So what is carpal tunnel syndrome and what are the true symptoms?
Your wrist is composed of 8 little bones in roughly 2 rows of 4 bones each. These bones act like a set of ball bearings that allows your wrist to move in almost any direction. Like a set of bearings, it is lubricated with its own 'grease' to make sure things move easily. Due to an injury or overuse, the muscles in your hand and wrist start to inflame and put increasing pressure on the bones in your wrist.
This increased pressure eventually causes the bones to become stuck and your 'grease' to become sticky. This causes the wrist becomes painful. If this continues for some time, the pain can begin to radiate up into the forearm and down into the hand. Further neglect may cause numbness in the area and lead to arthritis.
Sometimes, these symptoms are not due to problems in the wrist. A slipped disc/pinched nerve in the neck can refer the pain into the wrist. It is possible that some of the unsuccessful surgeries to the wrist did not fully address this possible cause of the pain.
Now that was a very simple explanation of carpal tunnel syndrome, but it gives you a better idea of how this all arises.
So, you may be thinking, "You painted a pretty good picture of my pain, so now what?" Well, let's discuss the options:
- Medication - doesn't correct the cause of the pain. The wrist bones are still stuck, so the pain returns after medication is stopped.
- Bracing - in some minor cases of carpal tunnel, bracing or wearing of a brace will help with the symptoms provided the bones are not stuck and the cervical spine is not involved in your pain.
- Surgery - this involves cutting a important tissue in your wrist (if it wasn't important, it would not be there) in half to give your tendons more room to move. But what about the stuck bones in your wrist? What if it's the neck? Sometimes surgery is needed, most of the time it is not.
- Conservative/Chiropractic treatment - will check that your cervical spine is not involved in your symptoms, realign the stuck little bones in your wrist and allow the bones to start moving freely again. The 'grease' in your wrist starts to get less sticky and your little bones start moving even easier with less pain. Add some conservative treatment to the inflamed muscles and your back to yourself again. No cutting and no bracing.
If you are to the point where you are having pain in your wrist and not stiffness, medication and bracing are not going to help. Unless you quit what is causing your pain (your work or computer) you should try some conservative treatment before looking into surgery. It is quick, simple and you will be very happy with the results.
Call or email me, I will be happy to discuss your particular symptoms with you.Dr. Tomar
