Return of the CTS
My symtoms have started to return over the last few weeks, waking with numb fingers both hands, left worse. I have also been getting pain in both wrists and opening bottles, jars etc has started to cause pain, again the left is worse. If I reach up for something sometimes I get a sharp pain through the wrist and along the arm. The pain goes quite quickly but is happening more often. I am aware of my wrists when just sitting sometimes. The left wrist took a good few days to get over my last steroid injections unlike the first ones I had, I struggled with the use of my left hand/wrist due to weakness and pain but the right was hardly affected. The results after about week were good until recently. I saw David at my last visit and he did the injections. When you did an ultrasound on my wrists the first time I came to clinic 2009/2010? I recall you said I had large nerves with more than the normal number of branches (or something like that).....what is your advice...wait and see how things develop, more injections (not keen in the left) or surgery? Your opinion would be good. Thanks
It was very nice meeting you and Michael again today. I am pleased to report no pain following the injections in either the L & R wrists today. In fact I would say I have had an immidiate improvement in the level of pain already, so I do feel it was the right decision to go ahead with the injections again. I will report again in 1 week as requested.
Hello Dr Bland. Update as reqeusted, sorry its a bit late but following the injections in both wrists on 21/03/13 I have been pain and numbness free....you did mention that the pain could be changes in the wrist joints, unlikely to be from the extra cervical ribs and could be from the CT....do these results prove anything one way or the other. I will update again in 4 weeks as requested..
Regards
Angela.
The prompt improvement after injection suggests that the pain is more likely to be coming from the wrist than the shoulder. The next interesting thing is to see how long it lasts. JB
You do indeed have median nerves which start to divide into branches a little further up the arm than most people's. This does not seem to mean anything very much in medical terms though. Your CTS went from grade 1 in 2009 to grade 2 in 2012 so I would be inclined to test it again and see if it has reached grade 3. We are pretty heavily booked at present but I will send out an appointment. We can then discuss what to do next when I see you.
I will move this whole thread into the Canterbury patients forum in a day or two. JB