It's confirmed: I have carpal tunnel syndrome

and every night I would wake up with my hands dead asleep ......could have cut my fingers off and not felt a thing especially my ring and pinkie fingers

Interesting. So you had median and ulnar problems. Pinkie problems I think are the ulnar nerve. Which is outside the carpal tunnel, I believe.

I never had coldness but I woke up with my thumb and first three fingers asleep. When I'd look at my wrists, I'd noticed I was sleeping with them flexed inward. I guess that's a common thing when people sleep, hence the need for wrist braces.

It's funny, because that's one of the tests they administer to see if you have it, putting the backs of your hands together and holding the wrists flexed inward for 30 seconds or something. So of course your body does this for hours involuntarily while you're sleeping.

You gotta laugh at nature, eh.
 
Sounds like icing would help with the swelling no? I have occasional flare ups in my lower back and ice helps like crazy.

Are we blaming the new Luddies or some change in your gigging? What has changed?
 
Good luck with that, Bo. You seem to be doing the right thing about it. I have nerve issues in my right leg, but it rarely affects my drumming. Peace and goodwill.
 
Just saw this, Bo. Take care of those hands! Hope it all works out well for you.
 
I'm sorry to hear this. It comes and goes with me. I do a lot of typing during my day job, although since the piano lessons I had as a little kid, I don't break my wrists or do anything bad for them. Some years ago it got really bad and the ends of my fingers were constantly tingling. I really noticed it driving home from work. I went to the doctor and the PT. Got braces that I was wearing all day. The PT was doing this hot/cold therapy which seemed to help a bit. 10 minutes or ice, then 10 minutes of a heat pad and so on back and forth for an hour.

Then one appointment the PT asked me if I slept on my side resting my face against my hand. Yeah, sometimes. She pointed out that you tend to fold your wrist over when you do that. And that staying some substantial period of the night folded over like that constricted things and prevented them from recovering from the day's stress.

What I did was started wearing the braces at night when I slept. The kept them off during the day when I could pay attention to what I was doing. The net result is that not supporting them during activities but paying attention to not stressing them built up the strength that was getting atrophied with the support of the braces, and then wearing the braces at night allowed them to heal.

Now, whenever I start to feel sore or tingling in my fingertips, I wear the braces for a couple of nights and things go back to normal. I've no idea if this will work for you. But notice what you do with your hands at night (no wisecracks please) and talk to your doctor/PT about it.
 
Let's hope it doesn't come to surgery or you'll have to deal with a recovery period. On the plus side, people I know who've had the surgery say their hands feel great afterwards.

Hi Bo,

That will be me! I had both wrists done (surgically and one at a time) in 2005/6 and the difference it made was startling. I had tried the meds/braces etc before and nothing worked. When my surgeon saw me first, he asked if i had any cortiosone therapy (this involves injections into the wrist) and was relieved that I had not, as this makes the surgery infinitely more risky apparently- something to bear in miind when looking at non invaisive procedures. It looks as though you've caught your condition earlier than I did mine- had had relatively severe symptoms for years before I realised what was going on. The recovery time is about 4 weeks and to be honest, at that point I could play much beeter and much longer than I could 4 weeks earlier. They also found a low grade arthritis at the same time which may have contributed and was treated very early, so it was a double win.

The thought of surgery is never easy to take, particularly so in this case as you earn your salary by playing, but take heart- the decision to have surgery was one of the best ones I have ever made! The relief within 24 hrs of the surgery was amazing.

Oh, and by the way, I told you so!
 
Hi Bo,

That will be me! I had both wrists done (surgically and one at a time) in 2005/6 and the difference it made was startling. I had tried the meds/braces etc before and nothing worked. When my surgeon saw me first, he asked if i had any cortiosone therapy (this involves injections into the wrist) and was relieved that I had not, as this makes the surgery infinitely more risky apparently- something to bear in miind when looking at non invaisive procedures. It looks as though you've caught your condition earlier than I did mine- had had relatively severe symptoms for years before I realised what was going on. The recovery time is about 4 weeks and to be honest, at that point I could play much beeter and much longer than I could 4 weeks earlier. They also found a low grade arthritis at the same time which may have contributed and was treated very early, so it was a double win.

The thought of surgery is never easy to take, particularly so in this case as you earn your salary by playing, but take heart- the decision to have surgery was one of the best ones I have ever made! The relief within 24 hrs of the surgery was amazing.

Oh, and by the way, I told you so!

Thanks for your positive report on this. To be honest, at first that's what I thought should be done, but after the last week or so doing some research and of course, talking to others, I still get a 50/50 concensus about either going for surgery or not. My own mother-in-law said the same positive things after she had her carpal tunnel surgery.

That said though, I've been researching alot of different stretches and have started doing a few I learned about (this is before I see the therapists this week) and I'm seeing a bit of improvement. One doctor on YouTube was talking about a 'muscle imbalance' concerning the arms where the muscles on the top of your arms are getting stronger, but because we work at a computer keyboard all day, the muscles on the bottom of the arm are not getting worked out as much, causing an imbalance. His theory was to stretch out those bottom muscles and since it didn't look like it was too hard to do, I've started trying it, and I've noticed while driving, the numbness doesn't come on as quickly as before. That's a positive, so I've been stretching these muscles quite a bit over the last couple of days.

It's a simple stretch. If you hold arms out in front of you, and then go palms up, I use my other hand to pull my fingers back towards me, hold it for 30 seconds, and then do the same thing with the thumb. Then I repeat for the other arm. It's aimed at opening up that 'tunnel' where the nerve goes through and since I've been paying attention to it, it seems to be working.

Another doctor was talking about how cutting the tendon in surgery, is just fixing the symptom. The root cause could lie anywhere along your arm because this particular nerve is traveling from your neck down to your hands. So this is what concerns me as well - it's like getting that laser surgery for your eyes - it'll feel good for now but later it could come back? This concerns me.

So, I start seeing the therapists this week so we'll see what they want to do with me, and if I can 'self-improve' on my own with the stretching, that's even better.

But I've decided to just wear my braces when I sleep, and pay attention to what I'm doing during the day. I don't want my wrists to get weak because they're braced 24 hours a day. But I had a gig today and played ok. I didn't really beat up my hands this time out and noticed that as I relaxed my way through the music, the numbness didn't come on as quickly, either. So I'll keep everybody in the loop as to how I'm doing. I thank you all for the positive words of encouragement!
 
Maybe you can use grip tape or grip sticks too. That way you can loosen your grip on the sticks a lot more. But, then again, having played drums for so long, you probably already have a loose grip. IDK.

Also, I did weight lifting for a few years. I had wrist curls as part of my routine. I also did reverse wrist curls (motorcycles) too. Maybe 20 to 25 lbs for the regular curls and 10 to 15 lbs for the reverse ones. Also, you can get a weight tied to the end of a rope with the other end of the rope tied to a stick. Then you twist the stick and roll up the weight, then unroll it and repeat in the opposite direction. That's another good one. I should get back in the gym but my social anxiety keeps me away.
 
Can you hire an Asian masseuse to massage you between sets/songs/gigs?
 
There's an album called Jing Chi that Vinnie is on. The name comes from a stretching exercise similar to what Bo is talking about. The guitarist on the album Robben Ford, was having trouble with his wrists and hands. Being a holistic sort of fellow he looked into all kinds of things and discovered these Jing Chi exercises. Talk it over with a PT you have confidence in. It may help.
 
I feel your pain mate!
As a long term CTS sufferer i am no stranger to the inconvenience and frustration this causes not just in everyday life but from a musicians point of view.
I have it in both hands, severe in my right, mild in the left and so far have had nerve conduction studies, manipulation, Physio and steroid jabs, all to no avail i'm afraid. I am currently waiting on my consultant for the next move, surgery maybe. My condition is compounded with rotator cuff problems on the same side on which i had a procedure done last week.
I try to play with a lighter touch than before and am aware of gripping the sticks too tight. Also a thicker stick has helped with this slightly. I have switched to playing open handed very recently, it seems radical and daunting but it is a real possibility and worth a shot even on a temporary basis. I have indicated this with set up pics in my Oak custom thread here- http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104916

I wish you all the best
 
I feel your pain mate!
As a long term CTS sufferer i am no stranger to the inconvenience and frustration this causes not just in everyday life but from a musicians point of view.
I have it in both hands, severe in my right, mild in the left and so far have had nerve conduction studies, manipulation, Physio and steroid jabs, all to no avail i'm afraid. I am currently waiting on my consultant for the next move, surgery maybe. My condition is compounded with rotator cuff problems on the same side on which i had a procedure done last week.
I try to play with a lighter touch than before and am aware of gripping the sticks too tight. Also a thicker stick has helped with this slightly. I have switched to playing open handed very recently, it seems radical and daunting but it is a real possibility and worth a shot even on a temporary basis. I have indicated this with set up pics in my Oak custom thread here- http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104916

I wish you all the best

Thanks John T. It's nice to know I'm not alone in this. However, prior to my first therapy session tomorrow, I've discovered that I'm not so bad off as some people I've met who are dealing with this or have had surgery. I, of course, thought it was the end of my world when my hands would just go numb after some rigorous playing, but I've learned that my mother-in-law had a hand that was just dead for some time. Other people have suffered the same way where they couldn't feel a thing for months before something was done. I guess I'm fortunate I went into a panic about it as soon as I did. I've been doing alot of those new stretches and it does seem to help - hopefully the therapists won't scream at me for doing it wrong.

But another thing that may be helping is that my doctor prescribed a drug that helps with bringing down and controlling my uric acid level (I've had a few gout flares and as a form of arthritis, this acid level can affect all the joints) and while I've been on this medication for the last few days, I've not felt so 'creaky' lately, and I wonder if it's actually helping too. Time will tell when I do my follow up with him in the next couple of weeks.

However, I continue to play and move around as normal, but I do wear the wrist braces at night when I go to bed, and when I wake in the morning, I spend about ten minutes stretching my arms and hands. Considering other people's conditions, I'm probably not a candidate for surgery just yet and hope to keep it that way!
 
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