Sometimes Carpal Tunnel surgery is necessary. However, since your muscles are so often the cause of your carpal tunnel symptoms, it makes sense to me to always to try the least invasive thing first.
None of the natural methods of symptom relief like massaging your muscles, stretching, strengthening your back or yoga cause unwanted permanent changes in your body. Surgery does.
Best of all, using the natural methods can improve your health, relieve other aches and pains and will help you to feel better all over!
Using the natural methods can help you get rid of the CAUSES of your carpal tunnel symptoms. (Because we don’t get pain without a reason.)
Sometimes you really do everything you can to get rid of your
carpal tunnel symptoms–you educate yourself, take all of the steps day after day, and do your best–but for some reason your symptoms don’t go away. If at least you really try, you have done your best.
And if you do decide to have the surgery after truly doing your best, it’s okay but here’s something you should know:
Surgery is only successful a bit more than half of the time. When it isn’t, that means the problem was somewhere else. That’s pretty common.
And lots of times when the surgery is successful in relieving symptoms, the symptoms come back again in a couple of years.
What does this mean?
It means that if you do have surgery, it would still be a very good idea to continue to do everything you can naturally to get rid of your symptoms and to keep them from coming back.
If you don’t change whatever caused your pain in the first place, it will quite possibly come back.
Every body is different. You own your body and you get to make your own medical decisions. As long as you educate yourself and do your best, whatever decision you come to is a good one.
But before you submit to surgery, first consider and try all of your non-invasive options. The more you know, and the more action you take, the more easily you can heal.
And there are more articles about surgery here in the Surgery Category. A well-educated person is one who is most likely to have carpal tunnel pain relief naturally. You can learn more when you click that link.
Hi Paula, Thank you for your comment. Sometimes we absolutely NEED surgery but so often that is not the treatment of choice…but that’s not what the doctor tells us. Why? Because most doctors don’t truly understand how bodies work and the roles of muscles in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Just not something they learned in Med School. Not usually taught there. I’d rather give non-invasive treatments a good running chance first and avoid anesthetics and surgery.
Kathryn
Thanks, Kathryn – Your advice about exploring all non-invasive options first is so important, especially given the surgical success statistics that you cite. Thank you for your ever-solid insights and advice!
Deb, Thank you for your comments. Please remember to take lots of stretch breaks and stretch and move in the opposite direction of the positions you are usually in.
Kathryn
Thanks so much for the info in this post, and on the whole blog. As someone who sits in front of a computer pretty much all day, this is a really big issue.
Deb LaQua, Ph.D.