Post surgery

Hello Dr Bland,

I had a carpal tunnel release surgery on the 7th of July and would like to share my experience and thoughts. I also have some doubts and would appreciate your opinion.

Surgery was performed on the right hand and by Dr Smith. From my point of view I would say, that it is too early to determine if surgery was successful or not. Therefore I am going to write further comments on this topic as time passes.

Prior my surgery, a member of Dr Smith's team gave me a consent to sign and explained how a surgery process goes. Then I asked him about a fit note and was very surprised, because he offered me only two weeks, even when I explained him that I have a hard job. I told him that most sources believe it needs 4-8 weeks off from work to recover(depends on character of occupation). He claimed that it is not necessary and after two weeks I can slowly get back to work, I will likely feel some pain, but it does not influence a recovering process. Finally I convinced him to extend it to 4 weeks, but I still believe it is not enough. I would like to hear your opinion about it, Dr Bland.

Later I met Dr Smith and he injected local anaesthetic. It was most painful part of the whole surgery process, but not too painful. After injection I kept my hand elevated and I felt like it slowly got numb. I took an opportunity to ask Dr Smith about fit note and his teammate's theory. Dr Smith neither denied nor confirmed, he only said that it depends on concrete circumstances and they can extend it even more later, if needed.

After surgery hand was swollen and it hurt a little, but I did not have to take any painkillers. I was not able to perform exercises prescribed by a nurse. I could only move my fingers.

Next day I gently started with exercises, however my hand was not flexible enough to make a fist or to touch thumb to small finger(actually I could not even touch third finger). I also felt pins and needles and numbness throughout a day and it woke me up during the night.

On day four after surgery I stopped using a sling and bandage. I slowly tried to perform exercises and one week after surgery I added some more. I also resumed to use right hand in everyday activities.

Ten days after surgery I finally made full fist and could touch thumb to small finger. Pins, needles and swelling almost disappeared.

Today, it has been almost two weeks after surgery and I feel more and more comfortable with my hand doing everyday activities. I still sometimes can feel numbness and tingling in my hand, but it is much less often then right after surgery. My fingers are still stiff and sometimes I have heat attacks from wrist to fingers. My palm is very weak, I can only lift and hold small weights like few kilos and I do not have good grip. When I try to lift more, I feel a big pressure inside my wrist, so I stop immediately.

In my opinion it looks promising, there is improvement in hand flexibility and strength, obviously it needs more time to recover. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is hard to say anything about typical CTS symptoms. It looks worse than before surgery, but it likely needs more time and time will tell. The only thing I am sure about is that I am not ready to get back to work now. I cannot imagine myself constantly lifting and carrying 15 kilograms boxes throughout a day. That is for sure. I am not sure if I could do it after four weeks. What would you recommend, Dr Bland?

I have a follow-up appointment with Dr Smith on the 25th of July, so I am going to discuss it and find out if my hand is recovering properly. I will comment here as well.