Today Cayman Net News starts a ten part series on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome written by Barbara Currie Dailey. This educational series will run daily for the next two weeks. This series helps to dispel some of the myths related to this condition and includes an interview with a leading Carpal Tunnel Syndrome specialist, Dr Alejandro Badia MD, FACS, who is based in Miami Florida. It is hoped that this series will be a benefit to the population of the Cayman Islands. AS a writer nothing makes me happier than the act of writing itself. Next comes reader feedback letting me know you enjoy my books or weekly Flavours of Cayman cooking columns or have an old family recipe to share. On the other hand, nothing worries an aging self-employed scribe more than being sidelined or worse, disabled, by a nagging medical problem time or an Advil can’t fix. Pain we can’t explain frightens us, especially when we’re past 55. Time is slipping away too fast with so much left to do— we tend to deny symptoms and hope they go away. That’s what I did when I began to lose the use of my right hand early this year. Ignorance, in more ways than one, is why carpal tunnel syndrome crept up on me. Like many people today, I had the wrong idea of what causes this condition and who its victims were. If the myth that it’s caused by typing and other repetitive activities were true, swiping credit cards would have disabled Cayman’s population years ago. Carpal tunnel syndrome develops gradually over time, making it easy for busy older people like me to dismiss its worsening symptoms as part of aging. By the time I decided to get help, “shaking my sleeping right hand awake” throughout the day had become a reflex reaction to frequent numbness and burning sensations. What I excused as a “sprained finger” had become so swollen and painful I couldn’t hold a pen without pain radiating throughout my hand. Not only did I have carpal tunnel syndrome; I had also developed an extremely painful condition called trigger finger—a problem whose symptoms have the same underlying cause. By that time surgery was my only treatment option. Few people knew, or believe me now just weeks later, because my recovery time was so short and the surgical scars barely noticeable. Surprised? I certainly was. Download complete article below
