2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very comprehensive and reader friendly, August 1, 2007
This review is from: 101 Questions and Answers about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: What It Is, How to Prevent It, and Where to Turn for Treatment (Paperback)
I bought this book when I found out that Dr. McCabe, with whom I had made
an appointment for carpal tunnel treatment, had written a book on the topic. It was very thorough. The technical parts were written to be quite easy to understand. I appreciated the hand exercises which were included. There were also open-minded discussions of the possible pros and cons of non medical alternatives to carpal tunnel treatment, with patient feed back on some of them.
As for me, I had tried many of the alternatives, B6, pilates, exercises from the book Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, over the counter medication for pain, hand braces and even learning to use my left hand to do the extensive note taking required in my job as a speech pathologist. These methods provided some relief for over a year, but never made the problem go away.
When I met Dr. McCabe my daughter was with me while he did his examination and asked extensive questions. She commented later, "He seems like a poster boy for how medical practice should be done." My overall impression is that this book was written with the spirit of truly trying to help others through his expertise in this field.
So far my treatment has been an injection which seems to be working well.
I have met one lady who chose surgery over an injection because she is needle phobic. For those like her I wanted to say that the injection was like a mild pin prick (though this may depend on the surgeon - I don't know) that I believe would not even have brought a tear to most children.
The "pain" was gone in seconds and I have experienced no side effects.
You can drive home easily after an injection.
If injections do not seem to be sufficient for resolution of my carpal tunnel, I am no longer so leery about hand surgery. For one reason, the physician who did my nerve conduction study test said that many of the
"horror stories" of carpal tunnel surgery are due to people getting treatment from doctors who are not specialists in hand surgery, for example from orthopedic surgeons. I would hope anyone would research surgeons carefully before deciding to get that invasive type of treatment.
If you can get back to normal with alternative methods, how wonderful for you. But if you try them for a few months and they don't work, please seek expert help so that things don't get worse for you and maybe be less treatable as time goes by.
9/28/11 Edit. And my prayers were answered! I found out about a machine called a Sota Magnetic Pulser. It is used to do things like help with muscle pain and cleanse out the lymphatic glands. It occured to me to try it on my wrist. I placed my wrist down on it, rather than vice versa because it is a bit heavy and those bones are small there, and I pulsed every night for 5 - 10 minutes. (It feels like virtually nothing is happening. In a couple of days I could draw for an hour w/o that tingly feeling. In a couple of weeks I could, and do, draw for hours (though I do take stretch breaks every hour or so) with no CTS at all!
I also used to have CTS problems with much use of the computer keyboard but not any more.
Now I also lie flat on my back when sleeping, what is called the corpse position in Yoga, which I don't like at all but I've gotten used to it. When I draw I use a little mini easel to keep my hand in a position pointed pretty much toward the cieling. No matter what else I do though, aspirin, ergonomics, whatever - if I stop using the Pulser the pain comes back. I have no financial connection to that company btw. Wish I did! :-D
Another note: Be sure you don't have hypothyroidism and/or hypoadrenalism (& blood tests can miss the problem as happened to me for awhile). Hypothyroidism, particularly, can be the cause for the CTS. You might want to see the stopthethyroidmadness.com website on both issues.
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