New here, and I got problems. Can you help?

Hello, i am new at this board. I have chronic pain in my hand and it shoots into my arm up to my elbow. It started like 6 years ago (i am 48). I had a surgery in July 08 to cut a ligiment in my wrist that causes carpal tunnel. The pain never went away and we did another surgery in Aug 09. This time he clean out the place he made the first cut. But today there is much more pain than before.

I hurt so much now. He says I need another surgery but i dont think that will help. He says there is a good chance it willhelp. Its not a garantee and i dont think i should do it for a third time. We also realy cant afford it and besides i cant take the time off work anymore becasue i have taken lots of time already for my husbands illness.

Help!!!! Does any body have an ideas to help me? Sorry to complain. Some times i feel like just cutting my arm off. Not really of course. Also sorry for the bad typing becasue my hand hurt somuch. Clara

Hi Clara and welcome to the HW Forums. I'm sorry it's pain that brought you here, but it's a good place to find...there's lots of support from people who KNOW what you're going thru!

I agree with Mikel, it sounds like maybe a second opinion is in order to see if another surgery is really the answer. In the meantime, are you on any type of pain medicine? If you're not, I'd certainly be making a doctor's appointment and trying something stronger than Tylenol. You might ask if one of the drugs for nerve pain might help and maybe something like Tramadol for the overall pain.

I wish I could be more help, but I think that's the best way to go. I hope that whatever you decide to do, you start feeling better soon. Chronic pain can really wear you down physically, emotionally and mentally, so make sure you take care of ALL of you, and not just this one pain. Make some quiet time for yourself, do some deep breathing, listen to soothing music....these are all things that might help you focus on something other than pain.

hugs,
Pam

Oh thank you for listening!!!
I went to another hand doctor in March to see what he can do. I had to pay $190 for him to tell me i needed another surgery also.He gave me Ultram that i take every 4 hours. But it makes me goofy and at work i cant be like that. I dont want to be on drugs my whole life.
Is that carpal therpist really any good? It says its guranteed but my pain is real bad. I just emailed them to see about a free one.
I also asked about massage becasue my boss said it works. But that cost a lot becasue you cant do only one, i think you need like 3 a week for a few weeks. Thats real expensnive.
Any other ideas?? Thanks a lot.

I had carpal tunnel done in January and am just now starting to have any positive results. Some days are better than others, but my mom said it took her a year before she felt better. However, something to think about is, my surgeon told me I had what they call a "Double Crush" meaning that the nerve in my wrist that was pinched was one of the nerves in my neck that was also crushed. He told me that there was a chance that the surgery on my wrist alone might not help, and now I am facing neck and lower spine surgery. I am hoping that if they can "unpinch" the nerve he was talking about, meaning that it was the nerve in my neck, not the nerve in my wrist that was causing the problem. Do you have neck problems? If you don't know, you might look into it, might have something to do with why you haven't gotten any relief from any of the surgeries!

Hi and Welcome!

I had surgery on both hands over about a 2 year period and I had instant relief from the pain. One thing my doctor told me is that if you let it go on for a long time without treatment you can do permanent damage to the nerves. I don't know if this is what's going on but it's likely. I too would be cautious to have more surgeries and if I did I would certainly choose a different doctor. This guy might be fine but a second opinion and a different surgeon might stop the pain circle you are in, or at least you will have a better chance. Like Dani said, you might have to undergo another surgery, who knows, but you certainly aren't getting any better the way you are.

I do know what that pain feels like and it's awful! Ask your primary doctor for a different referral. If he isn't helpful or if you want to find someone on your own, give a call to the nearest university/teaching hospital. They're on tops of medicine and research and if anyone can get you some relief it's these type of folks. Here's a link to many of the university hospitals around the globe. Good luck!

Chutz

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_university_hospitals