Carpal Tunnel: Symptoms are pain, numbness, and tingling in your thumb, index, long, and sometimes ring finger.
Cause of these Symptoms: The median nerve travels through the wrist with nine tendons that control the fingers and thumb. These tendons & nerves run in a tunnel and, with life tasks, sometimes become compressed or stressed. The stress to the tendons can cause inflammation which then causes the tunnel to become tight, thus causing pressure on the median nerve.
Common Reported Symptoms: If you have CTS, you may find yourself suffering from shock-like sensations that radiate through your hands that travel to your thumb, index, long, and/or your ring finger. You can also find your hand being clumsy; thus, you find that you drop things or lose your grip due to a feeling of weakness and numbness.
What Causes Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? While there is no single cause, the patients we see developed or became at risk for this condition for the following reasons:
Overly Repetitive Hand Use: Mostly seen in people who use a computer all day or do repetitive tasks with their hands.
Strained Positioning & Motion: If you perform manual labor with your hands daily, that involves consistent extreme flexion or extension of your wrists and hands.
Your Overall Health: The better condition you are in to perform tasks, the less overall stress it will do to the structures in your body. In addition, if you are managing diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid gland issues, you are at an increased risk of developing this condition. Being overweight can also increase pressure in the carpal tunnel, thus increasing these symptoms.
Pregnancy: Hormonal changes during pregnancy can also increase pressure in the carpal tunnel.
Family History: If you have family members who suffer from carpal tunnel, you are at an increased risk.
Cold/Vibration: Working with vibrating machines, tools, or work in cold conditions can also increase your susceptibility to CTS.
Hand Therapy Can Help Treat CTS
Before Surgery: We treat CTS conservatively (without surgery) to try to prevent surgery through education, exercises, modalities, orthotics, and recommendations of adjustments in your life that will help to resolve CTS, thus avoiding surgery. On your first visit, our hand therapist/physical therapists will begin creating a 5-Star customized plan to get you on your way to recovery.
After Surgery: We also see people after surgery to help reduce the swelling (edema), manage the scar, improve motion in the fingers/thumb and wrist and regain strength so you can get back to enjoying life. Our hand therapist/physical therapists are experienced in building customized programs to help you recover quickly.
Ready to Start a Hand Therapy Plan to Treat Your CTS?
At Premier Physical Therapy, we’ve helped hundreds of patients treat, manage and overcome their carpal tunnel syndrome, and we’re ready to help you, too. Remember: Untreated, CTS only becomes worse over time. So be sure to speak to your doctor right away at the first sign of symptoms. Then, call us at 573-335-7868, and our experienced team will help.