CTS- Sugested op at young age
Hello Dr Bland
I hope that you remember me. I came to see you with my Mother on the 6th September when you recommended that I should have the op on my right hand as I was graded as a 5/6 in that particular hand, a 2/6 in my left. You were kind and explained everything very well to me. Not wanting to rush into surgery, though, I decided to look at your Forum and the carpel tunnel web site. I decided to have a few more tests done as I could not understand what I had done to cause these symptoms. Just to let you know that I went to see Dr DeLord at QEQM. She said that I had hypoflexability in the right hand. Knowing this, would this effect post op recovery? Would physio help?
I am considering having the op before there is any nerve damage or muscle wastage as it seems that if I wait for that to happen, the op would have little effect. May I please ask for Mr Wetheral or Mr Smith to perfom this op rather than going to a clinic as I am only 17 and there seems to be little post op information regarding recovery data in a girl my age.
I must say that I have no problem with a scar on my wrist nor the normal recovery time needed, I just want to get back to normal and have a full nights sleep without pain.
I look forward to hearing from you.
I suspect that surgery is the best bet given the severity of your CTS and age - I don't suppose it is getting any better is it? I presume Dr DeLord's diagnosis is hypermobility? - if so then there is no particular link between that and CTS and no known effect on the prognosis for carpal tunnel surgery. Your age is probably in your favour as a prognostic factor. There is no good evidence that physio helps CTS I am afraid. I can arrange surgery in a variety of ways for you - some of them give me more control over who actually performs the surgery than others and we should probably discuss this directly. We will be doing the carpal tunnel clinic in Canterbury tomorrow morning (Thursday 6th Dec) if you want to give me a call on 01227 783048 - if you get the answerphone it just means I am talking to another patient - leave a message and I'll call back when we finish that consultation.
Edit 9th Dec - No call last Thursday so I guess you haven't read this yet. I'll be moving this thread into the Canterbury patients forum in a day or two and if I haven't heard from you by then we will probably just send you out an appointment letter to see me. JB