Early CTS - Need solid advice
Hi everyone,
I have had wrist tendonitis for 18 months and continued working 24 hours a week on the advice of a physio which I now regret (extremely heavy computer use role in a call centre) but now have early CTS thanks to said advice. The treatments over this period included physio with dry needling, stretches and supplements. I have never had a chance to properly wrest and withdraw from PC's to heal as I go to university full time and part time role on PCs obviously. I now have cultivated early CTS symptoms which include
a) tingling in thumb, point and index 24/7
b) occasional needle stab pain in ends of fingers
c) general irritation in hand and fingers exacerbated by PC use.
I am currently doing cold laser therapy and acupuncture, and leaving my job to get away from computers - the rest and therapy has not helped the CTS but has almost resolved the tendonitis (2 laser sessions so far). I have the next 4 weeks to rest completely, and currently am not having numb hands while sleeping. I would like your advice on two things
1. If you are me right now, what therapies are worth considering?
2. Is there hope I will recover? Or is it likely surgery will be my only option? I am quite anti surgery in general and want advice on how I should consider this option, if at all in the future.
If you read this thankyou, and I would really appreciate advice from fellow CTS suffers :)
thanks for your response. I have a wrist brace but it doesnt seem to help me at all, as I don't suffer from numbness at night and minimising wrist movement is not so much an issue as just general usage of the fingers which is setting off tingles, a symptom that started only 3 weeks ago - where as previously it was a deep ache and tendontiis in the wrist that would extend into the hand. I will take your advice and push for some diagnostic testing and report back here when I know more.
The first thing you need is a proper diagnosis - have you got tenosynovitis, or CTS, or both - and if both is the CTS secondary to the tenosynovitis. If you do have CTS then so far they have inflicted 4 treatments for which there is no good evidence of efficacy and one for which there is very little (acupuncture), at least in CTS. CTS can usually be diagnosed easily on the basis of a full history and examination. The questionnaire on the website here gives a probabilistic view of just how likely you are to have CTS and I see that in your case it has given a pretty low probability, but given the already existing confusion here between tenosynovitis and CTS I think you really need some investigation - nerve conduction studies, ultrasound imaging or both to try and establish exactly what you have. Have they given you a neutral angle wrist splint to wear at night? JB