Any Carpal Tunnel sufferers out there? Looking for advice...
About a month ago, I started experiencing numbness/tingling in my right hand - often woken up during the night with pain and numbness. It persisted for a few weeks, got worse (at first, went away during the day - eventually numbness persisted throughout the day, inability to make a fist, and continued night time pain).
So - went to an orthopod - diagnosed as Carpal Tunnel (tingling/numbness mostly my inner thumb, and fingers 2, 3 and 4, not pinkie). He gave me a cortisone shot - also some exercises. The day of the shot and day after pretty much all symptoms vanished - then back with a vengeance. Wearing a wrist splint at night gives some relief, but is awful by morning. Not wearing a wrist splint makes it easier to go to sleep, but hand is awful in the morning. It loosens up a bit during the day, pain goes away but numbness persists. Best relief is using a bag of frozen peas for 10-15 min on the inside, then outside, of my hand - I do this hourly.
I've got a call back to the doc, but wondering if any of you with this affliction found ways of making it ease or, even better, eventually go away. Using a laptop is not a great experience at all (and could have led to this in the first place).
Thanks for anything you can share about this - I'd prefer to avoid surgery. Some have told me about various massages, accupressure or accupuncture - but my preference is to avoid urban legend or woo solutions and focus on things that have actually worked for people.
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had the surgery decades ago. Like a good daughter, I brought her home and tucked her in bed afterward. I made dinner. Let's just say peas were not a good choice for a vegetable. I wish cell phone cameras were around for that. We were rolling with laughter just as fast as the peas were rolling off her plate.
Get yourself a stress ball, something that fits into the size of your hand. Hold the ball and squeeze, release, squeeze, release; do this whenever you have some free time on your hands. 
It will be painful at first but over the courses of several days you will start to get some relief and the CT pain will go away. The carpal tunnel never goes away completely because of our work but whenever I get a tingling or numbness, I bring out the ball for some hand exercises. I didn't want surgery and someone suggested this which I found has helped me. I hope it helps you too.
