About three years ago, I started to notice my right hand would get sore when I used my laptop. It has a track pad, so I thougth it might have to do with the angle of my hand, or maybe that I was just using it too much. But I slowly realized that the pain was very specific to a certain part of my hand, and way too constant to be normal wear and tear. To be exact, it felt like it hurt around and under the bone at the bottom corner of my palm, straight down from the pinky. (It's called the pisiform bone, as I would later find out).
Now, I'm a wicked procrastinator at heart, so naturally I just put up with it for as long as possible. For the first year or so, it was mostly an annoyance. But in time, I found myself logging off sooner than I wanted to, just so the pain would subside. I even started to use my left hand to operate the track pad once in a while. Using a regular mouse was better, but even that got bad eventually.
So, in early Spring of 2009, I sucked it up and went to see my GP. (General Practitioner). I described my symptoms, and he told me it sounded like I had carpal tunnel syndrome. He instructed me to get a wrist brace designed for carpal tunnel and wear it whenever I was using my hand a lot, like at work. He asked me to try this for a month. If it got better, then I had nothing to worry about. If it stayed the same, he wanted to refer me to a hand specialist.
I honestly did not think I had carpal tunnel. I did a little research on it before going to the doctor, and the symptoms didn't seem to fit. But I'm not an expert, so I figured I would give this solution a chance.
The brace turned out to be quite a challenge. The first one I got in the supermarket didn't give me enough support, but I went to a small privately owned pharmacy by my job and they actually helped fit me for a brace that was better quality. I was waitressing at the time, and it was pretty tough to get used to working with the brace on. I wanted to get better though, so I went along with it.
The brace I ended up with had a wide, flat metal splint that sat under your wrist and hand. (The idea is to immobilize the wrist joint). It pulled on almost like a glove and had three Velco straps. It felt pretty bulky at first. Carrying plates and drinks was no fun, and it took me weeks before my handwriting was legible to anyone other than myself. (I'm right handed).
At first it was nice to get sympathy from people, but that gets old pretty quick. I got lots of jokes about being a bowling enthusiast, or possibly being injured in a boxing accident...
Needless to say, a month passed and nothing felt better. In fact, (I almost thought it was all in my head), it seemed to get worse by the day. So I went back to my doctor for a referral to a local orthopedic practice. The medical group only has one hand specialist, so I waited... Two weeks later, I hoped and hoped I would get the answers I was looking for.
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