Help me understand my carpal tunnel!

[knightsam20]

I was injured on the job in June of 2007 and had a traumatic injury to my shoulder and left arm. I ended up with a torn rotator cuff and pinched nerve in my neck. The injury involved my left arm getting hit on the bicep area and the forearm area with a heavy metal door falling on it. I have had surgery on my rotator cuff and have had a fusion on c4-c5. I am still having constant pain in my forearm and now have carpal tunnel. Can anyone please tell me if an old injury that I still have the constant pain in my shoulder and forearm area can cause the carpal tunnel? I need help!

 

[flyajet]

the one thing i would really like to know is just HOW were you actually dxed with the carpal tunnel? what type of testing did they do and if they DID indeed do an EMG on you(the only true way of really knowing) just how far up your arm did they go? did they actually go allll the way up TO your c spine level with this? if not, you really don't know for certain really as to where that actual pain generator is. do you have a copy of all and any testing results like the MRIs that were done on you in your possession? if not, get them all for YOUR own personal medical file AND most importantly so YOU can actually read thru them yourself. if you can get the summary at the very end of the MRI that was your pre op spinal/c spine one typeped here,THAT would be great. also if you had ANY follow up MRIs done on that c spine post fusion/decomp,that too would help tons.

if you have ANY pretty significant finding up there that impacts your median nerve, that too could be at least partially or totally responsible for what only would 'appear' to be actual CT syndrome. alot depends upon just 'where' that real true impingement of your median nerve is at, within that C tunnel or up further even in the arm up to your c spine. this is where that EMG/NCV really really helps to nail down the area of impingement.

as far as ANY old injury creating pain, there are alot of different types of reasons that just IS possible. alot depends upon your original extent of injury, how your healing course went and whether or not the PT that was even Rxed was followed or done even by the therepist the proper way. then you have to look at all other possible 'contributors' here too, you know what i mean? the muscle crap alone can really become a total real pain in some cases. i was lucky to already be getting a wonderful therepy called myofascial release when my rotator tendon(from wear and tear over years, not traumatic like yours was) just snapped on me one morning put of the freaking blue. i too had already had MY c spine problems a long time before the rotater nightmare started for me.

i was seeing this therepist to actually HELP with MY damage and progression of DDD in my c spine along wioth having two seperate surgeries on the c spine and the one that really did me in on my actual spinal cord where they went in thru the back, did a tri level lami and just really created ever since, and ton of heavy duty muscle damage issues for me. i can say that just about every single surgery i have had to have(6) all since 2001, has left behind 'something' in the way of pain.

but if you could post those summaries of the c spine pre and post, it would really help me to try and help you in the very best ways. the way any radiologist actually words specific findings when noted also really does matter, in some cases, alot, so if you could do those summarys word for word, that would really be the most helpful. and plkease let me know if they did do that EMG and how far up they went. since it should have been all the way up to your c spine at the very least when trying to rule in or out CT. sorry you had to suffer thru all this and espescially as a WC case to boot. FB

 

[user with a doubt]

Yes, I have done the EMG/NCT and it was determined then that I had carpal tunnel. They did go all the way up the whole arm and to the side of my neck. When I got injured, I was hit on the bicep area and the forearm area with a metal door that fell on it. But now the hand surgeon says he has to determine whether or not it is related to my injury.

 

[Wowww]

well thats great that they did that. honestly, unless you were having ANY CT symptoms pre injury,the chances are,with the way this rather heavy duty injury just occured,that CT is probably more connected to the injury than anything else. the thing is, that nerve just runs right thru that area on its way down to your fingers and thru that C Tunnel. unless it is actually being impinged right AT that CT, and this is what the EMG would have shown, it could be an injury much further up, ya know what i mean?

it all would basically come down to just EXACTLY where that nerve impingement actually is. what actually IS true CT is that carpal tunnel that is right about at the wrist area, just narrows over time and THAT is what actually IS carpal tunnel syndrome(it just is in almost every case,some level of repetitive movement type injury within that tunnel). if something else were simply impacting that median nerve further up(and you do report pain UP the forearm?) who knows. all the info you would need to actually determine true CT is in that EMG report. if there is impingement there, then it is, if not. damage from other areas and also what just could be occuring within that c spine or the muscle damage itself, could actually be impinging any given nerve.

the thing with CT is that it can form over time and would not just 'suddenly' present itself ya know(you would have started to feel symptoms of it off and on before the true pain set in?)? if this IS actual CT,chances are that this was already underlying in there well before that injury. its just the nature of how a person gets CT that would really be the key here. this is why i am just trying to make certain that this actually IS plain old CT syndrome and not real damage from your injury. its just all those nerves that innervate that hand and fingers ALL pass thru the area where your injury is. so you just need to be certain where the symptoms are really stemming from.

if you could post the pre and post op summaries of that c spine for me word for word, it would really help in determining whether or not your actual c spine(usually around c6?) would have ANY significant findings there. this could produce alot of different symptoms(radiculopathy) that would and could be felt from the neck all the way down to the fingers. any significant findings could explain alot ya know? one thing about wheen we actually have any decomp/fusions done within espescially that c spine is it displaces the "load' and just adds much more direct pressure upon the next lowest vert/disc level. which in your particular case WOULD be that c 6. just do not get any actual surgery for the CT until everything else has been ruled out as a possible generator, K? people who actually have their pain and symptoms actually stemming from c spine or other damage have wrongly been "assumed'(usually by stupid or just plain lazy docs/surgeons) to have actual CT and have undergone useless senseless surgeries only to have the very same symptoms still there well after the six week healing period ONLY becasue the true generator was NOT the carpal tunnel but someplace else. like that c spine level? or in your particular case, even within that damaged muscle too.

you just NEED to be very certain about that true generator area, thats all i am really trying to say here hon. just wondering if you actually did a job where you were doing alot of repetitive motion within that wrist area at all? this is just the usual 'culprit' involved in the creation of true CT syndrome. FB