Carpal Tunnel

I had to have surgery for mine 4yrs ago. I saw my GP for the finger numbness and weakness who took one look and said the muscle wastage was advanced and referred me for surgery there and then. I really hadn’t noticed that the muscle at the base of my thumb was literally gone and instead was flat rather than plump. The surgeon agreed and I had the surgery with local anaesthetic and it’s 90% recovered.
I don’t know if exercise or injections work as I wasn’t offered either I suppose it depends how advanced yours is. Hopefully someone else will have had a better recovery without surgery. Good luck.

Hi Curlywhirly, I had to wear splints at work for a while because of CTS, but found they did help and the pain eased off after a while. I have had flare-ups but as long as I rest my wrists, they recover. Not easy to rest wrists…
Weirdly I found washing up helped - may have been the warm water relaxing the muscles, not sure. Good luck.

I had a number of injections, always done with ultra sound. Eventually I had the op seven years ago.

I wore splints to my elbow, day and night! Ibruprofen gel helps a little to ease the pain.

Had aflare up of CTS a couple of years ago. Very painful, I even found that riding my mobility scooter difficult at the time, as the reverberations caused my hands pain.
Purchased wrist splints on line and wear them on both hands ever night. Gook quite a long time for big improvement, but after about three months I had no further pain during the day. I have continued to wear these (or replaced ones) every night and have not had any more flare ups of this condition.

My husband had several injections for trigger finger and also wore a splint for carpal tunnel syndrome.He eventually had the operation several years ago.Fingers crossed things are still ok post op🤞🏻

I had the operation, to make more room for the nerve, some years ago (in both hands - not at the same time). It was 100% successful and now both hands are pain free and working normally.
I can tell you more about it if you PM me. I've never regretted having to done.

Many thanks for replies ladies. So it seems that flare-ups can settle - hopefully with the splint and a little less housework (!!) I could see an improvement. My elbow and forearm are very sore too - but not sure whether its due to arthritis- I have never been tested for it, but do have have painful joints in my thumbs and have had a painful big toe joint for years, so it does look like I have arthritis too!

I had both mine operated on over 30 years ago. Never had a problem since, it was quick under local Anesthetic, mine was caused by pregnancy, told not uncommon.

Not sure how long you would wait on the NHS? My Nail lady paid for hers to be done , she said worth every penny, nothing else worked on her.

I left my C P too long and put up with sore wrists and numb fingers
I had the surgery , but not a great success , but the wrists don’t hurt ! Just left with the numb fingertips
So get it seen to ,

Totally agree with Aggie, get it seen to.
I ‘got on’ with it until I couldn’t feel to put my earrings in or do up a necklace. I couldn’t hold a pen to write properly and had to give up my cross stitch as I couldn’t feel the needle.
More importantly I started dropping things so wasn’t safe with a cup of tea!
Hospital was concerned I’d left it too long but feeling gradually came back.
Advise you-as nurse did me-not to have both done at same time as makes it difficult to wipe your own ‘botty!

I had both wrists done 8 years ago (like others not a same time), no longer need to wear braces to bed, again like others, not mini ones, big thick ones with several fastenings (I would remove simpler type whilst asleep!)

The only issue I have now is sometimes my fingers, both hands but mainly my left, (I'm right handed) can move by them selves. Weird sensation, it just goes and there is nothing I can do, it's as if it's being tightened and it goes inward to my palm, all 8 fingers and thumbs can do this.

I would still have the ops though.

I put up with it for 30 years but eventually had surgery in 2021 and 2022. Painful (though less so than cortisone injections) but it passed and I haven't had problems since. Had a trigger finger done at the same time as the first one, have developed a couple of other triggers since but thankfully they have resolved themselves adequately without further treatment.

I've had two ops on both hands 4 years apart - frankly nothing else worked - had injections which did nothing. My GP has a small surgery attached which did the first ops on each hand but I had to go to the main hospital to undergo a bigger op on each as sadly the pain and numbness returned (in July 2019) - I no longer have any pain in my fingers but a little numbness either side of each scar

I had CTS about a decade ago. Wore splints (hand to elbow) as advised and it... went away. It flares occasionally but for the past few months, if I grip something 'wrong', my little and ring fingers somehow drop and lock. I have to push them back into place from the palm side. Most odd and painful when they lock. I suppose I should mention it to my GP, but am dealing with a flare of hip and ankle osteoarthritis at the moment and this is nothing by comparison. Aren't bodies weird!

I had CPS and nothing worked to relieve it so had the operation in 2007. It's brilliant, no waking up with pins & needles in the night, no pain, can grip things fantastic. AND it's still fine to this day.

I had carpel tunnel in my left wrist several years ago, from memory I had 3 lots of infections at which point I was told that’s my maximum , I then had the operation and haven’t looked back since. I did find a hot wax bath very soothing for both my wrist and arthritic hands - I got mine second hand

I ve had two surgeries for carpel tunnel both hands One was wonderful one was over stitched and got infected and I landed up in hospital on antibiotic drip but once that was over all was good and never had any problems since and that was about 30 years ago
So I d definitely get the op if it’s offered
One of my daughters has had both done as well no problems and no further trouble

I've had arthritis all over for some years and in October broke my arm badly. After a month saw the consultant as they changed the plaster. Checking the numbness in the fingers he said it was CPS but also possibly the arthritis. I asked about treatments and we talked about injections but I'd had them for other pain and it made it worse. He said he'd had CTS and eventually it got better without operation or injections so we agreed we'd try that. I'm getting more movement in the hand daily, do the physio and swimming helps too.

Ilovedragonflies

I had CTS about a decade ago. Wore splints (hand to elbow) as advised and it... went away. It flares occasionally but for the past few months, if I grip something 'wrong', my little and ring fingers somehow drop and lock. I have to push them back into place from the palm side. Most odd and painful when they lock. I suppose I should mention it to my GP, but am dealing with a flare of hip and ankle osteoarthritis at the moment and this is nothing by comparison. Aren't bodies weird!

Many thanks for further replies. It does seem that injections aren't really the answer and surgery is inevitable. I'll wait for a few weeks and if there's no improvement I may ask to have surgery.
Ilovedragonflies it sounds like you have trigger fingers - I have found out that trigger finger is related to Carpal Tunnel problems (people often suffer from both).

I had CP in both wrists/hands, and felt like 3 fingers on each hand were like sausages and numb. I saw a physio, I had a few pages of exercises which I did 3 times a day and I still do them daily now. I was also told to not let my hands hang down at a 90 degree angle so the wrist bent and constricted, I have wrist supports for night time, and my wrists are so much better now. No sausage fingers any more.

My daughter found acupuncture to be very helpful when she had carpal tunnel problems.
She did have surgery in the end though.