Been diagnosed but not sure what to do in mean time.
I am 20 years old and a pianist at University. The majority of my family have had CTS and had the operation and i have been diagnosed, i have several piano exams in the next few weeks and am starting to practice for my dissertation. My hands ache and hurt a lot in the evenings and i get severe pins and needles and shooting pains whilst playing. Its really bothering me and also affecting my studies as i usually practice for 4 or so hours a day. I have been taking rest days but they still seem to hurt and ache. Is there anything you would suggest to help with this as if i have the operation it won't be until after my exams but its affecting my exams already and has gotten extremely worse in the last 2 weeks. Just need to find something temporary to stop it :-(
That's a pretty difficult situation. You might be able to alleviate the symptoms long enough to get through the exams using local steroid injection if you can find someone competent to do it but people with a family history like yours and early presentation do usually seem to require surgery. Will they make allowances for your CTS in assessing your performance? JB