My pain is so bad after surgery.
Hello there I am new here and thought I would interject.
I had back surgery Nov 27th 2013 and 1 day later my carpal tunnel symptoms started. The worst pain ever in my middle and pointer finger, feels like raw meat that has cuts. Sharp tingling like they are asleep but accompanied by serious crushing pain.
So after a month of playing the Kaiser game I had a CTS and scored a 7 almost off the chart. So they decide right away to perform surgery on that and also my pinky finger was sticking, they call it a trigger finger. That I haven't had either before back surgery. Dr says the spinal fluid could have speeded things up and I had a serious prior condition of carpal tunnel so he says.
I guess I prolly did since I have been a electrician for over 20 years. The neurologist said that electricians are at the top of his list in how many there are having extreme cases of carpal tunnel.
So back to my after surgery pain. I had my surgery on Jan 31, 2014 and my pain is the same if not worse now.
Is there any hope for me?
I am losing control of normal functions due to the pain and numbness.
My pain is constant with hardly any times of relief.
Thanks for reading and any help would be greatly appreciated.
~God Bless
Pete
Hi there,
Yeah i'm not sure what the 7 meant but it was high on the chart for a certain nerve.
Yes the trigger finger was done also at the same time and its not sticking anymore.
The Dr said I may have sleep wrong in the hospital bed and caused it by tucking my
hands and cutting off circulation.
The part about electricians is true since all we do is use heavy drills and turn screw drivers
all day. super bad on the wrist and carpal tunnel syndrome. The neurologist as Kaiser
told me this so unless he was just wrong then i'm not sure, but that part is irrelevant at this
point.
Either way I am going to find out more on my pre-op CTS so I can then ddo another in a few
weeks to compare.
Thanks
Well at least they fixed the trigger finger. Sleeping position probably does have something to do with CTS - at least aggravating the symptoms once you have it - whether it causes the problem in the first polace is a bit different. I don't think there has ever been a formal study of electricians looking at the incidence of CTS so the best you can say is that there is insufficient evidence. I do agree that using drills and screwdrivers all day is likely to make symptoms worse though. Good luck with getting it sorted out. JB
Yes thanks,
I hope I do get it worked out some day, I think I need to get away from kaiser as they seem like this is the finish look so to speak. Mr Dr said the pain might never go away and this is the end of the road for me and my hand. Seems crazy to me as I read all the stories about this same problem.
I hope there is a way to be in relief some day I dont think I can live like this, the pain is so severe I cant do much with the hand now at all.
Thanks
You definitely need some nerve conduction studies doing and posibly some imaging. The only uncertainty really is quite when to do them. JB
Very sudden onset severe CTS is unusual and often has a specific cause, unlike the commoner gradually developing syndrome which is mostly described on this site. To make a start on figuring out what is going on we really need the pre-operative nerve conduction studies ('7' doesn't mean a lot by itself) and you also need some post-operative ones doing and possibly some imaging but if the CTS was really bad before surgery doing this two weeks later might be a little soon - 4-6 weeks might be better if it remain this painful. Did they treat the trigger digit at the same time? What does the surgeon say about what was seen during the operation? I don't recongise electricians as a high risk group I'm afraid and the sudden onset after back surgery is peculiar too. JB