Carpal Tunnel...Who has it?
 

Who all has carpal tunnel and who has had the operation to repair it and how did it go?

My righthand (mousehand) has been driving me fuckin' crazy the past couple weeks and I think I might be getting it....and being a designer and using that hand about 12+ hours a day, is not the greatest thing in the world.

:(

Been diagnosed with it since I was 19 or 20. That's what I get for always using the computer too much. Go see a hand specialist and have them do an EMG test. I have not had the surgery, figured it would be better to try and treat it non-surgically first. They gave me shots of Cortizone in my wrists once which didn't help. That's not something I would recommend because I was told by several people that it's very unhealthy.

Get yourself some wrist braces and commit to sleeping with them at night for at least a month or more. If you can keep yourself from sleeping on your hands or curling them up, you'll drastically reduce the amount of discomfort that you have. Also, something like Alieve or ibuprofen might be enough to help. If they're not, there are a bunch of prescriptions for the inflamation.

On a homeopathic note, you might want to try MSM. My dad swears by it.

Brad

In the computer biz you always have a chance to get it

What is the sure tell sign that you have it?

My hands ache etc... when I go to the spa and they massage my hands I am like oooooooo....

damn I tend to sleep on my hands and crack my knuckles too :(

Don't have it yet, but I can feel it coming. Arthritis already in my knee's....i hate getting old

Its def. coming along, hand cramps up like Keyser Sozie allllllll the time.

FF

just have to sit right.

make sure your wrist is flat and your elbow is resting on something.

That's enough to cure the stress from wrist, elbow and shoulder.

There is a diagnostic test they can do called an EMG, it tests for nerve damage between your shoulder and fingers. Go get one done :)

Brad

I've had it for many years now.. almost 10. Some days the pain is so bad it's unreal, and sometimes my fingers go so numb I drop everything because I can't tell how hard I'm holding it. Sometimes my hands will just go pins and needles for days and I hardly have any control over them. It's terrible, but there's no way I could do the operation with my kids as young as they are now. I wouldn't be able to function without two hands.

i was diasnosed with it early last year. :(

mine has nothing to do with that...it's from moving my mouse from side to side all day

Had it for a while when I was writing a book. I use MS Natural keyboard now and don't have any problems, but am not doing heavy typing. I wouldn't take any drugs or anything like that. Time should heal it.

While you have it, lay off on typing for a while and take a piece of paper and make a wrist wrap and tape it around wrist when you sleep.

Read closely now...... I got it quite bad in my right wrist and hand about 3-4 years ago. My pinky and the next finger on that hand were numb, was in constant pain. Here is what I did:

I switched the mouse over to the left hand. That's right, even with me doing galleries and design work up the ying yang I still switched it over.... took months to train that hand, but I did it, period, no fucking excuses.

I also bought myself a wrist brace, one of those ortho-elastic ones with the velcro, and like someone else here said, I wore it at night too. I also started sleeping with an extra pillow to rest my arm and hand on.

I moused with my left hand for about 10 months, letting my right wrist heal up. It did, and then one day I moved the mouse back over to the right and have never had a recurrance of carpal since. I've got the feeling back in those two fingers and have never looked back.

Someone once told me to do exercises with rubber bands. The idea was since your always putting pressure in one direction (clicking down or typing) you had to balance that pressure out. My hands were really bad a few years back, I did this for a week and they got better. Haven't done it since.

Another thing that it is extremely important is making sure you are working ergonomically.

me.

i should work a little more ergonimically.. im a bit of a sloucher.