Are you wondering if you have carpal tunnel syndrome?
Or, have you already been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome?
First, let’s start off with a little medical terminology.
A “symptom” is something that shows there is a problem. A symptom could be pain, a headache, a fever or pain in the carpal tunnel area.
A “syndrome” is a collection of symptoms. A syndrome is a bunch of symptoms.
If you have been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, your doctor has thought, “This person has these symptoms. If I add them all together, it looks to me like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.”
But, what exactly IS carpal tunnel syndrome?
And, do you truly have it?
The “carpal tunnel” is inside your wrist. It is a “tunnel” surrounded by the bones of your hand (carpal bones) on three sides and tough tissue on the fourth side (palm side.)
The nerves and blood vessels that serve your hand pass through this space.
If the median nerve gets squeezed or compressed (pressed on) as it passes through your wrist, it can create symptoms. If enough of those symptoms – pain, numbness, tingling sensations, weakness – appear, then you may be diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome.
The symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome are typically in the palm
side of the thumb and part of all of the fingers. The little finger doesn’t have any symptoms because the median nerve doesn’t serve that finger.
Patients are often misdiagnosed as having CTS because their pain is in the same area – hand, wrist and arm – even though their symptoms don’t quite match carpal tunnel syndrome.
There are many muscles from your neck, arm, back and chest that can cause pain in your hand, wrist and lower arm.
There are three categories of people with true carpal tunnel syndrome – pregnant women (tempory condition,) diabetic people or people with a smaller than average carpal tunnel. If you are not one of them, then most likely you don’t have true carpal tunnel syndrome.
That’s good.
Why? Because muscles and referred pain from muscles can be treated with therapeutic massage, dietary changes, self-massage and self-care, or physical therapy, and you can become pain-free again.
“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”