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Carpal Tunnel Treatment

Author: Tony F
Date: 2015-06-24 03:04

A few months back I posted about a problem I was having with carpal tunnel syndrome and mentioned that I had surgery planned for early June. Several people requested an update on the success or otherwise of the procedure, so here is my experience.

I had fairly sever CTS in my right wrist, which over a period of a year and a half had turned my right thumb, ring and index fingers into lumps of wood. It made playing the clarinet difficult because I could never be certain about finger placement, and it caused be to abandon playing classical guitar because I couldn't feel the strings.

I had the surgery on Tuesday June 2nd. It was not in any way traumatic, I had a partial anaesthetic with injections of a local numbing agent into the wrist. Recovery was uneventful, no nausea and no great degree of pain. It never became more than mildly uncomfortable, and then only during the first couple of days. The arm was in a sling for the first 3 days and I had a bulky dressing on the hand which made it difficult to play with any facility.

Sensation in the fingers was considerably improved immediately following surgery and has continued to improve since. The surgeon advises me that it may take a year or more before the maximum improvement is achieved and that it may never be as good as it once was.

I had the stitches out yesterday morning and attended band practise last night. I found I was able to play without any major problems, although I stopped after 90 minutes as the wrist was feeling the strain by then. Not as a result of the surgery, just from disuse over the last few weeks. Also my lips felt a bit rubbery by then, but this will pass after a few days.

All in all, I consider it to be a great success. I'm playing again tonight and tomorrow and don't anticipate problems. I was able to get around the problem to some extent by switching to a plateau clarinet, and this enabled me to continue to play even with the CTS, but it is nice to get back to my old favourite again. I'll hang on to the plateau horn, because my left wrist is also a future candidate for treatment. Anyway, this was my experience, your mileage may vary.

Tony F.

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