Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Well, it's official, I now suffer from moderate Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

What tunnel? Carpal tunnel. Basically, Carpal Tunnel Syndrom is an affliction brought about from repetitive movements of the hand. As you can guess mine comes from hacking away at the computer for hours on end. So the median nerve (it's the nerve that moves some of the fingers in the hand) gets inflamed, and starts to swell, after awhile it has a nice contact with the carpal tunnel (a little tunnel just under the wrist). That's when you start feeling funky feelings in the fingers.

I started to get tingling sensations about 3 years back. Always happens when I use the fingers to do minor stuff like turn newspaper pages while still holding it up or eating with chopsticks. When you feel a tingling sensation in the fingers, thumb, index finger and middle finger, I get to wish you, "Welcome to the club!"

That time it was still mild, I didn't know, didn't do research thought I busted something while doing Taekwondo, do more typing, 3 years down the road, I can't write more than 5 minutes without a searing debilitating pain in the wrists. At night at times, I feel like my arms are dead and boy, does - it - bloody - hurt!!! God, why do these things happen to me?!

The cure? Rest the bleeding thing. Easier said than done, my hands are tools of the trade, I can't do a Stephen Hawking and get one of his really cool gizmos or start typing using a pencil in my mouth. So I guess I got to do the next best thing, rest the hands after 30 minutes of use. Again, harder said than done. 2 months it seems, need complete rest, other than that, wear a splint, both hands had it, went for a cool neurology test. It was quite fun, I thought they were going to poke probes in me, but it was quite civil and the doctors made me feel comfortable. Apart from the electric shocks they passed through my fingers, *ouch*! Oh yeah, they can also do a nice procedure called releasing the median nerve, involves cutting the muscle near the wrist to widen the tunnel. Wow! So I can't punch no more... that's NOT a solution for me at least...!

Well, I'm doing it again, typing that is!!! So until later, take care chaps.