other hand getting worse
Dear Dr. Bland Don't know if you remember me. I am the lady that couldn't keep track of the eggs between the box and the pot but the dog enjoyed. I have an appointment for surgery on my left hand on the 8th Feb. and you told me to telephone for an appointment for the injection for my right hand. I haven't made that appointment because the right hand has really become very bad and I am wondering if its worth having that done or have surgery on the right hand.? Should I make another appointment to come to clinic and have it checked (just in case I am becoming more geriatric than before)? Kindest Regards Jane Wilson
I do understand and,of course,will be guided by yourself. The problem I have is that I read on your forum of so many people NOT having great success with the injection and I really dont want this any more. Both hands are basically the same and getting worse
Lack of sleep and a multitude of broken dishes is getting me down.
JW
I think the issue here is that we think it is a pretty bad idea to operate on both hands simultaneously, so although I have no problem with going straight for surgery on one hand we are left with the problem of what to do with the other one while waiting for the first to recover. The options are basically to inject it or continue suffering with it - and despite the fact that there is a high rate of relapse after injection the likelihood that it will alleviate your symptoms long enough to get the first hand done and recovered is very high, with very low risks. The stories you see here on the website of course are not generally tales of failed injection - most of them are patients who responded very well to injection but then relapsed later - at which tie of course they come back to us to get further treatment. What you don't see on the whole is postings here from the substantial number of people who are still well after injection because they have no incentive to come back and say so - indeed some of them forget about their CTS entirely for years. JB
I agree. Surgery on both at the same time would be a no no. I would run out of crockery altogether if I did that. I think I just wondered if you thought that I was wasting valuable recourses when waiting would be the obvious thing to do. I have now contacted the Primary Care number and they will get back to me Monday with an appointment. Still not sure if its not a waste but as you say....may give relief while the left hand heals.
Thank you again for listening to me droning on.
Kindest Regards
Jane Wilson
It's a trivial amount of resource to 'waste'. A syringe and needle cost a few pennies each and the steroid is less than £2 last time I looked so it's really just the time taken to do it. I also find it interesting to talk to patients who have had one side operated and one injected as they have the best possible opportunity to compare the two treatments and tell me what they think - one day we may turn that into a formal study. JB
Both sides had quite bad nerve conduction results so I would be inclined to have whichever one feels worst operated and inject the other one - we can do it either way round. JB