient, out 6000 injections, who has been left with severe, so far permanent, arm pain for which the mechanism is unclear. If your doctors add a local anaesthetic to the injection then the effect is like that of a dental anaesthetic - the hand will be numb until it wears off in a few hours and thus rather difficult to use but not useless. We do not think there is any point in adding a local anaesthetic. There is a whole page of this site devoted to frequently asked questions about injection. JB