How long until carpal tunnel in hands goes away?

[wickedfairy]

Hi,

DD is now 16 days old and throughout the latter stages of pregnancy, I had carpal tunnel in my hands - resulting in very numb, swollen fingers and knuckles that were very swollen and hard to bend.

Now the baby is born, my fingers are not anywhere near as swollen but the knuckles are still very sore. When I wake up, I can barelky bend my fingers and even hours later, they are still very sore. Midwife just says I will have to wait and see if it goes.

Just tried to get my wedding/engagement rings back on and I can't even get them over the knuckle!

Does anyone have any advice? How long will this go on? Will I ever get back to normal? What happens if my hands never return to the way they were?

Thanks for any help/advice!

I sympathise. I had it too and I think it took a couple of months after the birth to go. Sorry! It should go back to normal though. It was horrible. I remember the baby crying and I couldn't pick him up till I'd massaged my wrists to loosen them up.

I had it too while pregnant although not as bad as yours sounds. My DD2 is now 9 weeks old and it has pretty much gone apart from the odd episode of numbness at the tips of my fingers.

When I saw the Dr during my pregnancy she said if it is going to get better on its own you will usually see an improvement by the time you have your 6 week post natal check. She said if it wasn't getting better by then, they would look at treatment. Hope it starts to improve soon. HTH

Wickedfairy Have you tried raising your hand above your head for a few minutes. I saw my GP about a year ago and that's what he recommended if your hand goes numb or sore.

Because it's a build-up of fluid in the carpal tunnel, raising your hand above your head should drain the fluid back into the body and ease it.

Hope it gets better for you. Take care.