| up the sport of fishing again. It seemed that I was always late on hook sets
and I lost a
ton of fish bringing them to the boat. I have had problems with my thick
hands for several years but I just blamed it on old age and a life of
construction work. Last week my doctor said I have severe Carpal tunnel and
need surgery. Tuesday morning I get Carpal tunnel and a Ualder[sp??] nerve
release in my elbow. Anyone else have this?.How long before you regained
your feel? Anyway now I have an excuse for all the zero's I had last year.
At least it's not terminal :-}}
Doc said I'd be down 4-6 weeks and then we would talk about the right hand
after I healed up o I'm done till May." I went through the carpal tunnel and ulna nerve surgery two years ago. I
had both wrist and elbows worked on during my time off. I had the first
surgery (left elbow and wrist. After surgery I was unable to move my little
fingers but had movement in my thumb, index finger and middle finger. I
went to physical therapy a week after surgery and within one month I was
moving my hands and elbow as normal. My strength was not there but movement
was. The procedure was done under a nerve block instead of putting me to
sleep. Walked out the hospital after the surgery and only had pain for the
first twenty four hours. The right hand and elbow was done on March 1st and I was able to move elbow
and hand right after surgery. Knowing what exercises they had me do in
physical therapy , I started rehabbing within three days of surgery. I had
the nerve block for this surgery also but when they made the first cut, the
nerve block did not work and I tried to get up and fight the doctors. They
then started giving me nothing but local anesthesia to easy the pain while
giving me a sedative to calm me down. After the surgery, I walked out of
the hospital and stop at the local pharmacy and filled the pain medicine.
The doctor had told my wife that he had never had a nerve block fail and he
used 22 bottles of local anesthesia on my surgery so I should not feel
anything for a while. For the next 5 days, I was in pain and taking a
vicotin 750 mg every 4 hours to easy it. I do feel the right hand took the longest for the pain to go away because I
rehab early and I am right handed and want to use my hand as much as
possible. By the third week I was able to convince my doctor to let me
return to work on light duty. The company doctor did not agree and told me
to return home until I get a full release. My restrictions according to my
doctor was I could lift or use my hands and elbows as much as I wanted as
long as I did not occur any pain. Once I reached the pain threshold, I was
to back off on what I was doing. So I decided to try casting my fishing
poles in my front yard. Having no problems by the last week of March, I was
going fishing 5 days a week. I fished all of April and May except for the
last week of May in which I went on vacation 7 day cruise, and returned to
the doctor for a full release on June 8th and back to work on June 9th. It took about a year for my sensitivity where the surgery occurred to easy
up every time I pressed down to hard. My strength returned fully in about a
years time. Good luck with you surgery and rehab. Sarge |
