Cubital and Carpal Tunnel in Same arm Advice - Not sleeping

[REDJP_UK]

A tips for aiding sleep with Cubital Tunnel Syndrome and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ? I am like many started my journey under a consultant but due to this wretched covid will probably have to wait a bit ? I am awaiting an MRI and I am in the meantime on Anti-inflammatory , and Nortriptyline and pain relief which is not touching it ? During the day I can cope as I can keep distracted and rest my arm but at night when I need to recharge my batteries I just cant

[Trenholm]

Sorry to hear that. Had surgery on mine, local anaesthetic at a clinic, in and out in 30 minutes no problems since so I hope you get an appointment soon.

[cyberbarn]

Is sleep more difficult because the anti inflammatories wear off in the night? That was what my problem was when I had a bad flare of my condition.

I understand now that you can get 12 hour ibuprofen. I wonder if that would help with sleep?

I have never understood why painkillers are 'every four hours only' when most people's definition of a night is 8 hours!

[Evonne02]

Hi REDJP_UK

I have Rheumatoid arthritis and Carpel tunnel syndrome in both hands. I had surgery to the worst affected hand first. This was my dominant right hand. The operation was unsuccessful & made it worse. I was asked numerous times by the consultant to have it redone, but I've refused as it was agonising just to recover from the operation.

At the time I was taking the maximum doses of Morphine (slow release), Gabapentin and Cocodamol. All of these barely touched the pain and I was told I couldn't change to anything else or add anything onto what I was already taking.

Since then I just do what I can at home, exercise my hands with a resistance item and just accept the numbness, swelling, acute pain & acute pins & needles as well as the lack of sleep.

Some days I wear a support on whatever hand is causing me issues. This is like a fingerless glove with a metal type strip inside the glove which runs from the top of the palm of my hand to the top of my wrist.

The weather also affects the function of my hands too. To combat this I have gloves inside the pockets of all my jackets and coats. I always cream my hands a few times daily which is like a form of massage to hands.

I now have a daily thing I do before bed & don't know where I got it from. Before I sleep I put what I call "The offending hand" above my head, on my pillow/headboard as I lay on my pillow for at least 10 minutes. Mostly, it works, but when it's ready to flare up I can only just scarily accept it and 'ride it out' I hope some of this helps 😍