Unsure about surgery
I have suffered from CTS for 4.5 years. Interestingly during this time I have had two pregnancies and have not had CTS at all during pregnancy.
About 1.5 years ago it was recommended that I have surgery, on both wrists. I refused because we were about to start trying for another baby. I had twins! They are now 8 months old, I also have a 2.5 year old, and the CTS is worse than ever. After I had my eldest daughter it was bad (not this bad) but after I stopped bottle feeding her it did improve. I have been holding onto the hope that the same thing would happen this time but the twins are down to one bottle a day and I take turns with my husband so I am now loosing hope. I find tasks, such as dressing the children, in the morning extremely painful and it is disturbing my sleep.
I suspect having the operation (twice as they would operate separately on each wrist), would mean someone having to be here with me and the children 24hrs a days, for 2 wks at least? I am guessing I would be totally useless, not able to lift the children or do anything? How long would it be before I could lift them, play with them and do all the household tasks again? This is the only thing stopping me. I found being sidelined after my caesarian and having to rely on my mum and mother in law very difficult!
Hello, thanks so much for the quick response. Yes, I've had nerve conduction studies which confirmed CTS. The dr I saw after the study said he thought steroids would be a waste of time and he recommended surgery. At the time I had waited so long to be referred that my symptoms had abated a lot and surgery seemed drastic. I also did a course of physio which didn't help but then, as I said, the symptoms were not bad at that time.
Another issue for me is that now I am a mum I am planning to have my own business sewing toys which will involve ironing and cutting fabric which in recent weeks has exacerbated my symptoms. I also push a triple buggy daily and worry that we wouldn't be able to go out for sometime as obviously this required considerable strength in my wrists.
Many surgeons are very dismissive of steroid injection treatment and they are entitled to their opinion but the evidence based story on steroids is what is described on this site. It seems likely that a small proportion of patients, if treated with steroid injection, never do need surgery, and it is such a trivial treatment to try that there seems, to my mind, to be no reason not to give it a go before resorting to the knife. In your case it would clearly be far more convenient than surgery at present. Did they give you any idea of how bad your NCS results were? JB
This is very interesting, thank you. If the NHS don't want to give it to me though do I have to resort to private? I'm sorry, I can't remember the exact details about the results, only that the chap doing it was convinced quite quickly that it was CTS and that my left hand is worse, which I could have told him!
You should be able to get it injected on the NHS. If there is no-one in your GP surgery who knows how to do this injection then they should at least be able to refer you to someone who does know how to do it. Rheumatologists are usually a pretty good bet. If you look back quite early in this forum you will find quite a few postings from clivesmall which tell a fairly typical story of injection and surgery for CTS - including the expense of getting an injection done privately (it seems excessively high in that case to me). JB
The figure I gave you for my injection was wrong I was quoted 100pounds consultation and 180 pounds for drugs and venue.
I have only been charged for the consultation up until now. I hope I don't receive a bill out of the blue. They took my credit card number so I am watching my statements. Sorry I did not let you know sooner.
The combination of a consultation charge plus a hospital charge would be quite common if it was done privately in an NHS hospital. I'm not sure about most private hospitals arrangements. Hopefully you will get away with just the one bill. JB
Hello, I have been meaning to post for ages. I had steroid injections last December on both wrists, on separate occasions. I am now symptom free! Unfortunately I am now having problems with my neck/shoulder in bed but the relief in my wrists is most welcome. Thank you, without your help I believe I would still be suffering everyday!!
Or you would have had surgery of course, which would probably also have solved the problem - albeit with a bit more inconvenience. There is a fairly high chance that it will recur at some point but at least you are now fully informed about the options. JB
It's not usually quite that bad. With most surgeons the hand is only completely unusuable for the first 24-48 hours but power grip and heavy lifting should be avoided until the scar has had a chance to heal. Recovery is a little quicker if you can find a surgeon who is competent at the endoscopic (keyhole) technique.
Having no symptoms during pregnancy and then getting an exacerbation after delivery is an unusual story but one that, in my experience, is associated with more troublesome long-term CTS than the usual pattern of symptoms during late pregnancy which improve after delivery. However the first question when you encounter any atypical story has to be 'is it CTS?'. I presume that you have had some nerve conduction studies done? Have they tried steroid injection and did it respond - always a good way to check what the response to surgery is likely to be. JB