carpal tunnel syndrome
Dr Blaine i came to see you on Tuesday Th October and you gave me carpal splints to wear in bed at night but i have had to keep them most days as the pain in my right hand is very painful and having pins and needles in my right and left hands all the time and is not going away i am getting used to wearing the splints and have tried to use my computer but have to stop after 10 mins because of the pain also still having pins and needles at night and also every other nights my sleep is still disrupted and also the pain has travelled to my shoulders and neck and my doctor gave me anti-inflammatory tablets 3 times a day and on tues i am seeing my pain nurse or my consultant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Margate and will let them know that i have seen you and been given carpal splints! Also Dr Blaine what is the next step of treatment? Russell Ansell
true Dr bland my pain nurse at qeqm has increased my amitrypilline from 25mg to 50 mg and yes the splints are helping me and my medical file has no recollection of me visiting you on 8th October and Tina my pain nurse wants you to email her at the pain clinic of our last and next appointment am still get severe pins and needles in both hands at night when i am still and get a severe pain in my left wrist and some pain in my right wrist and so dr bland i await for another appointment with you many thanks russell
My records are separate from the main hospital notes so they will not be able to see my reports in the pain clinic unless they asked for the tests in the first place. I'm hoping that we will move to a system whereby neurophysiology reports that are requested from the hospital will get automatically copied into the electronic patient record but at the moment I, the IT department, and the management, all have different ideas about how this should be done. Even if we do this however it is likely that test results requested by a GP will end up in the GP records. If there has been some response to splinting we might try a steroid injection next and I'll arrange for us to see you on a Monday morning in a few weeks when we can do that. I don't know the pain clinic staff so I'll need an email address, or at least a full name, to contact them - or they can always email me. JB
OK Dr bland sounds fine my pain consultant is dr colligan for my back and neck and my pain nurse is Tina but not sure of her surname! i will phone QEQM tom morning and speak to Tina and get her email address and send it to you yes there is a response thru the carpal splints and look forward to hearing from you Russell
phoned qeqm but Tina wasn't available i have an appointment with her in February 2014 i will phone later today and get back to you will await appointment date for cortisone injections in my hands will it be in day surgery or outpatients DR Bland? and will i have to bring dressing gown and slippers like i do for my neck and back procedures will message you later Russell Ansell
Come along to Canterbury during the morning of Monday 11th November between 9 and 12 noon and we will inject for you. No need for any special preparation - we only need to reach your wrist. JB
sorry i didn't get to you on Monday i sprained my ankle and am hobbling around at the moment! but could come over next Mon morning between 10am and 12 noon or message me when you have another clinic god bless russell ps can you either email text or phone me when the next open surgery is on! email address is russellansell91 [at] yahoo [dot] com or text me on 07728382358 or 01843 299470 thanks
thanks dr bland i am in lot of pain with my wrists at the present time so i will come over to Canterbury Hospital to receive the cortisone injections is it between am and noon or will you email a time to see you! hopefully this will ease the pain and will i still need to wear my carpal splints? many thanks Russell
Any time between about 8:45 am and 12:noon should be fine. There may be a bit of queueing if several injection patients turn up at once as we have not started a formal appointment sequence for them yet but usually they spread out fairly well through the morning. They do not take long to do individually. JB
ok i will try and get to canterbury hospital about 10.30am as travelling by bus! See you on monday
Dr Bland just letting you that the carpal injections i had on Monday are working well the only tingling i get is in my little fingers and only getting at night also do i need to keep wearing my carpal splints at night or when i get pain only also thank dr emma for being with me whilst i had my cortisone injections! also what is the next plan of action?
I would continue splinting at night for as long as there are any significant symptoms of tingling in the hands or until it seems that symptoms might be worse with the splints on. We will aim to review the situation about 6 weeks after injection. If you can complete a couple more symptom severity questionnaires here on the website (from the 'My CTS' pages), one after about 2 weeks and one at 6 weeks that would also be useful.
We will try to remember to call you or email at about 6 weeks to check on symptoms but you are welcome to post on here as often as you like - I'm always happy to hear how people are progressing, good or bad. JB
ok i will do Dr Bland i will keep in touch and will keep the carpal splints how often do i need to wash my splints?
When they start to look a bit grubby I would suggest. Doesn't make any difference to how they work. JB
ok also have done a new questionnaire you asked me to do a fortnight after my carpal injections to see how i am doing so far and have done my questionnaires one is for me using my splints and the other one i have done for the carpal injections! look forward to your reply also right hand is worse than left hand now!
It looks from those scores as though you are at least as bad now as you were to start off with. I remain uncertain how much of your problem is CTS but we'll see what it is like 6 weeks after injection. JB
yes Dr Bland the injection is taking affect but suffering from CTS when it is cold and damp and getting pain in my right elbow and i know that Dr Collegian has told me that i have oestoarthiritus of the lower spine where i have disintegrated and degenerative lumber discs out of place near the spinal cord and Dr Collegian won't operate on them in case i end up paralysed! going back to my Carpal Tunnel i am still getting pins and needles in my right hand and also suffering muscle spasms in my right arm during the night and the pain is keeping me awake even though the injection is taking affect also suffering from a severe pain in the neck near the base of my head where i have a lumber discs trapping the nerve and awaiting cortisone injection and epidural in my neck so you could be right all my symptoms are coming from my neck also i have worked out 6 weeks from my injection is over the Christmas week!
We are still contactable through Xmas so hopefully you can do me another symptom score then and we'll try to decide whether it is worth trying any further treatment directed at the carpal tunnel. JB
ok i will do another symptom score for you the week of Christmas and am happy to have the operations on my hand if need be! god bless Russell
i have done a new symptom score left hand is feeling better and right hand has got worse am happy to have an operation if needed on my hands! merry Christmas Russell
Those scores are still not really improving. I think I should see you again and check the test results before we decide what to do next. I'll send out an appopintment. JB
As I said when I saw you, I am by no means sure that your problem is actually carpal tunnel syndrome and the splints are just a harmless experiment - do they help? I will be interested to know what they think in Margate - perhaps you could ask them if they would not mind copying me in to their clinic letter once they have seen you. After that we will have to decide who is going to treat you for what. JB