Wrong diagnosis?
My Questionnaire number is 224069
I have been diagnosed by an orthopedic surgeon with CTS and I believe he is wrong.
I have no medical knowledge or experience of CTS but I believe he is wrong because I have no symptoms, no problems unless I sleep on my right shoulder. Starting about 5 years back, when I slept on my right should I would wake up with a numb hand. Five years back this remedied itself in minutes when I moved off my right shoulder. Over the years it has got progressively worse so that now, if I sleep on my right shoulder I wake up and my hand is completely dead and I have nagging pain in the muscle on the exterior aspect of my right shoulder and that keeps me awake all night. In the morning I have legacy tingling in my middle finger which goes away and during the day I have no problems with anything. If I don’t lay on my right shoulder I don’t have any problems. Is it possible that my night-time dead hand is caused by CTS when I have no problems during the day and no problems at anytime as long as I don’t lay on my right shoulder? If my problems are not caused by CTS what could be the cause?
It's certainly possible that you have CTS and it would be worth testing to check. I probably wouldn't rush into surgery without having the diagnosis made as certainly as possible though. The association with which side you are lying on may actually be because the whole arm will be in a different position when you are lying on that side - including the wrist - and that may be a factor, in addition it is possible that the circulation to that arm is not as good when you are lying on it and that might be having an effect on the nerve at the wrist. Finally one should not assume that the position you go to sleep in and wake up in is necessarily where you have been all night - at least not without putting a timelapse camera on yourself for a night or two:-) JB