check up for Tina Peattie

We write to you with follow-up instructions approximately three months after surgery. We do these letters in batches when we remember so it is not always exactly on the three month aniversary. We ask your GP to make a follow-up assessment of the scar and hand function and ask you to complete the multiple choice part of the symptom questionnaire again for both hands. Both assessments are then returned to us and there are options on the bottom of the forms to request further tests, surgery or whatever. You can also complete a new subjective symptom assessment online here whenever you like - I am always happy to find out how people are getting on at any stage and if you are happy that the first hand is fully healed and the other one is still a problem we can book surgery for the other side. I only usually re-test people before surgery for the second hand if there is a specific reason to do so - such as a long time having passed so that the original results may be considered out of date. JB

I have filled in another assessment form
. Please can iI go ahead with surgery on my left hand If possible? as I do feel it has made a big difference to my right hand.
When I had my op the doctor commented that you would like to see this. as the nerve to my thumb was very large ! he explained that this happends when it has been trapped ?
he explained it in simple terms to me that it is like a water hose with a twist in it for e.g. a bulge happends, im not sure i have explained it well but im sure you will understand ?

I will book you into the next available surgery slot with Dr Rine when I get in to the office this morning and send you the date in an appointment letter. It is likely to be in late February.

I can see that your right hand severity scores have improved considerably but it looks as though the left hand actually feels a little worse at present - thankyou for doing those.

You can see the enlargement of the nerve in the live patient with ultrasound imaging. I am in the process of putting some ultrasound images up on the website here but it is a work in progress and I have not yet added any showing the enlargement seen in CTS. It's not quite like the water pipe analogy because even the twisted/kinked bit of nerve in CTS is actually larger than a normal nerve at the same point - it is just that the bit on either side of the point of entrapment becomes even more swollen - and this seems to occur both 'upstream' and 'downstream' of the blockage. JB

Thankyou,It will be brilliant to be pins and needles free ! it is so good not to have to shake my hand all the time to stop it being fizzy!.(although i found it more painful after surgery than i was expecting it was eventually worth it )
Is it likely that the nerve to my left thumb will be thick the same as the left one ?

Quite possibly - if you want to take a look at at with the ultrasound scanner before surgery we could probaby fit in a quick appointment. JB

Yes please that would be very interesting.

Surgery is going to be Saturday 25th Feb so drop in to the carpal tunnel clinic (Clinic A, Out-patients, Kent and Canterbury Hospital) sometime during the morning of Thursday 23rd Feb, between 9 and 12 and we will take a quick look at it - should take about 5 minutes to scan both wrists. JB