More on symptoms
I completed the questionnaire yesterday with very low scores. My GP still wants me to have the test because of my history of symptoms: I have had repeated flare ups over the past 6-10 years. The worst was Sept 2011 - within 1 week of starting regular work on keyboard after several years of other work, my hands were greatly swollen, tingling in ring and little finger constantly for more than a week. Severe pain, unable to lift even moderately heavy objects, severly limited ability to work. With splinting, ice, limiting keyboard work, special keyboard, etc things have very slowly improved over the months since. But not before pain and problems traveled up my arm first to elbow then to shoulder and neck. Pysiotherapy helped my shoulder and neck. I never was completely free from pain/discomfort in my wrists and hands. 3 weeks ago I again started different type of work - caring for 4-9 month old (heavy) babies. By the end of the first week I was in full flare up. This time the symptoms have quite dramatically resolved (thus my low scores for past 2 weeks), and an injection in my R elbow has resolved the pain there for the first time in many months. Still, this seems to be my pattern.
My appt is tomorrow. Some symptoms are a bit worse and have been since last Wed. My wrist are both sore all the time, and usually slightly numb. I have more trouble using my ring and little fingers for things like gripping a walking stick or hair brush. I am posting this in case it helps in diagnosis.
Thankyou for the extra information - every little helps. See you tomorrow. JB
I can see from that story why you would get a low score and I would tend to agree with the web questionnaire that this is quite unlikely to be CTS. I would also agree that it is still worth testing however, for multiple reasons:
1) The questionnaire (and I too) can be wrong. At present I am still evaluating how often it is wrong so I do need to test a fair number of people with low scores
2) Your GP may actually be referring you with something else in mind, such as an ulnar nerve problem at the elbow, and has simply sent in the wrong form, resulting in you being treated as a CTS referral - in this case we will carry out tests appropriate to your symptoms rather than testing specifically for CTS
3) Even if symptoms are in remission now you have a relapsing remitting history and it would be useful to have some 'baseline' results now which we will be able to compare with next time you have a relapse
So overall I would keep the appointment for testing. The most likely outcome is probably a normal set of results in which case we will not keep you very long. JB