I think Im going in for surgery in April...

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[City Builder]

I've been giving this a great deal of thought lately...  My wrists are absolutely horrid and in such terrible pain even when Im not typing on the computer.  Simple tasks like driving a car or opening a jar of pasta sauce gives me the worst pain.

I informed my parent about it knowing that they will help out since medical related stuff is a number one priority in my mothers books.

I have been taking anywhere from 6 to 18 extra strength tylenol (generics) per day for the past several months to try to make life just bareable, and my mother informed my Dr. about that and he said I will either severly damage my liver/kidneys, or burn a whole in my stomach depending on what it is exactly that I am taking.

I have an appointment to see him next week, he wants to do a physical since the last one was about 5 months ago, and I can already tell what he is going to do...

1. Get me and my parents into consultation with the surgeon locally about doing the CTS surgery (he has already told my mother that I don't have any other options)
2. Put me back on pain killers for the time period up until the surgery and during recovery.

Im very leary about going back on the pain killers because I don't want any physical addiction to them even though I should only need to take them for about 1 month this time around which would include the time before, and after the surgery, but Im really rather worried about this since I only quit the pain killers about 4 or 5 months ago (maybe slightly more or less), and while I hate having the pain in my hands, I think I'd hate becoming physically dependant on the pills again even if it's only for a month or so.

Oh well... I guess I just have to wait till next week to see what the good ol' pill pushing Dr. has to say.

[techsonic]

Hi CB,

Here is a good dose of "Good Luck" to take with you to the docs. At least you should have it sorted soon.
After the surgery, do you have any idea of the convalescing time?
Hopefully you will get seen to quite quickly. Over here in the UK, we get put on a waiting list, which could be months and months depending on what treatment you need, although the other side of the coin is that it is the NHS, and therfore "free" (although it is paid for out of our taxes). I assume you guys in the US need private health insurance for this kind of thing?

Once again, good luck, and I hope everything gets sorted out for you.

Best wishes

Stuart

[Lengo]

It'll be good. Don't worry. It will work out.

I'm looking at surgery too. My neck has been awful again. I'm getting another mri soon, and then will see a neuro.  Something's gotta be done here, or I won't last.

I'm back on Naproxen after quitting them over two years ago 'cause they wrecked my stomach somehting terrible.  They're helping some. I was taking Oxycodone now and then, but those things are really addicting, and I don't wanna go there.

I've been spending 40-50% of my time lying down. I barely get anything done! THIS SUCKS!

[Sandra]

Add my good wishes to the list as well CB, at least when the surgery is done you should'nt be in so much pain, and yes, taking tablets for long periods of time can have drastic consequences, but what do you do, suffer, no, you have to take the pills, so lets hope you won't have to much longer.

[City Builder]

Laying down is what I do a lot of too.

It may sound silly, but when my wrists are really aching, I go and lay down for an hour or two and it really does seem to help.

I also try to wear my wrist braces when Im laying down so that might have something to do with it, although when I wear them when Im not laying down they don't seem to help anything at all.  Maybe it's the laying down prone position that is seeming to be helping.

Well, over here I have no health insurance so my parents are going to pop for the surgery.  I havn't a clue what it's going to cost, but it seems to me if Im in and out of hospital in one day, then I'll only incur the costs of the surgery which I would hope would be less than $5,000 for each wrist.  But Im only opting to have one done each time since if they botch it by some weird mistake, I'll only lose use of one hand, plus I want to see just how much it helps overall when it's completed on one wrist before moving on to the next one.

I find large doses of alchohol seem to work almost as effectively as pain killers and certainly a lot more effective then tylenol.   I don't think it actually reduces the pain but rather distracts one from the pain.  Of course the next day the pain is usually back again and possibly in other areas then the wrists.  Seeems if I have a couple drinks at night I wake up the next day really stiff and sore, almost like every joint in my body hurts the next day but it usually goes away fairly quickly as I start to move around again (other than my wrists).

The Vicodin that I was on about 5 years ago for almost 2 1/2 years wrecked my stomach too.  I ended up coming down with diverticulitus from the constipation that the pain killers caused.  I don't want to do that again, thats for sure.  But I suppose one month won't be too bad.

I was almost ready to call the Dr. this morning (he's out of town) and ask him to come back to see me today because my ear clogged up yesterday and I was afraid that I was going to get another ear infection like I did several several months ago.  That had the left side of my head all swelled up, and my ear was completely closed from the swelling and had me popping pain pills like there was no tommorrow.  Had to take like 4 pain pills every 3 to 4 hours for the pain.  But I guess my ear is just clogged up with wax maybe from me trying to clean it with a Q-Tip, but theres no pain in the ear so I guess Im fine.

In a way, Im actually looking forward to the surgery, I guess after one lives with the pain for 12 years, it would be a blessing to finally get rid of it, especially for someone who's livelyhood depends on their using their hands on the computer.

Im not sure what the convelensance time will actually be, I had a friend that had the surgery done to her wrist and she was out of work for about 2 weeks, but since she did it on workers compensation they paid her for the two weeks out of work, so she may have taken advantage of that and stayed out of work for the full time period alloted.

I think I should start getting used to using the mouse with my left hand before surgery since if thats what's needed then Im opting to have my right wrist done first.

[Unitedcat]

Surgery, I really hope it helps if you decide to go for it !!

We have a painkiller here wich I think isn't that hard on the Stomach.

It's called "Tradolan" here, chemical name is "Tramadolhydrocloride".

You will get dizzy for a few days from this med. but it goes away.....

You can ask your doctor and hear what he thinks 
 

[City Builder]

If he decides that I need to go back on the pain medication temporarily, I'll ask him about it, though after reading the side effects:

More common side effects may include:
Agitation, anxiety, bloating and gas, constipation, convulsive movements, diarrhea, dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, feeling of elation, hallucinations, headache, indigestion, itching, nausea, nervousness, sweating, tremor, vomiting, weakness

Im not so sure I'd like to take a chance with it.

drowsiness, dry mouth, I can handle, but no more agitation, anxiety, constipation or nervousness for me please.

Funny how it can have two opposite side effects: constipation and diarrhea.  I can't honestly recall ever being constipated and having diarrhea at the same time 

[Unitedcat]

I was on Tradolan for 10 weeks about a year ago
and I only felt dizzy for 5-6 days....

But it's individual I know that......

[City Builder]

Much like Vicodin, for some people it makes them very very drowsy, but for me it's the exact opposite (when taken at the right quantity) and it peps me up quite a bit but doesn't give that nervousness feeling of illegal drugs that might pep someone up.

I think my doctor must have a deal with the Benzo manufacturers because he seems to like to prescribe benzos most of the time.  Though in this case that won't be necessary.

If he goes that route (and I'm just as happy to take 24 Tylenol a day) due to the large amount of Tylenol that I take, then maybe this time around he can switch me between medications so that I don't build up any tolerance to any one particular medication.  From what I read months ago, that is probably what he should have done to begin with for long term pain suppression.

Oh well... Would of, Could of, Should of right?

[Unitedcat]

Yes the Benzo's can get you dependent pretty quickly so
if you don't "Really" need them try to stay away......

Paradoxally the Benzo's have very few side effects for most people.....