Wide awake
Any tips on making the pain go. Am awake yet again and cannot feel thumb and firs two fingers... Aching up my arm. Am up out of bed walking around shaking hand to no avail.
Yes I have a splint. Its so painful. I am just visiting the uk from Canada. Hoping
to see a gp tomorrow
If you are lucky you may find someone who knows how to inject it - that would probably serve as a quick fix. Unless you are here for a long stay there may not be time for the NHS to work through the whole process of investigating and treating it. JB
I understand that they need to investigate further before they inject. If this is the case is there any pain relief a GP could prescribe?
You can inject without further investigation if the clinical diagnosis of CTS is considered convincing, though in my own patch I would generally prefer to have some NCS first to get the thing documented before it is modified by treatment - that is why I would like my waiting list to be 2 weeks or less but we are struggling with that at present.
Wearing a splint 24/7 does no harm in the short term so it is something you can investigate for yourself to see if it does help.
You could try local heat/cooling with ice packs and warm towels - possibly alternating the two. There is no hard evidence that such things help but again they are pretty harmless and at least they help you to feel you are doing something active about it in the middle of the night. JB
I agree with the cooling aspect as I learnt to wrap my whole arm and hand with one of the cool mats (you can purchase from a well known website beginning with A (don't know if I'm allowed to give out names). If you then hang your arm out of the bed, you will find this helps enormously. I feel really sorry for you as I know how the pain is unbearable.
My GP did inject steroids a couple of weeks ago in my right hand and the results were fantastic, as it allowed me to sleep at night. I hope things work out for you.
When I go to bed I sleep on my back with my arms by my side hands face down. I do this because I have the same problem as you. I can't sleep on my back all night no one can, so when I turn over in my sleep left or right side,thats when I get the same symptoms as you.I turn onto my back arms by my side and after a few minutes it goes away. I hope this helps you.
There's not a lot you can do beyond what you are doing I'm afraid. I presume you have got a splint to sleep in? I haven't heard any reports of other manoevers that help. JB