I am in absolute agony
My fingers and thumb is so bad I literally feel like cutting them of. It sounds silly but the pain is unbearable. I'm hardly sleeping as soon as I relax it triggers it and makes it worse. My arms suffer terribly to especially at night time. I am taking a cocktail of strong painkillers but nothing helps my assessment with plastics is not till the 15th of April.
Please help any advice????
Hi
Thank you for replying. I hope ?this does not sound completely insane but I have not got a splint yet. Can you recommend where would be a good place to get one? I have suffered with pins and needles for about 3 years on and of. I have gone to my doctor and I was waiting for a neurologist appointment. I broke my left Tibet bone and sprained my right ankle. This was at the beginning of January of this year. I was in hospital in a physio rehab ward as I was un mobile. During this time I was using a gutter frame. My CTS only became apparent at night. When seeing the specialist for my foot he examined did me and diagnosed me with CTS. He informed me that the gutter frame had caused this as I was putting so much weight through them.He referred me for a nerve function test. I had this last week and this proved that I had CTS on from the results. The only action on the screen was my baby finger on my left and the right hand. During the test my hand was measured I was hoping for a splint then. I have been waiting to see my doctor but have not yet seen him for advice after the test. During my phone consultation I was just given stronger painkillers. If you could advise me where to buy one that would be great? At first my symptoms were at night but now there all the time. The pain fluctuates between the two. This email has took me so long to write due to the pain barrier. My left arm has a burning sensation. This is leading from the inside of my ring finger.
Many Thanks
Read the splinting page of this site to see what you are looking for and how to adjust them and then have a look online for suppliers or try a large chemists - a few keep them in stock. Don't fork out for elaborately expensive ones - all they need to do is be comortable and keep your wrist straight. The other thing that could be tried as a quick fix is local steroid injection, which a few GP practices know how to do, and whoever you are seeing on the 15th may be able to do that on the spot if you are lucky (opinions on injection in the surgical community vary widely!). Your CTS may be too severe to respond well to that but there is no harm in trying while waiting for a more definitive treatment. JB
Firstly have you got a splint, has it been adjusted well and does it fit? It may sound too simple to be worth trying but they can be surprisingly effective in some cases, generally more so than any form of oral medication except steroids. Is it only at night or do you have symptoms during the daytime? You are quite young to have such a severe CTS in the absence of any family history so there is clearly something a bit odd about this. Fortunately 15th April is not far away. JB