Stiff fingers
I had my hands operated on in June 13 and July 13. I was experiencing pins and needles in both hands (including the little fingers) during the night of and on for months after the operations but the good news is that this appears to have stopped.
I am still finding that my hands wake me up during the night as all my fingers are curled inwards and are stiff. I also find that when I wake up, I have to also clench and unclench them for a while before they 'free up'. Is this a post op issue found with people who have had the carpal tunnel ops? Also, any idea why this happens?
You are 'spot on' with your comments that there is probably more going on than CTS. I now have problems with my feet in which they too are painful during the night (when I wake up I look like a 'tin man' walking around). I still get the stiffness/pain in my hands each night (the pain is mainly around the knuckles and middle joints) and I am unable to make a fist (until I have moved my hands for a while). The stiff fingers/pain and swelling of the hands (if I use them e.g typing) occurred prior to the surgery and have continued each day since.
My GP feels that the people who operated on my hands will be of no help so has referred me to a rheumatologist (on the 23rd Jan) and hopefully they will provide an answer to this ongoing problem.
Just want to say thank you for the time you have taken to reply to my queries, it has been very much appreciated.
A pleasure. The overall story is certainly starting to sound much more rheumatological so I think your GP is going in the right direction with the referral. I would be curious to learn if a definite diagnosis eventually appears. Good luck JB
Saw the Rheumatologist today. As promised, I've come back to update you. His diagnosis is Fibromyalgia (He has taken bloods for thyroid/Vit D deficiency just in case). After reading the booklet they kindly gave me, I agree with the diagnosis. Thank you again though for all your support.
An interesting diagnosis in itself, but not my field. I'm sure you will now learn lots about it, including some of the controversy over just what it is, but at least we can assume that a lot of what you experience is probably not CTS. Good luck and thanks for the update. JB
If I understand that correctly you are describing nocturnal pins and needles AFTER surgery - what were the symptoms like beforehand? I would also be curious as to what tests were done before operating and how secure the diagnosis was.
Regarding stiffness this can be a tricky symptom to analyse. The first thing is probably to make sure one understands what the patient means by stiffness - hopefully we are talking about a physical resistance to movement - in the sense that a stiff piece of card is harder to bend than a piece of thin paper. Stiffness of this type in the hands can be a result of problems in the muscles, the tendons and associated structures, or the joints - and of course it can be a mixture of all three. It's probably impossible to get much further without being able to examine the hands and investigate but it's fair to say that serious stiffness is not a very common feature of either idiopathic CTS or carpal tunnel surgery - though some patients do complain of this. More often it is going to be an indicator that there is a little more to it than just CTS or that some complication has occurred following surgery.
If your hands are still a significant nuisance to you at this point I would consult your GP or, if still in contact, your surgeon to see if they can figure out exactly what the problem is. JB