CT Surgery in 10 days.. questions

Some of the answers depend on whether they are planning to do this under local or general anaesthetic. Most carpal tunnel surgery is done under local and takes about 10 minutes but a few surgeons still use a general anaesthetic, especially if there are special circumstances such as a very arthritic hand. There are usually no dietary restrictions for surgery under local anaesthesia so you may have been reading about general anaesthesia for other forms of surgery? The advice we give patients before surgery can be found HERE. JB

Thank you for the reply. They don't want me eating or drinking anything after midnight or the morning of surgery.. so I guess I'm getting general anaesthesia. I don't believe I have CTS. Four months ago while at work my Co worker rammed a power jack into a 400 lb door.. the door popped off its track and fell on my dominant wrist. After many tests my surgeon sent me for an xray guided cortisone shot into my joint just under my thumb.. the cortisone didn't work but the freezing lasted for 24 hours and I had no pain so my surgeon was like Okay this is what we are going to do.. carpal tunnel release surgery. I sure hope he's right and this works. I'm tired of being in agony. I have so many questions because I wasn't given a pre surgery appointment.. just the appointment where he told me I need surgery and I signed the forms. I won't even know my arrival time until two days before. I guess I feel like I'm going in blind. Sorry for the long message.. I'm just scared.

That does sound as though you have been, shall we say, poorly informed. Have they done any nerve conduction studies or ultrasound imaging amongst the 'many tests' to check if there is actually any laboratory evidence of CTS? If there is a complicated injury at the outset that might explain the general anaesthetic because they may be planning a leisurely exploration of the wrist rather than just a quick carpal tunnel decompression but one would have hoped that they would have discussed what they were planning in detail with you at the time of signing the consent forms. JB

Hi again doctor. I had the surgery but it's not down the middle of my palm it's in the side of my wrist. I had my surgery on March 21st general anesthesia. I've been told not to remove my dressing until April 1st when my surgeon will remove my stitches. But my pain has gotten worse and the percoset is no longer helping. I'm dizzy and feel like I'm burning up even though I don't have a fever every time I stand. Try are closed for the long weekend. What should I do?

That's a bit of a difficult one to advise on remotely. What do you mean by the 'side of my wrist'? There are several well known hand and wrist operations other than carpal tunnel decompression but I thought they told you they were doing a carpal tunnel decompression? If they actually did something else under general anaesthetic that would seem to void your consent to the procedure. In terms of what to do now, as long as you are not running a fever you can probaby afford to wait until April 1st but most forms of post-operative pain should be getting better as the days pass rather than worse so if it is definitely deteriorating then I would go and see someone about it after 24-28 hours of worsening pain - the emergency department if nothing else is available. JB