Carpal tunnel surgery- forearm/elbow pain- normal?
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Hello. I had surgery on my right wrist for carpal tunnel back in October 2017. I did a EMG/NCV test and it came back that I was fine but my doctor/surgeon said I had signs for carpal tunnel. (Rare case which is why it didn’t show up because it’s not severe) I had the surgery and my surgeon said he was glad we did it since my nerves were so tight.*i had pain in my wrist, the side of my hand, forearm and elbow. I had light numbness to the tip of my pinky, tip of my ring finger and tip of my middle finger* Surgery went well and the surgeon said the numbness would go away after a couple hours to a day. My ring finger numbness never went away and is still numb- half the ring finger. The right side of my hand under the pinky, lower than my wrist, forearm and elbow are on and off pain all day/night. It recently started to have ‘spasms’ in the lower right palm/wrist. I think that my ulnar nerve (cubital tunnel) is bothering me and causing all this pain. My surgeon won’t look at it and says I am fine this is all normal. The pain is getting worse. My whole hand sometimes goes numb. I have shooting horible pain in the forearm and elbow. (I am in physical therapy for my wrist) my physical therapist says the ulnar nerve could have some problems but isn’t sure.
Is this pain normal? Why is my surgeon not taking this serious?
I have carpal tunnel in my left wrist as well and just did the EMG/NCV- I’ll get the results next week. I don’t want surgery on my left wrist just yet because I think something is wrong with the ulnar nerve.
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jeremydpbland MandyC17
Posted
On the strength of that description your diagnosis seems more likely to be correct than your surgeons, though strictly one should only expect symptoms from the ulnar nerve in the little and ring fingers - involvement of the middle finger always makes me wonder about problems in the neck. If you want to discuss it further come and visit carpal-tunnel.net as I keep closer eye on that than on this site. Dr J Bland
sandra67158 MandyC17
Posted
joy32895 MandyC17
Posted
I would recommend going to a different doctor, but often they will not intervene with an "ongoing" treatment of another doctor. But if your nerve conduction studies were normal, how did he know there was a problem? Sounds to me like its a different nerve problem. You could get your primary to refer you to another neurologist and get his/her opinion on what nerve it could be that is causing the trouble.
I had bilateral carpal tunnel surgery in Oct. as well, my doctor said I may never get all of my feeling back because it was so "severe" especially left hand and I'm right handed? Surprisingly I have almost all of my feeling back everyplace in just 2 months. But this same doctor I trust because he replaced both of my knees earlier and I've never had any problems with them either post op. Also I recommended to another fellow on this site to find a plastic surgeon that is a hand specialists. Usually only in bigger cities, but worth getting an opinion from them too. Hope you get the right help. It's discouraging to go through what you must be. But don't give up and seek some further help.