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Carpal Tunnel after wrist fracture: What is your experience?

Posted by Ann Shrader @annshrader, Jul 25 11:03am

Good Afternoon.
I had a bike accident in 11/2023 and ended up with a distal and radial fractures. Almost nine months later, it looks like carpal tunnel syndrome with the next steps being steroid injection and possible surgery. What has been your experience with this? I now have some degeneration in the thumb (happens fast!) and avoiding those activities that aggravate. I am fine with the doctors' recommendations, just looking to hear from others.

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Ann Shrader | @annshrader | Jul 29 3:07pm

YIKES!
I have done ice, street and indoor wooden rink. The street skating was risky. Imagine flying down 5th Avenue, New York, and banging into a few cars before ending up on my bottom in the curb!
Have you gotten back on the bike... ? (Take your time- getting on the bike is about re-establishing your balance.)
Take Care!
Ann Marie

REPLY
walk4life | @walk4life | Sep 10 12:30pm

I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I saw my surgeon this week for my 6 week post op visit. Everything is healing well . However i have some intermittent tingling in my fingers. He to.d me that carpal tunnel can be a complication of the wrist surgery. He said i didn’t have signs of carpal tunnel when he did the surgery. If he sees evidence of carpal tunnel during the ORIF ,he will go ahead and do the carpal tunnel surgery also. He gave me a steroid injection to see if that helps. I have had more pain amd problems with this than my hip replacement in 2023. Although that was not due to a fall.

REPLY
3 replies
Mentor
Sue, Volunteer Mentor | @sueinmn | Sep 10 12:56pm
In reply to @walk4life "I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I..." + (show)
@walk4life

I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I saw my surgeon this week for my 6 week post op visit. Everything is healing well . However i have some intermittent tingling in my fingers. He to.d me that carpal tunnel can be a complication of the wrist surgery. He said i didn’t have signs of carpal tunnel when he did the surgery. If he sees evidence of carpal tunnel during the ORIF ,he will go ahead and do the carpal tunnel surgery also. He gave me a steroid injection to see if that helps. I have had more pain amd problems with this than my hip replacement in 2023. Although that was not due to a fall.

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After my daughter's fall and fractures, she had a swollen tendon sheath that had to be cut to relieve the numbness - not exactly carpal tunnel, but definitely because of the trauma.

REPLY
Ann Shrader | @annshrader | Sep 10 2:50pm
In reply to @walk4life "I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I..." + (show)
@walk4life

I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I saw my surgeon this week for my 6 week post op visit. Everything is healing well . However i have some intermittent tingling in my fingers. He to.d me that carpal tunnel can be a complication of the wrist surgery. He said i didn’t have signs of carpal tunnel when he did the surgery. If he sees evidence of carpal tunnel during the ORIF ,he will go ahead and do the carpal tunnel surgery also. He gave me a steroid injection to see if that helps. I have had more pain amd problems with this than my hip replacement in 2023. Although that was not due to a fall.

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Hi.
I hear that CTS surgery is no big deal.
I had an injection but I still get pain and cannot put weight on my wrist.
Follow up tomorrow.

REPLY
Mentor
Sue, Volunteer Mentor | @sueinmn | Sep 10 5:25pm
In reply to @walk4life "I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I..." + (show)
@walk4life

I had a fall while jogging in July with a distal radial fracture and ORIF. I saw my surgeon this week for my 6 week post op visit. Everything is healing well . However i have some intermittent tingling in my fingers. He to.d me that carpal tunnel can be a complication of the wrist surgery. He said i didn’t have signs of carpal tunnel when he did the surgery. If he sees evidence of carpal tunnel during the ORIF ,he will go ahead and do the carpal tunnel surgery also. He gave me a steroid injection to see if that helps. I have had more pain amd problems with this than my hip replacement in 2023. Although that was not due to a fall.

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My daughter asked an interesting question when I mentioned your post. Was your surgery done by a specialized hand and arm surgeon? When she broke her wrist, she was an ER Nurse in a large urban trauma center, and insisted her repair be done by the hand surgeon, not the on-call ortho, even though it meant she had to wait, in substantial pain, for 24 hours until the right person was available. When she had excessive pain and numbness, her doc knew right away what the problem was, and it only took a short procedure to open the tendon sheath and stent it to keep it from closing again.
If you continue to have pain you might want to consult a hand doc.

REPLY
walk4life | @walk4life | Sep 10 6:46pm

Yes, my surgery was done by a hand surgeon specialist.He said he did not see any current carpal tunnel when he did the surgery. He gave me the steroid shot yesterday. He said that as the minimal swelling lefy goes down it may correct on its own. I go back to see him in 3 weeks for follow up.

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