… a ‘shocking’ experience

As I mentioned in a previous entry, an appointment to meet with a neurologist was pending to help try and figure out what is wrong with my wrist–the pain in the wrist itself, the locking of the elbow, the shoulder stiffness, and the intermittent numbness in my hands.

Not sure what to expect, today was the appointment.

Cable here, Cable there … and some zaps to test how the nerves react.

It seems that, while the entire problem has yet to be identified or solved, I at least have some direction in which to look and pursue. When I first visited doctors in 2001, they focussed on the x-rays in order to prove (or as it were, disprove) the theory of having a bone chip … in doing so, they also said that there was no carpal tunnel. Subsequent appointments showed no abnormalities in my blood, and no degeneration in my neck.

According to the neurologist, I do have carpal tunnel, and it is present in both wrists. As he put it, the carpal tunnel is not menial, but rather fairly advanced, moreso in the (problematic) left wrist. He also said that there is no possibility that the problem is (as I’d suspected) a pinched nerve, as there aren’t any to be pinched behind the shoulder blades.

The interesting thing about this is that the numbness in my hands has only been happening for about the last year, which prompted Dr. Daly to propose that there may (or may not) be something else involved. According to him, the numbness is absolutely normal for carpal tunnel, but that pain is not typically an associated factor.

Knowing the history that my father has had with carpal tunnel, pain is something that was extremely associated with the syndrome, and his cleared up after having surgery to fix the problem. It may seem strange that, given Dad’s past, we didn’t notice these symptoms, but we were going on the opinions of the doctors from 2001 who said CTS wasn’t a possible factor.

Whether or not it is the entirety of the problem, I can see that it would be completely possible that continued stress to the wrist (typing, flute, piano, percussion, etc.) would cause the muscles up to the elbow and shoulder to react with stiffness and pain. Fortunately, Dr. Daly also said that surgery wasn’t an immediate necessity, and may not be needed at all … sleeping with a splint on, and increasing Vitamin B6 can be attempted to see if it helps.

… not 100% pinpointed or solved, but at least it’s a starting point instead of simply another dead end along the rabbit trail.