Hi,
It’s not my habit to ask for medical advice on the Web. The reason I’m doing so now is I just had a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis yesterday, but I’m really not sure about it. Maybe someone will have a personal insight or experience to share.
So, I’ve been having this condition for maybe 3 years where my hands experience spasms and heavy cramps. Here are the salient aspects:
-It doesn’t happen because of tiredness or use. I use my hands all day long, lift heavy objects, etc. and most of the time they’re working perfectly fine.
-The cramping will usually happen when I’m at rest, and apparently completely randomly. I can go for a week without it occurring, and sometimes it’ll happen repeatedly for days. It almost exclusively happens in the evening.
What happens exactly?
-It’ll start with spasms and twitching, in the fingers or palm, which get more intense until basically all the hand starts cramping really severely, making it look like a deformed claw.
-By cramping “severely”, I mean so hard that I can’t simply open up my hand once it starts. I need my other hand and quite a bit of strength to un-claw my cramped fingers.
-It affects my left or right hand in turn, again seemingly randomly.
-When it’s occurring, the only way I can “solve” it is to let the hand cramp up completely, under terrible pain, for several minutes until it finally exhausts itself. But then all my muscles and tendons will ache really badly for days.
-When I try to not let it cramp, for example by relaxing and keeping all my fingers straight, the hand will twitch and try to cramp at any movement I make. And it will last usually until the next morning (meaning it finally goes away after I sleep). While it’s happening, I cannot use my hand for anything, as any movement ends up in a cramp.
It took a while before it could be investigated, but my Dr finally sent me for an EMG this week. And the specialist’s conclusion is I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. He thinks that’s what triggers it all. His solution is I should wear braces.
The reason I’m dubious is I’ve never heard such symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome before. All my research on the subject also doesn’t associate carpal tunnel with that kind of cramping. Usually, they talk of the fingers going numb, which I don’t experience at all.
I’m neither a Dr nor a neuroscientist, but this looks more like wild neuronal discharges to me... I’d be very happy if it is indeed only carpal tunnel, as that can be managed. The other option, that it could be due to nerve or the brain degenerating, is a lot more distressing.
Anyways, I will definitely talk to my Dr again about this in 10 days, when he gets the specialist’s report. But if anybody has any relevant experience to share, or ideas as to where else I could possibly search for clues, I’d appreciate.
It’s not my habit to ask for medical advice on the Web. The reason I’m doing so now is I just had a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis yesterday, but I’m really not sure about it. Maybe someone will have a personal insight or experience to share.
So, I’ve been having this condition for maybe 3 years where my hands experience spasms and heavy cramps. Here are the salient aspects:
-It doesn’t happen because of tiredness or use. I use my hands all day long, lift heavy objects, etc. and most of the time they’re working perfectly fine.
-The cramping will usually happen when I’m at rest, and apparently completely randomly. I can go for a week without it occurring, and sometimes it’ll happen repeatedly for days. It almost exclusively happens in the evening.
What happens exactly?
-It’ll start with spasms and twitching, in the fingers or palm, which get more intense until basically all the hand starts cramping really severely, making it look like a deformed claw.
-By cramping “severely”, I mean so hard that I can’t simply open up my hand once it starts. I need my other hand and quite a bit of strength to un-claw my cramped fingers.
-It affects my left or right hand in turn, again seemingly randomly.
-When it’s occurring, the only way I can “solve” it is to let the hand cramp up completely, under terrible pain, for several minutes until it finally exhausts itself. But then all my muscles and tendons will ache really badly for days.
-When I try to not let it cramp, for example by relaxing and keeping all my fingers straight, the hand will twitch and try to cramp at any movement I make. And it will last usually until the next morning (meaning it finally goes away after I sleep). While it’s happening, I cannot use my hand for anything, as any movement ends up in a cramp.
It took a while before it could be investigated, but my Dr finally sent me for an EMG this week. And the specialist’s conclusion is I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. He thinks that’s what triggers it all. His solution is I should wear braces.
The reason I’m dubious is I’ve never heard such symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome before. All my research on the subject also doesn’t associate carpal tunnel with that kind of cramping. Usually, they talk of the fingers going numb, which I don’t experience at all.
I’m neither a Dr nor a neuroscientist, but this looks more like wild neuronal discharges to me... I’d be very happy if it is indeed only carpal tunnel, as that can be managed. The other option, that it could be due to nerve or the brain degenerating, is a lot more distressing.
Anyways, I will definitely talk to my Dr again about this in 10 days, when he gets the specialist’s report. But if anybody has any relevant experience to share, or ideas as to where else I could possibly search for clues, I’d appreciate.
