Re: Carpal Tunnel ~ the syndrome and the surgery....
My mom had the surgery on both her wrists (she was a court reporter for a living) and one took and one didn't, no idea why the disparity (this was probably 15 years ago).
Personally, I was diagnosed with left-hand CTS about eight months ago or so (not the right wrist, surpisingly), the usual hand going numb playing mandolin and at one point it was so bad my hand would turn numb driving the car (the angle of my wrist on the steering wheel, apparently). I don't remember having any problem sleeping, but I was given a wrist brace for night and told to rely on otc anti-inflammatories as needed; at the same time, I was diagnosed with a Vitamin D deficiency (symptoms include muscle weakness) that was corrected with drugs. I modified how I held my mandolin (straight left wrist) and it pretty much went away about 3 months ago or so. I still get an occasional twinge, in which case I just don't play for a couple days. I haven't worn the wrist brace for about a month. So far, I seem to be holding pretty stable, and considering I type for a living and it wasn't affected by the CTS, I'm good with that. Odd that I apparently hold my hands perfectly straight for typing but wasn't for mandolin, eh? Now I'm having issues with osteo-arthritis, but that's a whole different thing.
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1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
1952 Strad-o-lin
1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
2011 Eastman MD305
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