Agony from CT help needed
I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis last spring and this has caused me lots of pain and misery. It is in my fingers but for the last 3 weeks i have been suffering very badly with CTS. I know what it is as I have had bouts of it before but never like this. My right and dominant hand is in constant pain and I have pins and needles most of the time.
I am a teacher in a new job and at the moment I can’t even hold a pen as my fingers won’t work properly and are very stiff. It is impossible for me to grip things including a pen.
When I look at exercises they all say make a fist but I cant! It’s far too painful.
I am on a range of medication for my RA including naproxen, zapain, Pregabalin and liquid morphine. None of these
Are touching the pain, particularly bad between 1 and 3 am when I wake up crying and can’t get back to sleep due to the pain, and I mean proper agony.
I wear a splint in bed but usually take it off in the middle of the night because it causes more pain.
I am due to have a steroid injection in early feb but I am worried in case it doesn’t work as I have them for my RA with mixed success.
An anyone PLEASE help with advice to a few questions?
Is it bad that i can’t make a fist or hold things. Should I force it? If so, how?
Are there any other methods of pain relief? (I have the frozen peas on now and am typing on my phone very awkwardly with my left ha d).
Will I get better so that i can do my job?
Lastly, thanks for reading this.
That's quite an interesting story but I have to say that in seeing over 30,000 patients with CTS I have never heard that one before so it's fair to say that working with heat is not a standard cause of CTS and one would have to consider the possibility that it was another aspect of that job, or a combination of factors which led to the episode. Was it ever conclusively proven to be CTS - there are lots of work related causes of hand and wrist pain? JB
Dr Bland,
Do you have any advice for me, please?
Should I force my fingers to move or not? I can’t do my job as I can’t hold a pen and I am in a new job. I am a teacher and need to mark the students’ work.
Thanks
Lmac
Response in the other thread. I might delete this one in the end but the story from the other contributor is interesting. JB
I am new to this forum. I have RA and for years it has targeted my wrists. In 2016 I was taken to the ER with intense, extreme unbearable pain. Started with my fingers going numb, then starting to turn cold like it was going to die off and turn blue, never turned blue. This went on for hours, crying and unbearable. The Dr gave me hydrocodone called it Arthralgia.
this week this happened to my right hand, unbearable pain. ER gave me hydrocodone, didnt touch the pain at all. Labeled it carpal tunnel.Tramadol and ketorolac was prescrided. After 12 hrs of agony and being up I finally got to sleep. Long/short it is 5 days later and I still have numbness in my ring and middle finger, no pain. Can lifting to much, maybe the wrong way cause this nerve to flare like this? RA cause unbearable pain? With RA I question either of these diagnoses. I sometimes deal with my hands cramping to where they are still and it is hard to close them like making a fist. It is like there is knots.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Feeling for the teacher, the pain is just unbearable.
Do you see a rheumatologist about your RA. Are you on any of the fancy new treatments for it? It doesn't really sound like CTS and 'arthralgia' is just a fancy word for joint pain - not a diagnosis as such. If you do have active RA then I would wonder about a vasculitic neuropathy but you need to see either your rheumatologist or a neurologist and probably get some nerve conduction studies done to explore what has happened to the nerves to the numb fingers now. JB
One thing nobody ever seems to know about, and in fact there is misinformation regarding is the fact that working with heat can cause excruciating carpal tunnel almost overnight. I began a job as a mold machine operator about 7 years ago and from day one for the next 3 years I was in complete agony and my life was ruled my pain in my hands. When looking online for what was going on all I could find was that it was carpal tunnel, and that it was from repetitive movements and warm water would bring relief. ABSOLUTELY wrong! So many horrific nights could have been avoided if someone out there could have told me this could be from handling hot parts all day. I truly hope someone who is desperate as I was finds this and will simply stop working with heat. I have never felt carpal tunnel again since leaving that job, thank god!