My surgeries

 I’m not keeping the doctor away. Unfortunately, by the time you get this, I will have had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome on my right hand. I will also have turned 88. On September 17^th, I’m having surgery for a pinched nerve in my spine.

As to carpal tunnel, my fingers are numb and I’m losing muscle in my hands (mostly right), and sometimes I have pain at night. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when irritated tendons swell or thicken and thus compress the median nerve, which passes through the wrist and on to the fingers. It can be caused by injury to the wrist, genetic predisposition (small tunnel), and other issues, such as an overactive pituitary gland.

The surgery consists of making about a two-inch cut and cutting the carpal ligament to make the carpal tunnel larger. It’s performed with a local anesthetic. I’ll have to wear a splint for ten days.

As to the pinched nerve in my back, it’s caused by a narrowing of the space in my spine where nerves pass through. For me, this results in sciatic pain running from hip to foot on my right leg. I’ve tried physical therapy, acupuncture, and steroid injections into the offending area. None of these methods worked. I’m not a candidate for a procedure (ablation) that uses radiofrequency energy to disrupt pain signals that travel from your spine to your brain. So I’m going to have a laminectomy, which enlarges the spinal canal to ease pressure on the nerves. Or as my neurosurgeon says, she’ll clean it up. This is also minimally invasive and I should go home the same day.

I’m not looking forward to any of this, but I’m tired of having numb fingers and pain in my leg.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.