Anyone here develop carpal tunnel since becoming a nurse

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I now have HORRIBLE carpal tunnel syndrome. My wrist HURTS and I cant hold my coffee mug anymore. I cant make a fist AT ALL and my fingers are NUMB. I cant stand it. I have developed these severe symptoms in just the past 3 months. Its progessively getting worse. Its now affecting my work...Its hard to hold an IV catheter to start an IV. Its nearly impossible to chart because its all paper charting and I have to try to hold my pen a certain way or my wrist hurts. Anyone else? Someone told me that if I wait too long to have surgery I may have permanant damage!

I've had CTS for years, long before i was a nurse, and i have cysts in my wrist too. had a doc on the floor once tell me the way he treats his cysts like that is to have his wife drop a PDR on it as hard as she can to bust it. ha! never tried that, dont have the guts, lol.

recently it had really started to affect my life in a bad way. it was waking me up at night constantly. my thumb and 1st two fingers would feel like they were dead. they werent numb, they literally had no feeling in them at all. and it hurt! omg it hurt!

i got a brace and started putting it on everynight. it has fixed my problem!

i was also having my fingers go "numb" all during the day too.

since wearing my brace, ive stopped having any problems at all.

Were you getting the pain in the back or on the front of your hand or wrist? Was it a stinging, burning pain or something else. I'm wondering because I'm getting CTS and it would be great to hear that a brace really helped someone else.

How long did you wear the brace for your hand and wrist to start feeling better?

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My current FT job is a computer programmer.....I can't tell you how many times I have been dx with CTS and didn't have it! All the doc would see is "programmer" and PRESTO CTS. I finally saw my daughter's ortho and found out that my pain is caused by arthritis of one of my thumb joints. Now THAT made sense to me...NSAIDs and a splint and life is great! (BTW, I have only worn the splint on painful days.....about 4X in the past 4 yrs.)

Get a 2nd opinion before you have surgery.

Also, Ex-H was dx with CTS. What he actually had was a ganglion cyst that started above the carpal tunnel and then traveled next to the nerves in the tunnel and exited below the wrist. When they removed the ganglion, the symptoms that mimic'd CTS were eliminated.

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Specializes in CVICU.

I'd definitely go to employee health and at least get the right paperwork filled out.

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