Nowadays it seems that when you go to see a doctor everyone is a specialist in one area or another. This can be a good thing at times, but it can also be negative as well. I had a recent patient who had been complaining of symptoms in her right upper extremity which woke her up at night. By the time she saw me, she had been to 3 other doctors over a 3 year period. Two of the doctors said the problem was coming from her neck and the other, could not identify that there even was a problem to begin with. While I cannot speak for the other doctors and how they approached the situation, I can speak for myself. The first thing I did was “listen” to the patient. After listening carefully to all the details and concerns, I then proceeded to learn about the patients lifestyle. Lastly, I followed up with a thorough exam of the areas of complaint. I also had available for review a cervical MRI and neurological tests that were recently performed on her upper extremities and neck.
Even though I identified a minor neck problem, I concluded that she was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. None of the other doctors that she had visited with in the past had considered this as a possible problem. When I was listening to her history, she had mentioned that she was doing spinning on a regular basis for exercise. The way her wrists were positioned on the handle bars was making bones in her hand shift forward and put pressure on the median nerve.
After treating for a few weeks and about 6 times, she started to notice relief and was sleeping through the night for the first time in three years. My treatment consisted on gentle manipulation to her neck and wrist, cold laser treatment to her wrist and advising her to wear a brace at night for carpal tunnel syndrome. While this may not work for everyone, it did for her and she is much happier for it.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a very common condition these days with everyone using tablets, computers and smartphones. When we overuse our hands and wrists by performing many of todays common tasks we can suffer from this condition. Many people are unaware that a Chiropractor with the proper training can help with this condition. If you think that you may have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, you owe it to yourself to see if a Chiropractor can help.