Carpel tunnel

[JCB]

Evo, some carpel tunnel symptoms come from impinged nerves in the upper torso.

I've have some minor symptoms in the short term. My gf is a trained massage therapist, and said that they were trained about this. She worked on my shoulders and relieved tingling/ pain.

One of many factors.

When I get massage work done, it's is deep and very intense or its ineffective.

IIWM (new abbreviation, If It Was Me), I'd see if getting and staying properly hydrated and getting worked on is any help way before the knife.

Only so much can release at a time. I'd try multiple sessions per week.

A former BC-faller turned residential treeman that was on TH, but has left the biz in part due to wrist issues, didn't have luck much with surgery, the impact without much improvement.


Lots of stretching and hydration.



Did the doctors look at the whole path from neck to finger?
Did they "only have a hammer"?



When I was seeing a massage therapist many years ago, she had worked on 6 climbers (one being her dad). She said all their muscles seemed different than in other people. IDK how many hardcore athletes she had worked on outside climbers.
She had a wonder if the strain, plus stress at the same time, experienced by climber's exercising hard for hours with some level of danger involved, day to day, affected things differently.

I agree with this whole-body, musculoskeletal approach. I have relieved many wrist and hand problems by ferreting out tender spots in my elbows and shoulders--and performing "acupressure" in those areas. Forcefully massage those spots until they hurt the most--and keep pressing for about two minutes; by bruising the area, you encourage your body to replenish those tissues, often improving the signals (both pain and function) to the wrist. (It's generally the way that one treats tennis elbow.) I would definitely recommend both chiropractic and acupressure before considering surgery.

Meanwhile, my cousin, who gained little relief from his first carpal-tunnel surgery, was still inclined to have his second hand done when he started dropping things because his hand was so weak. Luckily, he had a very astute doctor who asked him if he'd fallen recently, and possibly hit his head. In fact, my cousin had fallen down some stairs and smacked the side of his head against the wall at the bottom. A quick x-ray/MRI determined that vertebrae in his neck were pressing on the nerves--and could have actually crippled him had he moved his neck the wrong way. They aligned the vertebrae and his hand returned to normal.

When I visited the chief neurosurgeon at Mass. General Hospital for complex back and arm/hand-weakness issues, he ruled out carpal tunnel with a quick manual test, holding my hand/wrist in a certain way while I performed certain movements. I suppose that other doctors could save lots of money on tests, and patients could save the complications of surgery, if more doctors practiced such simple diagnostics. FYI, I eventually fixed my back and arm/issues by hanging upside down on my Invertrac machine. After many inversion sessions, my hip joint (and other dislocated joints) violently (seismically) aligned themselves. My months-long and ever-worsening symptoms were gone when I stood up from the machine. One should not underestimate the degree to which skeletal misalignments can cause everything from nausea to various forms of incapacitation.

I would also avoid keyboards, mice, TV remotes, video games, and smart phones whenever possible--as they all contribute to wrist inflammation. And one more thought: If you tend to fold your wrists over when sleeping, you may find relief when wearing a carpal-tunnel wrist brace at night (comfortably immobilizes your wrist). I do this if I've worked my wrists into a state and my wrists generally seem better rested the next morning.

Good luck.