How do you live with carpal tunnel syndrome?!
Question: My husband had the surgery not quite (4) years ago, and it is creeping back again bilaterally! It's so discouraging, we thought we had at least (10) years of being CTS free. He even changed his field of work to accomodate his "new" hands. If you're living with CTS, or know anyone that does, you know it is debilitating. Besides popping pain killers, what alternative options are there for CTS? Thanks for helpful advice.
Answers: My husband had the surgery not quite (4) years ago, and it is creeping back again bilaterally! It's so discouraging, we thought we had at least (10) years of being CTS free. He even changed his field of work to accomodate his "new" hands. If you're living with CTS, or know anyone that does, you know it is debilitating. Besides popping pain killers, what alternative options are there for CTS? Thanks for helpful advice.
B Complex vitamins daily
Wrist splints at night while sleeping
Possibly water retention pills
try visiting a chiropractor that regularly adjusts extremities
Vitamin B6 : 50 mg 3 times a day until symptoms subside. 200 mg daily over long term can cause nerve damage.
Bromelain: 1,000 mg twice a day during acute phase. Reduce to 500 mg twice a day when symptoms subside. Take between meals. Provides 8,000 GDU or 12,000 MCU in acute phase.
Turmeric : 400 mg 3 times a day. Standardized to contain 95% curcumin. Should be used with bromelain.
search on the internet for Pete Egoscue. he has written several books dealing with chronic pain and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.. I use the exercises he teaches with my clients to get them out of chronic and acute pain.. numbness in the arms when sleep. It is because the muscles are pulling the bones out of alignment and that needs to be corrected..
I was not diagnosed with CTS, but rather, felt I had repetitive motion disorder. I had spent years in an office situation typing on the pc extensively... no doubt with all the wrong ergonomics. I have great speed and accuracy.... the blessing and curse of great eye-hand coordination. I think I used my arms so much to type so fast that it was more than my arms could take.
The last 7-9 years of my career were spent with more arm pain than i care to think about. I quit to be a stay at home dad in 2001, and thought that with less time spent on the keyboard, my arms would get better. There was almost no change. And of course, I was running a part-time online business from home. Not as intense as my old job.... but intense enough.
I got a special 'safetype' ergonomic keyboard.... but even that didn't restore my arms... and I couldn't haul it around all the time either.
So.... last year, I saw this blurb on yahoo about the Dvorak typing method. It made big promises, and supposedly you have 90% less arm movement when you switch to this method. The good thing is that any PC can be converted to Dvorak in about 30 seconds.... and back again as you wish. Nothing special for me to carry about.
Since I was already an accomplish touch-typist, I was actually NOT a good candidate for the switch... but I went for it anyway. Took me a month to get used to the new layout.... and another month to regain my old speed... and maybe some extra.
Here's the good news.... my arms feel great. No surgery, no pills, just switching from the inconvenient and awkward Qwerty layout to the Dvorak layout. I'm convinced that is what has made the difference.
Good luck.