If you experience any carpal tunnel symptoms, you should contact your doctor as soon as possible. He or she will perform an evaluation and you can begin the treatment necessary for relieving your pain.

Inside the wrist, there is a tunnel that surrounds the tissues and bones. When this tunnel narrows due to repetitive exercise or injury, the tissues become inflamed and cause pressure to build up on the median nerve. This nerve is responsible for feeling in the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers, so the pressure results in pain throughout the whole hand.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, you may be dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome:

• Numbness in your fingers
• Pain or numbness that becomes worse at night
• Burning or tingling in your fingers
• Itching in the palm and fingers
• Pain that moves up your arm to your elbow
• Weakness in the hand or fingers
• Difficulty making a fist and gripping
• Swollen feeling in fingers, even though there is no swelling apparent
• Inability to identify hot and cold by touch

Because many people sleep with their wrists flexed, symptoms often first appear during the night. Patients may wake up in the middle of the night with a stiff feeling, and symptoms will worsen and progress to tingling as time goes on.

Who’s at Risk?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is not caused by one specific job, but is commonly found in patients with jobs that deal with assembly lines.

It’s also three times more common in women in men. This may be because the carpal tunnel within the wrist is smaller in women.

Diagnosis

If you find you’re experiencing any symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, see a doctor as soon as possible. Catching carpal tunnel early is crucial in order to prevent permanent damage to the median nerve.

When you visit the doctor, he or she will examine your hands, arms, shoulders, and neck to determine if your symptoms are consistent with those of carpal tunnel syndrome. You may also have X-rays taken.

Other tests include the Tinel’s sign test, which is where a doctor taps or presses on the median nerve in the patient’s wrist, and the Phalen’s sign test, which involves maximum flexing of the wrist.

After these tests have been conducted, electrodiagnostic tests are performed to confirm the findings of the previous tests. In electrodiagnostic testing, electrodes are placed on the hand and wrist and the doctor stimulates the nerve with a small electric shock. The electrodes capture the signal and identify how fast the signal is traveling. The signal travels faster in a healthy nerve, but slower and weaker in a damaged nerve. These findings will allow the doctor to determine if the nerve is damaged by carpal tunnel.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful condition that can be controlled if diagnosed early, so pay attention to any symptoms as they occur and contact your doctor as soon as possible.

If you’re considering undergoing surgery to correct carpal tunnel syndrome, download our e-book, How to Choose an Orthopaedic Surgeon.

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If you’re dealing with the debilitating symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, there are ways to find relief. Certain wrist exercises can really help ease the pain of the disease by improving your circulation and range of motion.

Wrist Rotations

Lay your wrists on a flat surface, such as a table, with your palms facing downward. Rotate your wrists so that your palms are facing up towards the ceiling, and then rotate them back down to lie flat on the table. This is one full repetition. Perform ten repetitions.

Wrist Circles

Lay your wrists on a flat surface, such as a table, with your hands hanging off the edge. Move your wrist in full, clockwise circles, then switch, and move them in full, counterclockwise circles. Perform five of each.

Wrist Resister

Place your palms flat against one another and hold them in front of you. Use your right palm to press against your left palm and bend the left wrist backward while trying to resist with your left wrist. Perform five repetitions on one hand, then repeat with the other hand.

Tennis Ball Exercises

Hold a tennis ball in your hand and place the ball against a wall. Move the ball in small, clockwise circles, then switch to counterclockwise circles. Perform five repetitions of each. Then put the ball in the other hand and repeat.

Another beneficial exercise is to grasp the tennis ball in one hand, make a fist and squeeze it hard, then release. Squeeze the tennis ball hard for five repetitions, then switch to the other hand.

Side-to-Side Exercise

Place your palms flat on a table, pointing forward in front of you. Keep your forearms still and swivel your wrists as far to the left as possible, then as far to the right as possible, as if they are windshield wipers. Perform this motion ten times.

Wrist and Hand Stretch

Hold your arms out in front of you with your palms pointing away from you. Bend your wrist downward so that your fingertips are pointing at the floor, then lift your hands back up to the starting position. This is one repetition. Repeat this action ten times.

These exercises will help loosen the stiffness in your wrist joints in order to reduce pain and improve your range of motion. They will also help relieve any pain that you’re feeling in your hands and finger joints from rheumatoid arthritis. They can be done every day, or every other day, but if you’re experiencing fatigue from the exercises, you may want to cut back.

If you’re considering undergoing surgery to reduce painful symptoms of hand and wrist arthritis, click here to download our e-book, How to Choose an Orthopaedic Surgeon. This educational guide will provide you with all the information you need to find a reputable surgeon.

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