Book now

Help, my hand feels like its burning!

Does this sound like you?

You wake up in the middle of the night with numbness and tingling into you hand and have to shake your hand out to make it feel “normal” again. Mornings are the worst, but throughout the day you can get burning pain into your hand, wrist and forearm. Sometimes you find it hard to hold onto things and drop them on the floor.

These are all symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

One of the most common ways of treating this (and often overused) is surgery to release the pressure on the nerve as it goes through the Carpal Tunnel.

BUT – Did you know that Physiotherapy can often treat this effectively and keep you from having to “go under the knife”! But first, and most importantly, we need to make sure you have the correct diagnosis!

What actually is Carpal tunnel syndrome?

When the Median Nerve (nerve that comes from your neck) travels through a passage in the wrist (the Carpal Tunnel) it can become irritated or compressed- leading to symptoms of Carpal Tunnel syndrome in the hand and forearm. This nerve has the job of providing feeling and strength to lots of parts of the wrist, hand and fingers

How do we diagnose Carpal Tunnel syndrome?

Both Physiotherapists and Doctors can diagnose Carpal Tunnel syndrome. There are lots of specific Orthopedic Tests that Physiotherapists are trained to do in the clinic without the need for an expensive (and often painful) nerve conduction study. There are other conditions which are treated completely differently to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome but can mimic its symptoms so closely, so its really important that these are ruled out. These symptoms can actually also originate from the neck, rib cage, shoulder or elbow (or a mixture of the above!)

But most importantly, there are lots of ways we, as Physiotherapists, can effectively and thoroughly treat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and can prevent you needing a steroid injection or worse….surgery!

It is so important that we have the correct diagnosis, so we can treat the correct area and get great results for you. If you suffer from any of the symptoms above, please, make an appointment with us so we can help you get rid of your pain!