Injured at work
I am a nurse and was kicked in my right wrist at work by an agitated patient. The kick sent an electric shock type pain to my elbow and was severe enough for me to attend Urgent Care and be prescribed Ibuprofen and Cocodamol 30/500.
Since the kick, my symptoms have been much worse, I have constant numbness and tingling in my hand and it is painful if I remove the splint.
Has anyone else had an injury which exeacerbated their symptoms and can I expect them to ease/stay the same or worsen?
Thumb, index finger, middle finger and half of my ring finger are affected.
Ok that's a very clear description of the median nerve territory so this could well be carpal tunnel syndrome precipitated or aggravated by the injury. I see you ran through the questionnaire here and got a pretty high score too - was that before the injury or after? If you already had symptoms of CTS anyway and it was then aggravated by a further injury then it could potentially be getting quite severe and I would want to see some nerve conduction studies done fairly quickly to assess the severity of the nerve damage. My best guess about the mechanism of CTS leads me to believe that, once triggered, it can become self sustaining so that you cannot necessarily expect it to settle down again just because there was an obvious event to set it off, though it may. JB
Thankyou very much for your detailed reply.
I have an appointment in 3 days time with the musculoskeletal physios, so will see what they say.
I had done the questionnaire twice before the injury, then once after. I think I've had this for approx 6 months, but ignored the symptoms until they became a nuisance. I dislocated my right shoulder almost 2 years ago and initially just thought the tingling was due to the dislocation.
So the subjective severity score in the right hand has gone up quite a bit since the injury. It seems highly likely to be worsening CTS so it will be interesting to see what they say and do in 3 days time. JB
Hi Jeremy,
I've had nerve studies today and whilst I've not got the figures back, I have moderate damage to the median nerve, no damage to the ulnar nerve.
I'm waiting for my consultant appointment, but would imagine that I will need surgery.
Would it be probable I will regain full function following surgery?
Kind regards, and thankyou for your ongoing help,
Debbie
Unfortunately neurophysiologists as a speciality are very inconsistent at using words like 'moderate' so this could mean a wide variety of different results depnding on the lab where they were performed. If you can get hold of the actual numbers that's much easier to comment on. If you have what I would call moderate (grade 3/6 on my severity scale - which is much less ambiguous) then you have a very good chance of a full recovery. They could try injecting it with steroids if it is not possible to operate quickly. JB
Which fingers are affected by the numbness and tingling - this is the best guide to which nerve we should be thinking about. JB