carpal tunnel syndrome

    • Anonymous
      July 4, 2006 at 6:45 pm

      After 8 months after being treated for GBS, I finally had an EMG. The neurologist said that I have carpal tunnel in both wrists. I find that if I hold my hands up for more than a few minutes, such as holding a phone, my hands go numb. Has anyone else developed carpal tunnel and does anyone recommend corrective surgery or will this get better as the GBS heals?

      Thank you
      Laura

    • Anonymous
      July 4, 2006 at 9:31 pm

      Dear Laura:

      I was dignosed with carpal tunnel syndrome after GBS. They did all the test to confirm carpal tunnel and had me scheduled for surgery. I kept asking everyone involved if it couldn’t be some GBS weirdness. The scheduled day of the surgery, the surgeon came in and tested me for carpal tunnel and I had no symptoms and passed all tests with flying colors. Eventually, almost everyone involved decided that I didn’t have carpal tunnel after all and maybe it was just some GBS weirdness. I didn’t have surgery and I have no carpal tunnel symptoms at all.

      Some thoughts about what it could have been, demyelination of the nerves caused inflamation of the nerve bundles in a tight confined space of the carpal tunnel which created carpal tunnel like symptoms because of nerve pinching. You may want to ask for an MRI of your wrists to see the actual size of the carpal tunnel. If the carpal tunnel is normal sized, then the inflamed nerves may be prone to damage during the surgery, leaving you worse than you were before.

      Another idea came from a neurologist who had a little experience with GBS. He said he noticed that people who had GBS tended to sleep with their wrists in exagerated bent forward positions. If you were to wear wrist gaurds during the night, it may alleviate the carpal tunnel symptoms. After wearing the wrist guards for a week, I pretty much broke the habit of sleeping with my wrists in strange positions. This may not apply to your case, but it may be worth investigating.

      I would be real careful about the surgery, Laura. See if there are other remedies other than surgery to try first.

      Lee

    • Anonymous
      July 4, 2006 at 10:03 pm

      [B] This is one problem I suffer from, & have for some time, today the pain generating from my right wrist was very miserable. I purchased 2 wrist braces some time back to wear especially at night, they help. You might want to try getting a couple of these & wearing them at night. They may help to back the pain down. Try this first ![/B]

    • Anonymous
      July 4, 2006 at 11:03 pm

      Hi,

      Pretty much what Lee said, I would go along with. GBS is a pretty good neuromuscular syndrome as those things go. In the sence, that it ranks right up there with the best of them when it comes to confusing the medical establishment. Mild to harsh, doesn’t make much of a difference. I went by this guidline. When I was told healing pretty much stops at the 2 year mark, which isn’t true, I used that info on when to get my surgery done. I at least gave them that, and thought I could use all the healing I could get on this one, before I moved onto another. No distractions to the body. The problem with GBS, is you don’t know, and nobody else does, what your recovery will be until one gets there. What do you do in the mean time? Get comfortable as you can. Trying braces and such and different ways to use your hand and wrist to preform same functions. Called adaption. Tough call, but so much is up in the air in CTS, which is nerve related, that it might be too early in your recovery to get an acurate diagnoses.

    • Anonymous
      July 8, 2006 at 10:28 pm

      Thank you all for the advice and infomration about carpal tunnel – I have a couple of braces and will start using them tonight. it is also good to har that this too may heal in time.

      Laura

    • Anonymous
      July 10, 2006 at 6:50 am

      I am just starting to experience the numbness like I would associate with what my friend experienced as carpal tunnel and I am too in my 8th month of recoverly from GBS. I notice it the most when I talk on the phone. I was chalking it up to the GBS and was glad to read these messages. It makes sese to me that it is from the GBS. I am glad to see that others also feel that way. I will also avoid those positions and think about wearing the brace if it occurs at night or atleast when I am on the telephone.

      Again this message board has only comfirmed my thoughts of the GBS is responsible and there fore I don’t panic. I am starting to understand that GBS also stands for Getting Better Slowly. I am learing daily from those that are ahead of me on this timeline.

      You have saved me from many calls to my Doctors. THANK YOU EVERYONE! it is nice to have some understanding of this illness that actually makes me feel that my body is coming back to being normal or atleast healing normally.