Dont know if to go ahead?
I have had carpal tunnel symptoms for a few years. I work with horses and i am physical every day. It just seemed to flare up from no where. I started getting pain in my right shoulder/ arm when using it and then my arm and hand would go dead at night and also tingles in my hand when driving or holding my hand up. I had nerve studies which showed ct on my right side and mild on left. I am booked in to have surgery on my right side a week today. I have read so many mixed opinions and results. From what the doctors have said it is pretty straight forward procedure and highly successful but i keep reading horror stories on cases worsening after surgery. Now i don't know if i am doing the right thing. I cannot go on as i am as effects my job but i don't want to be worse and what will happen if i don't have the surgery? Please help!
I am new to this site and relate to what you are saying. I too had nerve testing that showed "moderate" CP on my right hand. I too am booked to have surgery. Thing is, that I do not have numbness and I do not have tingling and I only sometime have pain. The doctor is recommending the surgery in order to decrease an escalating condition I have regarding loss of dexterity. It is harder every year for me to put on my jewelry (I can hardly do that at all), button buttons, pick up things from the floor, etc. Also I drop things all the time and break glasses constantly. Now, as you said, I have read so many mixed opinions and results. I have not seen or read any research that says CPS will increase dexterity or prevent it from worsening. My doctor said if I wait too long, the nerve will be shot and surgery will no longer be even an option to help with the dexterity issue. But, am I opening up pandoras box here by getting surgery. God forbid, my case worsens after surgery. I too don't know if I am doing the right thing. I can go on but don't want to end up like my mother who is 90 and has NO USE of her HANDS DUE TO ARTHRITUS.
PLEASE, I WOULD APPRECIATE ANY ADVICE.
The most useful information in making this sort of decision is the nerve conduction result (better still a couple of serial nerve conduction results so that you can see how it is changing). Unfortunately the use of vague terms like 'moderate' is not helpful because different doctors mean different things by them - you really need to see either the actual numbers that were measured or to have them translated to a recognised grading scheme before they can usefully be used for decision making. Can you get hold of your results? JB
The best available figures on the outcome of surgery (in ordinary NHS practice in the UK) are given in the surgical prognosis page of this site. If we can figure out how bad your CTS is on the NCS then you can look up your grade and get an idea of how many patients like you get good (and bad) results from surgery to help in making the decision whether to go ahead. For patients who have doubts about surgery and not too severe CTS then a trial of treatment by local steroid injection is often a good tactic as the response is partly predictive of how the symptoms will respond to surgery, and if you are lucky then you may get a particularly good response to injection and perhaps not need surgery at all.
I would be interested to know if your surgeon has given you any concrete figures for the outcomes he/she expects from carpal tunnel surgery - a phrase like 'highly successful' is all very well but not as useful as hard numbers. JB