# Carpal tunnel



## A Little Short (Nov 11, 2010)

Strat9 said:


> Hi all, I currently I'm about a month into my apprenticeship and I'm finding my carpal tunnel is flaring up. I spent 16 years in IT but it never bothered me before. Any tips on dealing with it? The biggest problem I'm finding is I tend to have a weak grip, I get through the day tho.


I wear a brace at night that helps. But it occasionally flares up during the day. Mostly when my hand/wrist/arm are in the same position for extended periods.
According to my Dr. there isn't much short of surgery.


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## stuiec (Sep 25, 2010)

I tried a physio recently.......my wanker's elbow had crept back and i'd been dealing with it for about 4 months. She did "dry needling".....basically acupuncture needles into the muscle and then a bunch of digging around. Feels like it sounds at the time, but damned if it didn't work. For me, anyway. Good luck!


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Welcome aboard @Strat9!

Have you tried a wrist brace?


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

I have had various stiffness and soreness from the elbow down from time to time. Sometimes it takes forever to go away. Here are things I've tried.

1* strengthen the muscles 
Not a bad idea, but see #5, can make it worse

2* accupuncture 
you hear enough stories of dramatic quick results I think it's worth a shot even though I think it's successful way less than half the time, it was interesting but did zero for me

3* anti inflammatories 
sometimes helps, but not a long term solution, they all have side effects people generally use ibuprofen or naproxen these days but the original aspirin is pretty good and arguably safest

4* ice 
never hurts, sometimes really helps

5* stretch the muscles / strengthen the opposing muscles 
the problem is often that your grip and tightening-screw muscles get strong and tight, your open-the-hand and unscrew muscles get weak. You stretch the grip / tighten-screw muscles and strengthen the unscrew muscles to get things balanced out and things settle down. 

6* deep tissue massage 
like @stuiec i found this method was really the cure, I had someone grind out all kinds of pea sized knots in my forearm muscles, and it hasn't been that bad since, I occasionally probe around in there and dig out what I find myself.


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## eddy current (Feb 28, 2009)

Stretch your hands every morning.


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## bigdan1 (Jun 16, 2013)

Try this, works for me most of the time. Take a five gallon bucket fill with dry rice. Since most of our work requires grip strength you need to work the opposite muscles. Put hands in bucket as fist and spread them apart. There are several exercises on youtube. Won't cure carpal tunnel, but it seems to help me when its flared up. Takes a couple days.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

Only thing that helped me was surgery. Both wrists. Never one issue since.
I wore splints at night while sleeping in the beginning and they did help some. But the surgery corrected it.
Today the surgery is minor compared to how it was when I had mine done.
Three weeks, no work for each wrist was the case back then.
Today, I see guys going back within a couple days after the surgery.


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## stuiec (Sep 25, 2010)

bigdan1 said:


> Try this, works for me most of the time. Take a five gallon bucket fill with dry rice. Since most of our work requires grip strength you need to work the opposite muscles. Put hands in bucket as fist and spread them apart. There are several exercises on youtube. Won't cure carpal tunnel, but it seems to help me when its flared up. Takes a couple days.


Physio gave me an exercise for the opposing muscles too....for mine it was lowering a weight (bag of hockey pucks in my case) in a controlled motion using the wrist. only lowering, not lifting.


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

M12 cordless screwdriver.


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## Leyden (Sep 4, 2017)

what tasks are you doing to make it flare up?


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## socaldreamer (Sep 9, 2017)

Try acupuncture it helped me get rid of a similar injury in my elbow without surgery or drugs. Now I have to become super fit to compete with the young kids in the apprentice program.


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## Wiresmith (Feb 9, 2013)

vessel makes some more ergonomic screwdrivers if that's what your using when your having problems. all the Japanese guys i work around use em'. makita(and many others) make nice small battery driver's too. there's some things like ideals screwdriver for spinning on wirenuts.


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## manchestersparky (Mar 25, 2007)

I dealt with it for years. I put off surgery for it for about 12 years. Did the brace thing.
When I did decide it was time it was because I had started losing grip in hand. I would drop things for no reason . Got the wake up when I was going to change out a 3 phase bolt in breaker in a 480 panel live. As I was walking into the building with another electrician we stared joking about me dropping my tool pouch I was carrying. Looked at him and said this either has to wait until I can arrange a shut down or you need to do it. What would happen had I dropped my screwdriver in that panel...........
Best thing I did was get the surgery.
The thing is you can actually do permanent nerve damage if it is bad and goes untreated long enough.


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## PokeySmokey (Nov 14, 2017)

Bottom line is have it checked immediately by a specialist.


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## WrongWire (Dec 1, 2017)

I would personally say that it would be best to see a doctor, and have them refer you to a physiotherapist. Have the physio design some exercises with you to help strengthen the muscles to the point where it doesn't hurt and they should also be able to advise on medication/braces.


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## frankietheclamp (Jan 31, 2011)

I suggest learning to knit. I started knitting a couple years ago and it has done wonders for my carpal tunnel. It also keeps me off my phone so i can concentrate on the television.


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