If you’re working late one night and you experience some pain and tingling in your fingers, don’t just chalk it up to exhaustion. Pain, numbness, and tingling (in all fingers except for your little finger) are signs of carpal tunnel. Additionally, you may notice that you feel clumsy with your hands; you may be more frequently dropping items or feeling as though you have challenges with pinching. Take these symptoms seriously, and seek out a hand therapist to evaluate your symptoms before they escalate further.
What Is Carpal Tunnel?
Carpal tunnel is inflammation in the wrist that can cause pressure on the median nerve, which passes through the carpal tunnel along with tendons that flex your finger and thumb. Injuries to the nerve can happen with trauma to the wrist, such as a distal radius fracture or simply by overdoing repetitive motions or sustained positions.
But don’t get too fixated on the wrist just yet. Carpal tunnel can be caused by a dysfunction throughout your entire upper extremity. So, we never treat just the wrists’ of our carpal tunnel patients, we treat your entire body and lifestyle.
How Is Carpal Tunnel Treated?
When we treat carpal tunnel at Spooner, we mean we take a holistic view of your entire health history, allowing us to create a carpal tunnel physical therapy plan that is completely personalized.
In your first carpal tunnel physical therapy session with us, we’ll gather details to paint a picture of your entire medical history, including past injuries that may present challenges with your movement and range of motion. We’ll also discuss your goals—what do you wish to get out of physical therapy? Are you aiming to do specific activities again? Do you want to improve your overall quality of life or decrease your pain levels?
Next, we’ll aim to gather insights into your lifestyle since it’s more common in people who work at a desk all day or who have completed repetitive motions time and again. Our goal: to treat the pain and weakness you’re experiencing—but also to prevent it from happening again. We’ll walk you through which movements to steer clear of in order to avoid making your symptoms worse. In fact, we’ll even complete a total ergonomic set up for your workstation in our clinic, complete with photos and notes.
And remember, everything in your body is connected! We include whole-body exercises that are designed to help glide the median nerve along the entire proper pathway. Once your symptoms are under control, then it’s time to kick up the strength with an entirely new set up exercises to keep you strong.
Take Control Of Your Carpal Tunnel
Like so many medical challenges, early treatment and prevention are critical. It will return if the carpal tunnel physical therapy exercises are not adhered to outside of our clinic (yes, even if you have surgery!) We are here to help you stay strong, avoid pain—and avoid surgery in the first place.
Learn more about Hand Therapy at Spooner Physical Therapy. Ready to schedule an appointment? Schedule an appointment or complimentary movement screen with a Spooner occupational therapist at one of our locations throughout the valley.