Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire #$%^& carpal tunnel

It came on fast and furious, from nothing to bad in a few weeks. I'm scheduled for surgery in 6 weeks.
The big problem - I'm kind of a cabinet builder. I'm building a complete set of cabinets for our kitchen and the house looks like Hiroshima with everything stacked up to make working room. I really need to get this job done before the surgery but I'm operating with 1 1/3 hands. I haven't removed the sink yet so it's still operational and there's still 5' of counter working room so the kitchen's functional after a fashion. I have the upper cabinets removed but am just starting to make the new ones. I want to get them up before I put in the lower ones so I can get at them. We're getting granite countertops and I don't want to be working above that.

What a splendid time to have a hand go south on me.

I have had half a dozen fingers do that, go to a doctor and get a steroid shot and it is gone in a couple of hours. And no surgery. Thought that was common knowledge?

My daughter works with knives a lot, doing autopsy’s. She had carpal tunnel problems. Had the surgery, then a period of rehab and light duty. The surgery solved the issue for her.
Good luck.

I'll have both mine done, after I get my knee replaced and both shoulders fixed. I've just learned how to deal with the carpal. It's not bad once you learn what to do and how to not do something. Once in while I'll screw up and I'll have a hand blow up on me. Sucks but it usually goes away.

They sell braces that actually work and wearing them while you sleep is very helpful. They have a metal piece that runs longitudinal with your wrist, and velcro straps.

There's also a stretch you can do that helps a lot. Basically bending your fingers back over the top of your wrist and holding that stretch for 20 or 30 seconds.

A steroid shot won't fix this one. They're a pain reliever. They reduce swelling and inflammation but they don't fix the cause. My orthopedist gave me one in one knee and it worked great there. He did a nerve scan on my hand and he said steroids aren't going to prevent further damage.

I'll Pray for you Rock.

Well you said you wanted to get your cabinets done before you had surgery - the "shot" sounds like a viable option to me.

My wife had it done to both hands.....at the same time. Sucked for a while, but she was glad she did both. I, on the other hand, had to wait on her "hand" and foot. Wasn't so bad for me, but it took a good month for her to be able to somewhat get back in the groove. Had pain for several months after surgery when she put her hand down to get up. Took a while to get out of that habit.

She makes cakes as a side gig, and the constant squeezing of the bag,(I know what's next, LOL) had her hands wearing out. Steroids only mask the inflamation and dull the pain. The root cause can only be fixed by surgery.


Clyde

Steroid shots are nothing but a bandaid, ive had plenty of them in my shoulders and back the last 5 years, the more you get the less time they last.
I had both hands operated on at the same time about 40 years ago with carpal tunnel got so bad I couldn't sleep before I did it all good now.
I just got stem cell injections in both shoulders and my back 1.5 weeks ago we will see how that goes, ive got nothing to loose at this point my only options are replacements in my shoulders Hell with that if I can help it.

I had bi-lateral carpal tunnel. Doctors said "we need to operate". I was advised by another in the surgical field that unless you change the actions that caused it other problems will happen from the scar tissue of surgery for which there is no resolve.

I declined the surgery. I worked as a machinist in a cannon factory so my hands were always moving doing heavy machining work. My remedy was to wear small, not bulky splints all day at work. (YOU CAN WORK WHILE WEARING SPLINTS) I had another clean pair for driving home, and another pair only worn for sleeping.

I wore those splints for 30 days straight 24/7 and they worked. Never had surgery, no steroid shots, nothing, and no numbness or waking during the night... That was 30 years ago, I did have to wear the splints again for symptoms when building a pool deck. Those splints now reside in my nightstand and I have not worn them in 20 years... I've been retired for 15 yrs.

Good Luck.

I hear ya my hand locks up at times

May be a bandaid fix, but it has been several years since I had a shot, and never had a reoccurrence in the same finger, so it fixed me up.

What I was thinking as well. Buy time...

I tried the splints to zero effect. Got the surgery done (years ago) and relief was immediate. Due to the wait to try splints, physio and stretching I ended up with a small amount of what appears to be permanent nerve damage.

The big challenge is each person’s experience is unique, I should have done the surgery earlier because nothing else worked, but what if the splints had worked??

No easy answers.

Good luck.

I have a wrist brace with a metal support that I tried. It hurts worse than using nothing.
I called the doc to ask if a steroid shot would help but he's out of town today. I can't get him until Monday.

I don’t know how long ago you guys that got surgery did it, but my wife did it two months ago. Ten minutes and she was done. A couple stitches and they kicked her out the door. Some ibuprofen for pain the first week and pretty much pain free the next. Not 100% for strength yet but pretty close. They don’t rehab you or therapy anymore either. Just tell you to do as much as you can stand.

If it is severe surgery is the only option to stop further nerve damage. One severe nerve damage happens, surgery won't even fix some problems. Get it done, done right, and you will be thankful for it.

Sounds like it’s time to call a few friends over to help.

Sometimes you do the helping, sometimes you need the helping.

My middle son is a LEO State Director and has 2 phones, one personal and one state. Constantly using his thumbs. Had to have both hands worked on. Worked for a while;needs another surgery. I’m pretty sure he didn’t do all the post operative rehab and went back to work too soon.

A lifetime of physical labor and both of my hands required surgery, Modern surgery procedures are very effective,

In the meantime start sleeping at night with the braces on your hands/wrists…..

Oh, never mind my comment above.

Indeed the *&%$#! Good luck Rocky.

I have had two shots for snogo throttle thumb and, I guess, drywalling the second time, but doc says if there is a next time it's the knife. For the thumb, he says there are two tendons that run through the tunnel, but some people have 3. Don't know if I do. The first shot relieved me in a few hours, it was several days for the second one to get to 100% relief. Wore the wrist thing, too. It helped some, not a lot until I was able to get the shot.

For the second time, I fhad to see my non-specialist provider and get a referral to the specialist (went straight to him the first time. I think they have a money-thing going), and it was 6 weeks before I could see the specialist. That sucked.

I am getting arthritis in my knuckles, varicose veins are coming back a little, going to the chiropracter later this morning, I am borderline ADD (wasn't told which side of the border!) and I ain't too smart. Got sawdust in my eyes last week - wear goggles dummy!

Wanna see my scars?

Both my wrists acted up last fall, primary cause was too much driving. Started wearing braces while driving and frequent stretching, and hands and wrists are back to normal for four months now.

Get the steroid injections to get your cabinets finished and then surgery after that

Shot heavy recoiling handguns on military teams and civilian competition for 50+ years. So had a hand and foot reconstruction surgeon do the job. Found out the longer you allow nerve damage to go the worse it gets and the more damage done pluse more permanent it becomes.
Add on to that, that the longer the the surgury takes, like open to air, the more damage done to nerves. So be very careful about whom does the surgury, ask how many done in a year and the time it takes to do them, ask before, mine was a thousand and 9 minutes. I had 6 weeks of recovery and rehab. Tender, but was back to shooting big bore silhouette in 90 days, at production International Class. With a padded glove.

To me, that sounds more like tendonitis. That affects the tendons while carpal tunnel hits the nerve. Tendonitis will go away, especially if you wear wrist braces. I've had it many times and I can tell the difference. This is totally different.

Tendonitis doesn’t tingle, doesn’t wake you up because it’s worse at night, and gets worse with stretching.

It does not sound like carpel tunnel. I could be wrong. When I had it , it took years to get bad.. It did get bad enough that when I would swing a hammer , it would fall out of my hand and then look around cause I couldn't find my hammer and never even felt it leave my hand.. I still get it, but I do excersizes that help.. Just put both hand straight out , and pull your bad wrist back and use your fingers to pull the wrist back.. It really helps.. It is hard to explain how to though.