Surgery tomorrow - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Message Board

Shshi · 02-28-2007, 11:52 PM

Hi all,

I'm new here and was wondering if anyone could answer some questions for me.

A year ago, I had a nerve conduction study which showed mild to moderate CTS in my right hand. My left hand was fine at the time. In August, I developed pain and numbness in my left hand. A nerve conduction study last month showed severe CTS in my left hand, and still mild to moderate in my right hand. I'm still perplexed (as is my doctor) as to how I went from no CTS to severe CTS in my non-dominate hand in less than a year.

Anyway, I'm having release surgery on my left hand tomorrow. I'm an assistant professor at a community college, and a lot of my work is on computers. Would I be able to go back to work teaching a class the day after surgery? How soon before I can type again? How long does recovery take? Anything special I need to know? (My husband had this same surgery on both hands several years ago, so he kind of knows what to expect and how to help me through recovery.)

Thanks,

Lisa

beeberly · 03-01-2007, 08:23 AM

You may feel well enough to go back to teaching tomorrow - you may not depending on your pain tolerance. My hand didn't hurt too much the next day but I did take darvocet for the 2nd day to be sure it didn't hurt. My recovery didn't take too long. My stitches came out about a week or 10 days later. You will be able to type but only with one hand until the stitches come out. I had the surgery over a year ago and my wrist and hand feel great. However, I have 2 large bone spurs in my elbow (same hand side) and a severed tendon as well. I have surgery on my elbow in 2 weeks. I can't win. The doctor I was seeing just kept giving me cortisone shots in my elbow and finally they stopped working so I decided to see another doctor. The first thing he did was take an x-ray and saw the problem. The other guy said "it's just tennis elbow". He said take the shots or live with the pain. Anyway, good luck with your surgery. I hope your surgery is as successful as mine was. Beebs

shaelin2004 · 03-01-2007, 09:31 AM

Hi,

I had surgery done on my left hand on the 16th of February which was a Friday. My doctor told me that it might take a day or two to tolerate the pain enough to go back to work which is why he did my surgery on a Friday. The day after surgery I ended up taking the pain medicine (vicodin) a couple hours late because I needed to find someone to pick it up for me and boy was my hand hurting. But when I took my medicine on time the pain wasn't all that bad. I don't think I would have wanted to do anything the day after surgery though. I also had Monday and Tuesday off because of Mardi Gras so I had about 4 days to recover before I had to get back to work. By the second day after surgery, the pain wasn't that bad but again, I didn't want to do much with that hand so I would have to say typing with one hand is probably your best option. My doctor told me I could move my fingers after the surgery (type) but he didn't want me moving my wrist so he put my hand in a plaster splint. The doctor took my stitches out after 10 days and my hand feels really tight but I am able to type with both hands again. He said to keep the movement to a minimum. Every doctor is different though. Good luck.

PS... I have surgery for my right hand scheduled for March 9th so it can't be all that bad. I figure I could either suffer from the pain of CT forever or suffer from the pain of surgery for a little while. Surgery wins......

Shshi · 03-10-2007, 11:26 PM

Thanks everyone. My surgery went well. I was in "twighlight sleep" when they did it, so I could hear everything that was going on. I kind of wish they'd just put me totally under.

Recovery has been pretty easy, very little pain at all, and I've already noticed a big difference. My hand doesn't go numb at all like it did before, nor do I have the almost constant pain I had with the CTS.

I'm doing PT now and get my three stitches out on Tuesday. If things continue to go well, I may go ahead and have my right hand done in the summer when I'm off from teaching.