I've recently been diagnosed with carpal tunnel in my right hand and it's not responding to conservative treatment. Anyone had either a cortisone injection or release surgery and can comment on whether it worked and recovery times?

Havnt have cortisone on the wrist but on elbow, back and ankle. Excellent results with exception of back, took 2 injections.

Surely you would go cortisone before an operation. rest time is between 1 to 3 days max.

Try posting in the windsurf forums for more feed back.

Good luck Mark.

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Sandfoot said..
Havnt have cortisone on the wrist but on elbow, back and ankle. Excellent results with exception of back, took 2 injections.

Surely you would go cortisone before an operation. rest time is between 1 to 3 days max.

Try posting in the windsurf forums for more feed back.

Good luck Mark.

Thanks Sandfoot. Waiting to see the neurosurgeon this week - also have a pinched nerve in my neck - but leaning towards the injection at this stage. Why the windsurf forum?

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Mark50 said..

Sandfoot said..
Havnt have cortisone on the wrist but on elbow, back and ankle. Excellent results with exception of back, took 2 injections.

Surely you would go cortisone before an operation. rest time is between 1 to 3 days max.

Try posting in the windsurf forums for more feed back.

Good luck Mark.

Thanks Sandfoot. Waiting to see the neurosurgeon this week - also have a pinched nerve in my neck - but leaning towards the injection at this stage. Why the windsurf forum?

Windsurfing is alot harder on the elbows / wrist. Kites generally have a lower bar pressure.

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Mark50 said..

Sandfoot said..
Havnt have cortisone on the wrist but on elbow, back and ankle. Excellent results with exception of back, took 2 injections.

Surely you would go cortisone before an operation. rest time is between 1 to 3 days max.

Try posting in the windsurf forums for more feed back.

Good luck Mark.

Thanks Sandfoot. Waiting to see the neurosurgeon this week - also have a pinched nerve in my neck - but leaning towards the injection at this stage. Why the windsurf forum?

Hi Mark, totally agree with sandfoot here....

I have been diagnosed with a medium case of it in both wrists.

I am trying everything to avoid surgery.

Have started with the simple exercises that u can find on YouTube and also good quality wrist braces for sleeping at night. This has given me some reprieve in the severety and amount of times that I experience numbness. My next step will be finding a good chiro for wrist and hand bone manipulation to also improve blood flow through the median nerve. I do this myself at the moment, which I believe is working, so I figure I will get better results having a professional do it.

My last course of action will be to get ultrasound guided cortisone injections, if I am still experiencing the effects of CTS.

There is risk with every surgery, and I have been told with this one that internal scarring can be an issue....

Good luck with ur decision and good winds!!

Thanks both. Appreciate your insights. Done a lot of reading and definitely leaning towards the ultrasound guided cortisone injection and see how it goes. The splint, glides and exercises have helped along with gabapentin, but looking for something more durable.

i had terrible cts in both wrists. i rode a motorbike daily and would lose feeling in the throttle hand to the point where it would go completely numb & wouldn't move. the left hand was bad too but i could take it off the handle and shake it to get feeling back.

I initially went with the guided cortisone injections - sometimes I'd get two weeks' relief, sometimes 12 weeks'.

i had the release surgery on one wrist only (the right one) in 2013. the recovery time was about three weeks from memory, and no problems since.

stayed with cortisone and exercise therapy for the left wrist & it eventually came good (mostly)

If you have pretty much constant tingling get the surgery. You won't regret it. Instant release with a couple of weeks taking it easy.

Costisone didn't work, but weirdly helped arthritis. First had rested for 6 weeks as had other procedure at same time and straight back into wind/kitesurfing. Second hand rested 2 weeks before wind/kite. Inexperienced surgeon made a mistake during procedure so worse after 2 weeks but physio fixed that in a few weeks

Had cortisone shot for bursitis and partial thickness tear in the shoulders: twice. Once it was amazing and the other time it did nothing. I later learned it's super important who does the injection as placement is critical. You need to go to a sports radiologist / doctor who's done it heaps of times -and is a specialist. In the end it was something called "shockwave" therapy and a chiro/osteo that helped my pain and function again. See if you can find it - worked a miracle on me - if you want to avoid invasive stuff, highly recommend.

Hey Mark

Sorry to hear bout your CTS. I was a windsurfer in the late 70s, 80s and a bit into the 90s, then kiting since 2000.

My CTS was really bad, both wrists, had to sleep with splints every night. After mountain biking it was even worse, I remember driving home from a bike park in the US and having to stop to put splints on - it was beyond bearable for an active person.

My mum kept talking me out of surgery, then my older sister had it and it was 100% successful. So I knew whom to take advice from and had mine done right away in 2015.

The surgery went super well, had my other wrist done soon after and have not looked back for a second. (My wife is having her's checked out as we speak, she plays golf and rides bikes and while not as bad as mine it's getting worse).

I had a guy faff around with acupuncture (unsuccessful) and at some point he said "CTS is a mechanical problem - implying only correcting it will solve it.

Depending on how bad your's is, it makes sense for you to try the more benign solutions first. But if you find in the end that surgery is the way to go, find a good one, one who does lots of them and has a high success rate (I have seen them go wrong and that's the last thing you want).

All the best with it.

I'm 8 days out from having it done and am really pleased with the result. Hand has full range of movement, low pain and I'd say about 75% grip strength already, stitches are due out next Tuesday. I'd been putting this off for years and now regret doing so, yes its a nuisance having surgery and being out of the water, but the relief from the pain, numbness and tingling is worth it.
The cut is about 2cm longer than it usually is with this surgeon as there was a "bleeder" vein and he had to cut a bit further, he may have sneezed though
The surgeon is a plastic surgeon who specialises in hands and reconstructive surgery, who is a mate of a mate and had an opening in his schedule so I took it. I'm sure the scar will be hard to see after a summer of kiting and exposure to the sun.
Dupuytrens contracture is happening in both hands though and I hope that it does not get any worse, but there is treatment options for that too. Surgeons name is James Ledgard and he has offices in Sydney and Ballina, he is highly recommended by other drs I know - several kiters up here are drs.

Goodwinds

Steve

Get the surgery. I was back Kiting and windsurfing in 4 weeks. I was in the severe range, the surgery gave me my life back

Four weeks post surgery tomorrow. I went kiting after the stitches came out 2 weeks ago and a few times since. Have most of my strength back there's a bit of residual pain soreness but not an issue. The relief from pain and numbness is 100%!!!

Glad the surgery worked for you Steve!I got a second opinion after the first said fusion and it was to go with the cortisone injection for starters. As someone else said, you need someone who does these things very regularly and gets good results. It took nearly 6 weeks to get the full effect, but in the end all numbness and pain has gone. Continued with physiology throughout. Returned gradually to kiting and after a few weeks all going well. Neuro was of the view that it was the pinched nerve causing the problem. Fingers crossed it's resolved.

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Mark50 said..
Glad the surgery worked for you Steve!I got a second opinion after the first said fusion and it was to go with the cortisone injection for starters. As someone else said, you need someone who does these things very regularly and gets good results. It took nearly 6 weeks to get the full effect, but in the end all numbness and pain has gone. Continued with physiology throughout. Returned gradually to kiting and after a few weeks all going well. Neuro was of the view that it was the pinched nerve causing the problem. Fingers crossed it's resolved.

Yeah thats great to hear Mark. There can be a lot of reasons for the root cause of pain and nerves don't like being pinched or compressed, hopefully your issue is resolved for good. Surgery is not fun and best to avoid if possible but there are known issues that can be corrected by a simple surgery including CTS.

Best advice I could give for things like this is start taking collagen (it's the vitamin for nails and hair growth) proven to help it..

..or move to a warmer climate