PLEASE, please if anyone can give me any ideas on how I can continue doing cakes with a bad case of carpal tunnel? I LOVE decorating cakes (I'm obsessed) and I do it every spare minute I can, but my hand is so bad today, I had to reschedule all of my clients. (I'm a hairstylist) So, now it's affecting my work. I actually want to eventually quit hair and bake full time, but I have been trying to convince my DH of this and now I fear he'll never agree.

If anyone has had this and could give me advice? I am going to the chiro. on Mon. and make appt. for accupuncture, but what about a wrist brace??

Sorry this is so long, but I'm desperate here.......

I had a friend who recently had surgery for this and is doing really well. I know it is drastic but maybe in your situation it would be worth looking at. Sorry to hear about your pain!

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear you have this. I don't have it but I do have a bad neck which causes pain to go down my arm. I also get times where my hand shakes really bad from nerve damage. Then to top it off I got a trigger finger.

Really nothing much helps except to rest and take a break.

My father had CTS and ended up wearing wrist braces for awhile to try to heal it, but he ended up having to have surgery. He was well into his 50's when he had the surgery, but the healing process was pretty quick for him and he hasn't had any trouble since (he's pushing 70 now). I'm sorry you are having problems! I had the same problem until I got my ergonomically correct keyboard. Hopefully the chiropractor will help ~ maybe it's a problem in your neck & shoulder area...

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This may sound a little off the wall, but there are people who swear that wearing magnetic bracelets relieves their carpal tunnel symptoms. I have two friends who wear theirs every day and have avoided having surgery. They both have the bracelet with two magnets, one on each side of the wrist. The bracelets aren't expensive and probably worth a try.

Good luck!

I too did hair and nails with c t the only way I could work was with a wrist brace. Hard one with the metal on the underneath side. Now that I dont work anymore it only flares if I done too much baking Good luck and the pain killers helped LOL

I have carpal tunnel in both of my wrists (I am ambidextrous (sp?)), and am 37. I currently wear the metal braces at night, and thin support wraps while working on the cakes. My dh bought me a parafin wax treatment system for the hands, which helps a lot.
I don't make my own fondant anymore since it causes too much pain for me. When my dh is home (currently deployed), he rolls out the fondant sheets for the cakes. I use the clay machine with a motor for all the small work. There are a lot of options available for this problem, so don't give up totally. I know what I can handle through a week. If ya have any questions, pm me.

I do believe the braclets will help. But by any chance do you have a Naprapath doctor in your area? They work on the nerves of the body. The one I go to is amazing. The doctors wanted to operate on my back and I told them no, that I would live with the pain. But he has fixed it and I go in about every 3 months for maintenance work.
I do hope you can find some kind of relief soon.

unfortunately i have the same thing just do a little at at time as much as you can handle thats what i try to do.

Review your positioning when doing cakes. The CT nerve runs from your neck to you hands. I hold my stress in my back and if I work in a position that I'm holding my shoulders up it makes my ct worse. The more stressed the worse my hands get. Physical Therapy/Massage really helped with it a lot. You may want to space things out too. Bake one day. Base Ice the next and decorate the following.

HTH

Judi

I suffered with CTS for at least 20 years. Finally, ( after going through all other possible treatments and sleeping in wrist braces every night and often times during the day too) I had surgery on both wrists and can't believe I waited and suffered for so long before getting it done. I had my right hand done first in November of 2005 and the left one done two months later in January of 2006. My hands and arms were pain free instantly and back to normal within 2 months after surgery. Full strength took about 6 months to obtain.
My advice is to get your hands fixed and don't mess around with all the other stuff. When the pain gets bad enough you will have no choice but to get them surgically fixed anyway so why suffer longer than necessary if you already have it this bad now. Besides, the nerve will get severely impinged and can begin causing permanent nerve damage and this is where the pain gets unbearable (and caused me lots of grief). Just my opinion and thoughts on the subject.......................seriously, looking back now I wish I would have taken care of my misery at least 2 years before I finally couldn't take another day and night of the pain. It was totally not necessary for me to suffer like that for as long as I did.

I had carpal tunnel that was relieved with wrist braces at night for a long time. But the pain and numbness eventually got worse and I dropped the same cake 4 times. That was IT!!! I scheduled a consult for surgery.

Had the surgery on both hands at the same time and never once regretted it. Sure I was out of commission for about 3 months but I had my surgery right after the new year--only missed Valentine's day and did light-duty at Easter. That's been 5 years ago..AAHHHHH!

The longer you wait, the more nerve damage is done and then the surgery may not help at all. I am a physical therapist assistant and true repositioning, braces and anti-inflammatory meds are a short-term fix, but the CTS can turn into RSD (repetitive stress distrophy).

I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand at the beginning of January. I was back to decorating cakes by the end of February. It's now been 5 full months, and I feel almost totally normal again.

I still have some pain at the incision site, but my strength has totally returned, and all of the ct symptoms were gone IMMEDIATELY after surgery. I wasn't even able to sleep at night because of the pain that ran from my shoulder to my fingertips, and of course decorating cakes was misery.

Surgery was the best choice I could have possibly made, though I thought the first 2 weeks after was pretty miserable (and I only recommend getting ONE hand done at a time!!!).

Good luck to you!

Sorry about your CTS pain. I remember it well and I'll tell you what I did but this might have only worked for me. Other people here have given you good advice. When I worked in a bakery and was squeezing a pastry bag ALL DAY,
the constant tingling and numbness came on strong. I went to a specialist who took tests and diagnosed it as bad CTS. Recommended surgery. I was all for it but I had to many orders to fill to take the time off. So I just wore the steel/fabric velcro braces the doctor gave me and NEVER took them off. ( Only in the shower) Then slowly but surely the pain and tingling went away!!!!! It took a couple of months of wearing those braces-- I could even decorate with them on-a little awkwardly at first-- but it worked. I'm still squeezing pastry bags and the pain has never returned!!!! I think this is bizarre and I don't get it, but this might be worth a try. Good luck!!!!!!

I work for an orthopaedic surgeon who does carpal tunnel releases all the time, and has really good results with it. Seriously, the actual surgery is pretty quick, so you're not under anesthesia for very long, and the recovery time is great. Since I started working there last fall, I have not heard a single patient complain of problems after their surgery. Obviously, there is a little recovery time involved before you're up to full speed, but everybody seems to think it's worth it.

The dr I went to is military (so that might explain my question from the start), but he said the pain I have in my arms and elbows is from my shoulders and neck, not my carpal tunnel. Is that true? Would the surgery help with that pain also? I can only sleep flat on my back because of them falling asleep.

Wow!! Thank you all so much for helping me....Yes, I wear a magnet alot only taking it off for showering and when I put an ice pack on. I recently stopped wearing it to bed because it was getting worse at night. The pain wakes me up at all hours and I am exhausted.
I drop 2-3 combs per haircut and recently dropped my HOT iron!! (scary!) I am scared of burning someone. I dropped my 1st cake order!! Thank God the lid touched the top fondant and held it down.....

As for the surgery, how long for recovery? 4 weeks? Last year I had a uterine tumor removed through my caesarean scar and recovery was 3 months so I am a little wary.....

Thank you Mac. I have another appt the end of June and will talk about it then. My hands go numb all the time, and I'm having my issues with my thumb on my left hand. But I will do my decorating until I am 6 feet under (they have a bakery in heaven, don't they?).

Wolfy- If there isn't a bakery in heaven.....I don't want to go! What would I do??
The problem with me seeing a doctor is that I don't have one. I don't go to the doctor. I guess if that is the only choice though (if the chiro. and accu. don't work) I will make an appt? What kind of doctor do I look for? And how do I find the right one?

It all will depend on your insurance, PPO, HMO...
Some neuro-surgeons require a referral from a general practioner or your regular doctor. A neurologist will do the test then send the report to your doctor who will then refer you to the surgeon.

I had both hands done at the same time to cut down on my deductible. It was going up after the scheduled surgery date for one hand, so I opted for both hands to be done. The only problem I had was that I couldn't turn a doorknob for the first few days and my DH had to pull my pants up...LOL!!! He threatened to close all the doors in the house if I got unruly!

How would I surf Cakecentral with 2 hands down?? I will have to do 1 hand at a time no matter what!! Thanks for the advice.

Around here the orthos do the carpal tunnel releases. I'm sure neurosurgeons do them too, but it's a long way from where I live to the nearest neurosurgeons, and usually people around here just go to them for back and neck problems that are going to require surgery.

Our orthos do them , too. However, because it has to do with the nerves, I would opt for a neurosurgeon, if possible. I know that all they do is go in and clip the band around the nerves but my aunt had it done by an ortho and it was not successful.

Most of the doctors here refer patients to neuro rather than ortho.