Calling All carpal tunnel experts!

[endoftether82]

When I was pregnant I started to get stabbing and burning pains in the tips of my fingers. The gp at the time informed me that this was common in pregnancy and it would resolve itself post birth.

2 years later and I still get it daily and nightly. It's much worse now in fact. I also have hypersensitivity in one of my fingertips so that if I so much as brush it against something Its like slamming my finger in a door. I've had an mri scan and a nerve conduction study both of which have come back normal. The neurologist also said that initial clinical examination suggests carpal tunnel.

The pain isn't just isolated to the finger tips, I now get nerve twinges and aches all up the arm and into my shoulder / collar bone.

Some weeks I can have several days on the trot where I have minimal issues and other weeks my whole arm is in pain with twinges and a dull ache.

Does anyone know if you can have these sort of whole arm / shoulder / collar symptoms with carpal tunnel. And what can I do to help resolve it if so.

It sounds very much like my symptoms. I do not have carpal tunnel. I have a prolapsed disc in my neck with nerve impingement. Have you ever hurt your neck?

Well I have two small children and went through a stage of carrying my son on my shoulders so could have hurt it unknowingly, but the mri showed All was fine.

It sounds ridiculous but the fact that nothing has come back from the various scans has made me feel worse. I just want to know what it is. It's been going on for so long now.

I had carpal tunnel syndrome when my children were very small. It only affected my hands and wrists, but it was very , very painful..enough to keep me awake at night and nothing helped. It was a deep seated ache, like having toothache deep in my bones. Eventually it resolved itself, but I still get the odd ache, and my hands and wrists are now quite weak and prone to hurting when I do things like Hoover. I never had arm/shoulder etc ache, though I did sometimes have a strange sensation in my arm like something twanging in there.

I had it as you describe in the last eight weeks of pregnancy. I don't recall having it at all after I gave birth, it must have gone almost immediately. Apparently it is really common but it should go afterwards, sounds like you need proper treatment or it's something else.

Have you been offeredsteriod injection?

Sorry steroid injection?i only had one and it was a success

My mum's carpal tunnel syndrome started in pregnancy and, like yours, never went away again. She has had release surgery on both wrists which has resolved the issues. The surgeon said her right wrist was particularly constricted. I also had carpal tunnel syndrome during pregnancy and I still get twinges every now and then.

Thanks for all the reply's! Did you have the same symptoms @user ? I haven't been offered the injection yet becuaze I think they were unsure what they were treating.

I think what's confusing me too is that, as ItsASair says, I always thought that carpal tunnel was limited to wrists and hands. Have any of you had it referred pain up the arm etc?

I got what I thought was carpal tunnel in pregnancy, it just got worse and worse...

Turned out it was a B12 deficiency causing the symptoms... Had 2 weeks of injections and now take tablets daily. It has improved although not completely better

Is it definitely carpal tunnel? (I also had a normal MRI and nerve conduction study)

Have you had neck and shoulder scans

Hmmm I did read about b12. Did you have any other symptoms?

They scanned my neck and brachial plexus in the mri @retired. All normal apparently.

My symptoms were weakness in both hands, although worse in the right, poor grip, aching in both hands and wrists, difficulties opening bottles.

At it's worse I couldn't carry the baby or do nappies or anything.

That's when I made a bit of a fuss and had a brain and c spine MRI, lumbar puncture, lots of blood tests and more nerve conduction studies.

The only thing found was the B12

Wow @wowzer, so many test! How long had the symptoms been going on for by the time they tested?

Could be vitamin D deficiency. I had very similar symptoms. Do you find pain relief doesn't help OP?

It does nothing @dancing. I've been prescribed gabapentim for nighttime which I think might help a little. But ibuprofen does bugger all.

Definitely ask for vit D check when you see the GP next. I had all the same tests as you & all negative. Mine was also stress related but the vit D definitely helped. The gabapentim will help at night. Hope this gets sorted soon for you

Yes the pain up my arms radiating into my shoulders was incredibly sore during pregnancy. It wasn't just the pain around the wrists and burning in my numb hands

I had the surgery in both my hands over a 4 month period and it has changed my life.
I had constantly disturbed sleep, waking up with dead arms, I couldn’t hold a phone/bag/pen without losing sensation in my fingers. It was awful!

The surgery itself was fine- day surgery under local anaesthetic and my only issue was infection in one of my wounds which settled with antibiotics.

I would seriously give surgery a thought if it’s affecting your life.

Hi endof sorry im afraid i have no advice but am in a similar situation.

I too have carpal tunnel. My lg is now 6 months old but no signs of it disappearing. I get it mostly at night. Ive not mentioned it to my doctor a si know its common in pregnancy and postnatally, though i thought it would have cleared up by now.

Did you get sent for tests when ypu went to doctirs ?

I had loss if feeling in my hands. It happened 24 hours and was horrendous. Ended up having release surgery and things improved dramatically!!!!

catlady are you still breastfeeding? I also had this after both DC were born, especially at night and it eased a lot after I stopped (at very different ages which I when I made the connection) I assume it's hormones.

However I was having problems again with wrist pain, numbness and lack of control - dropping stuff a lot. Had a full blood screen with showed Vit D deficiency. I've been on a high dose for a few months now and it's improved a lot. Also improved other issues like cold sores, lethargy and constant aches.

@endoftether82 please tell me it improved? Mine is exactly as you describe and I’m 8 months postpartum. Very very painful!

Hi @Mehripoop, I’ve name changed since I posted this. What I had wasn’t actually carpal tunnel, it was an incredibly rare benign tumor called a glomus tumor. It was persistently misdiagnosed becuase it‘a so rare (and my dad’s a dr too).

I was sent for mri scans on my neck, had electro tests on my hands for carpal tunnel. And was even on the verge of carpal tunnel surgery. But I had an gut feeling that wasn’t it. I googled and googled and ended up finding one article in the Washington Post detailing the exact same symptoms as i had (the person In question was also misdiagnosed).

I ended up paying to see a private hand surgeon who immediately diagnosed it as a Glomus, confirmed by mri on my hand. I had it surgically removed and have had no problems since.

If you think it could be this then I would really push with the GP’s. It’s so rare I just don’t think they know about it! Good luck!