Carpet tunnel on both hands

Were you diagnosed for the carpal tunnel by nerve conduction studies done at a neurologist's office?  Plain xrays will show arthritis.  If you truly have confirmed carpal tunnel syndrome do NOT wait because waiting like I did I may not get all of my feeling back in my fingers.  I am happy to report that 2 months post op most of it has returned.  I was told I would not know the final outcome for maybe up to a year.  I was able to do most everything I normally do after 3 weeks-1 month....so not much down time.

Some people never get pain from CTS so whether it is present or not is not a useful guide to how bad the problem is. The only verifiably objective way of assessing how much damage there is to nerve function is to carry out nerve conduction studies and you should have those done before making a decision about surgery. There is an optimum time for surgery, based on the nerve conduction results. Contrary to the post from joy32895 I am afraid, it is not simply a case of earlier operation = better. Dr J Bland

The doctor is right in that nerve conduction studies are the only real verifiable diagnostic tool.  My doctor told me I should have come in when I first had symptoms.  I was in his office to have my total knee check and said oh BTW, my hands are numb all of the time, he immediately sent me for nerve studies.  I didn't know it was carpal tunnel, thought maybe a reaction my one of my many Blood Pressure medications.  My doctor just said the longer the nerve is compressed the chances you may NOT get full feeling back but I'm happy to report that after 2 months, I have MOST of my feeling back.  Some spots of numbness yet, and my doctor said wouldn't know the final outcome for maybe up to a year...but because of having the problem for so long, sometimes the feeling never does completely return.  Different doctors have different opinions, obviously

 

Obviously, Dr. Bland is an experienced physician in this area of carpal tunnel syndrome.  I can only speak from my own experience.  I suffered for probably 2 years, not knowing I had carpal tunnel, thinking it was one of my BP medications causing the numbness and tingling, especially at night laying down and when I would hang my arms over the side of the bed and the circulation "seemingly" came back...I never once thought I had carpal tunnel, since I'm retired and have never done any repetitive type work which is supposedly one of the causes. When my ortho doc was doing my every 2 year check for my total knee, I just happened to mention to him my hands were numb thinking I had cervical compression causing it...he said immediately without pause, it's carpal tunnel and sent me for the nerve studies which on my left hand I watch the computer image barely moving when the electrodes were activated...and I'm right handed.  I then had bilateral carpal tunnel repair and within about  2 weeks times, no more nighttime numbness and tingling and now most of my feeling has returned. My doctor did say the left may never get full feeling back because of the length of time I had compression of the nerve. I can feel numb "spots", but for the most part 2 months post op, I'm happy to report all is good and I'm sure a lot happier.  There is no question that people are all different, their symptoms and their post op outcomes are different...I am only speaking for my own experience and if I had known all along that my problem was carpal tunnel, I would have been in the doctors office immediately.

I am probably like a lot of people who "love" to self diagnose...I was pretty convinced I had cervical compression  because my girlfriends husband had the exact same symptoms I did with the numbness, etc...and he did have cervical disc surgery.  I have severe spinal stenosis, lost 2 inches in height from my youth...so just made sense to me that I had a cervical problem, never dreamed it was carpal tunnel...  Retrospect, learned that I should have "mentioned" my symptoms to my doctor when I first was noticing them.  Live and learn as they say.

Back this past July I suddenly developed sever Carpel Tunnel in both hands. Extreme pain. Started out going to primary doctor who thought it might be RA, so I was given a referral, and waited 6 weeks for an appointment. Extensive blood work ran, all came back normal, and no RA. Then back to primary doctor in September, and I had to tell him that I wanted a nerve conduction test. I had not slept more than 4 hours a night for two months because of pain. Nerve conduction test showed sever carpel tunnel in both hands. I had first surgery end of September, and was a great relief! Other hand done end of October, and feels some better with a little finger numbness, and slight pain. The hand is stiffer too, not as flexible as the hand I done first. Is this normal after two months? There is a noticeable difference between the two hands. When I asked my Ortho what makes severe Carpel tunnel just come on suddenly out of the blue. He told me that thyroid problems can bring that on or sudden swelling of the body. Before all my hand pain my feet and ankles, and hands had suddenly swelled up, and lasted for a few weeks. I still don't know what caused that, and may never know. My Carpel Tunnel just came out of no where.