I am scheduled for out-patient hand surgery next Friday, June 26th. I’ve had trouble with both hands for years – nighttime tingling and numbness, intermittent aches and weakness, and, most recently, I woke up to find I had “trigger finger” besetting ring fingers on both hands – starting on the same morning! The right hand also has a ganglion cyst at the wrist, a sporadically painful thumb, and what appears to be Dupuytren’s contracture slowly growing on the palmar fascia.

At my request (under Kathy’s urging), my doctor referred me to the Polyclinic hand surgeons. I went in for nerve conduction test and electromyography on both hands. The results indicate that I have moderate carpal tunnel syndrome in the right hand while the left has mild carpal tunnel compression at the wrist and mild cubital tunnel compression at the elbow.

I’ve been wearing wrist splints at night the last month which seem to help alleviate the nighttime tingling and morning aching and stiffness. I also do stretching and rotation exercises every morning and throughout the day. That will help the mild problems with the left wrist. However, the right wrist has nerve impingement that calls for surgical relief to avoid doing permanent damage. Dr. Peterson will do endoscopic surgery – cutting the carpal ligament of the right wrist and the tendon pulley strap at the right ring finger.

My activities will be curtailed for a week or two as the swelling and soreness subside and it will take a month or two to regain adequate grip and torque strength. I hope this will relieve the discomfort for the most part – or, at least, the trigger finger – which is really starting to bug me.