For millions, carpal tunnel syndrome is debilitating. I can attest to that. I have had carpal tunnel surgery on only one wrist. Was it worth it? For me, yes.

Carpal tunnel syndrome does not appear overnight. It is something gradual that increases in both pain and numbness. At first, you may only have an occasional numbness or slight pain that is unexplainable. People usually brush it aside as a “nerve thing” and don’t give it much thought until it is at a point where it is every day or several times a week.

Doctors may not be able to diagnose it early. One doctor of mine did diagnose it about 2 years before it got to the debilitating stages. But, because I did not have a lot of pain and numbness, I brushed off his diagnosis as something minimal. I don’t know if I had paid attention or done something at that time that it would have mattered, but I do wonder about it.

For me, both of my hands were affected by carpal tunnel syndrome. The right was much worse at times, but I would wake up with both hands so numb that I could not even feel that I was touching something. I would shut off my alarm clock by hitting at the area that I knew the button was at, but could never tell that I was touching it. Only when the alarm stopped ringing would I know that I had actually gotten it.

I also wore the wrist splints made for carpal tunnel syndrome, but I don’t know that these actually helped. But I wore them at night because they cost me $25 each at Walgreen’s. The splints hold your hand and wrist at an angle that is supposed to help take the pressure off of the nerve that is causing the pain and numbness. I don’t see how, but that is what my doctor told me to do, so I did it.

I had to go to a neurologist for the test to confirm that it is carpal tunnel syndrome. That was not fun. He had to hook me up to a computer so it could measure the nerve activity when certain pressure points were triggered. This is a slightly painful procedure. I forget the name of the test.

When I was scheduled for surgery, they only do one hand at a time, it went rather quickly. The surgery itself is only about 15 minutes, but the time you are there will be several hours. They wrapped my hand and wrist in an extremely large bandage, but 4 days later when I went to the doctor for a followup, he removed that and put on a bandaid. I’m serious, from a large bulky bandage to a simple band-aid.

It took a couple of months for most of the strength to return to my hand, but the pain and numbness I had experienced, in BOTH hands and wrists had disappeared. So I would have to say the surgery was a success. Now the doctors office asked me when I would be in to have the other hand done. I replied, never if I could help it. With no pain or numbness, I don’t see that there is any reason to have surgery.