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14 months after surgery but pain persists

Posted , 6 users are following.

eliza56704
eliza56704

Hello. was wondering if anybody on this group had carpal tunnel surgery but consider it a 'failure'? i had one of the top medics in Guildford assure me that surgery would make the pain stop once and for all. After the surgery in march 2014, the pain never left, not for a day. If anything its worse today. he kept saying wait a few months, and that was over several visits. now he says to have a 'revision' surgery because the first may not have worked. Well, i know it didnt work! I think he means it 'failed'. So why would i want to try again? This is a long way of my asking if anything else might be done. He advocates another surgery and does not advise or know of any other alternative. I read whats on the web and on this site and i see some interesting remedies that appear promising. But do they actually work? Or is my case hopeless? I truly do not want another surgery since not only was teh last a failure, but i had to quit my woodcrafts business for nearly 5 months, simply becasuse my hand would not work properly. Splinting does not help, and in fact i think makes things worse. I startedwithholding most pain meds for fear of long term problems. my friend insists upon vitamine B and selenium, but that does not seem very halpful to me. A customer suggested rubbing anti-inflame creams into my hand. Hmmmm.... And my therapist insists on massaging my wrist frequently but who knows if it will work, and its costly just to find out. I cannot take steroid shots. And even though i had surgery, I'm indeed a big baby and will not do acupuncture needles anywhere. Well, such is my story. I don't mean to drone on, but i'm hoping somebody will have good advice. Have a nice evening, Eliza

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • sandra24573
    sandra24573 eliza56704

    Posted

    I really think this surgery on cp, maybe a farse....they said I had it, I kept dropping things, hands numbing, and tingling, pain.   Its been 3 months on one, 2 months on the other, and I have so much pain, all the time.  I keep thinking it might take years, myself, or the surgery is so invasive, that the hands have now other issues.  I banged my hand on a railing, and YOWSER, its feeliing worse, than ever.  When I work with something, the night shows I'm bruised all over again.

    I don't mean to drone on, but there has to be a better way of fixing this!!!

    sorry Eliza, I'm in the same boat.....

     

    • eliza56704
      eliza56704 sandra24573

      Posted

      Hi sandra...yes, i have the saame problem with cp surgery. why go through all that? for me, the experience has been just awful. I woudl never recommend it to anyone. Never. And I wonder why i even consented to to it in the first place. I listened to professional "medical advice" I guess. Not again.

      Well, here's to hoping for some guidance for both of us....Eliza

    • sandra24573
      sandra24573 eliza56704

      Posted

      I think this is another paycheck to the doctors........so much going around I see,  Lets see how people respond to this, anybody do this again???
  • john95466
    john95466 eliza56704

    Posted

    Eliza,

    I had sugery on my non- dominant left hand Dec16, 2014

    The nerve specilalist informed me that my condition was one 

    of the worse he had seen. Extreme numbness, tingling , and a

    pain that would not diminish unless i stood up and shook my hand 

    to try to get blood flow. The operation was sucessful but my condition

    remained the same. I.....like you was told have patience it takes time. I was bitterly disappointed in my results, and i blamed myself for procrastiating so long. 

    But around early May i started to notice my numbness and tingling starting to

    dissipate It is now of coarse mid june and i would say that im aroud 80% improved. Perhaps that might be it for me. If so i'll take it! I guess if i was in your shoes i might wait a while longer. We all know our bodies, if your discomfort level stays the same for a while and does not worsen i would be encouraged.

    I never thought i would feel improvement  but i was wrong. Wish i could offer more advice, i sincerly hope you feel better soon. John.

     

    • eliza56704
      eliza56704 john95466

      Posted

      Thanks for that John. Im afraid 14 months is a bit long for hope though. Im very happy for you that you are seeing improvement now. Wow, 80% --- i'd take that in a second and never look back! Unfortunately, im rather sure my hand is jut going to get worse and worse. Its a slow downhill slide, but its definite. the only upside is that i have become well educated in cts. there are a lot of non surgical 'remedies' available, i mean a lot, but what's good and what's crap (pls excuse the anger)? I've read practically everythign available and im not impressed by anything thus far. But i am relatiely sure i must find a non surgical option, whatever it is. Eliza
  • r_75528
    r_75528 eliza56704

    Posted

    After spending months with pain in my neck, shoulders, arms, and hands, I was sent for an MRI by my Primary Doctor and this resulted in me being sent to a neurosurgeon due to spine problems found in the MRI.  Before doing anything, the neurosurgeon sent me to have MRI’s of both shoulders.  In addition, he had me tested for CTS with the electrical stimulation tests.  I not only had spine problem but I also had CTS in both hands and both shoulders required operating on due to the poor shape they were in.

    The neurosurgeon could not do anything with the shoulders which required an osteopathic surgeon.   A decision to either repair the spine first or the shoulders was made by me to do the spine as I felt I could not wait any longer to go through the process of obtaining an osteopathic surgeon.  The neurosurgeon scheduled my spine operation and asked if I wanted to do a carpal tunnel release on one hand while I was under general antesthesia. I agreed when he said he had done many CTS releases.

    Big mistake, and I hate to rain on your parade, but I am presently 40 months away from the surgery and I still have pain in the hand that had the CTR.  And, thanks to the osteopathic surgeon, I had 7 months of hand therapy with a CHT.  The neurosurgeon said it was not necessary and everything looked OK when I saw him after the surgery.  Five weeks after spine surgery I saw the osteopathic surgeon for my shoulder and thanks to him, at least I have the use of my hand now.  If he had not gotten me to a CHT, now I would have a CLAW, and not a hand.  However, the pain in the CTR hand is still bad, to the extent that I have to take pain medication most nights in order to get to sleep.   A real bummer!  I have been to another hand specialist and that was a waste of time.  It is slowly improving and at the rate it is going, I’m hoping that in another 2 years, it will be fairly pain free.   Only good part of the whole story is that the spine surgery went well and all of that pain is now gone. The scraping of the spine and the titanium plate he put in my spine seamed to work.  Hope you have better luck.

  • kyle93500
    kyle93500 eliza56704

    Posted

    The anti-inflammation creams could help. It's usually inflammation putting pressure on the nerves passing through the carpal tunnel that causes the tingling and pain. I used a cold compression wrap whenever I was in pain and it would quickly give relief.
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