Surgery has not helped
I had foot surgery six months ago and spent 10 weeks in a wheelchair as I was not allowed to put weight on the foot and couldn’t use crutches due to a right shoulder injury.
After about six weeks of using the wheelchair I started to get numbness in my thumb and forefinger, more in my left than right. I felt that this was caused by constantly putting all my weight on my hands as I transferred between the wheelchair and recliner, toilet, shower chair, bed etc. There was nothing I could do about it though until I could walk with all my weight on the operated foot.
I visited my GP and asked if I might have CTS. He agreed it was possible and I requested a referral for a steroid injection in my left hand as I’d read that could help. It didn’t help at all so I asked my shoulder, arm and hand surgeon about it as I had an appointment with him.
He said it most likely was CTS but could also be cervical radiculopathy. I was due to go on a two week holiday and felt that the numbness in my left hand and the pain that radiated up my forearm would spoil the trip. The surgeon told me he could operate before I went away if I wanted, but reiterated that although it was most likely CTS, it might be radiculopathy and normally he would get an MRI to exclude this.
I now regret that I impatiently went ahead with the CTS operation as it didn’t help at all. Six weeks later I still have the numbness and more severe pain in the forearm and sometimes up to my shoulder. I had an MRI of my cervical spine and it showed severe narrowing of the spinal canal at several places including C6. The surgeon has referred me to a spinal surgeon and said a steroid injection in my spine might help.
I have to wait a while before I can see the spinal surgeon and meanwhile my whole arm becomes very sore as the day goes on. I get shooting and cramping pains up it and I can’t wait to go to sleep as that’s the only time I’m not in pain.
In your opinion will a steroid injection in my spine stop all the pain or will I need an operation on my spine? I’m feeling quite desperate about it all and would love to hear from anyone else who has radiculopathy causing CTS-like symptoms.
Thanks for your response JB. I guess I’ll just have to be patient and wait to see the spine surgeon and see what he advises.
No, there weren’t any nerve conduction studies or ultrasound done. I know now that it was silly of me to rush into surgery, but I was convinced that it had to be CTS due to the fact that my hands had been compressed while I was using the wheelchair. I was so desperate to get rid of the numbness and pain as the Christmas holiday time was approaching when all of the surgeons are on a break for about a month (here in Australia).
There are plenty of surgeons who would agree that nerve conduction studies are unnecessary but I wouldn't let any of them near my wrist with a knife without checking the state of the nerve first. Largely because this situation - "had an operation ,no better" is commoner than the surgeons like to let on and analysing what the problem is afterwards is so much easier if you have test results from before the surgery. Good luck with finding a solution. JB
That does rather sound as though the right diagnosis all along might have been the radiculopathy. Were any nerve conduction or ultrasound studies done to confirm the CTS before injection/surgery? It's also worth observing that your case illustrates the fact that patients who fail to get any response to injection have a poorer surgical prognosis. I have little experience of injections for cervical radiculopathy so I don't know what the success rate is but at least they are likely to be relatively safe and you can always proceed to surgery later if necessary - one treatment does not preclude the other. JB