Wrist tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel, had a corticosteroid shot & pain is back

by Heather
(NY)

Basically last yr. I started waking up in the middle of night with pins & needles in left hand & wrist,it got worse & worse, kept thinking I was sleeping on it & since I am in early 30's now maybe I have to change the way I sleep (arm under pillow usually).

But it got worse & worse, from numbness to pain, to weakness.

When I got out of bed would sometimes be hours before the numbness feeling went away & I could even feel my hand, then it would be either pain or just completely weak, my hand was USELESS.

I was so worried I would be like this forever, started wearing a brace & changing sleeping patterns until finally going to ER it was so bad(was in middle of just getting medical insurance-reason I didn't see a Doc right away).

THE ER did x-rays-FINE-and bent my fingers & wrist in certain ways & asked me my level of pain & saw how far I could bend & said they thought it was carpal tunnel & they sent me to a hand specialist & gave me a better brace to wear.


I was confused by "carpal tunnel" since I right handed & I USED TO be a secretary & type a lot years ago but in current years I have done nothing strenuous that would make me get carpal tunnel out of the blue like this.

The hand specialist was VERY QUICK TO DX it as "tendonitis" he ran NO TESTS, only bent my wrist all of 3-5 minutes & fingers around-saw me for & was getting a "shot ready for me.

I was scared & asked a lot of questions "any side effects? what if it's not tendonitis? why am I getting a sot with no tests done first?"

He assured me I had nothing to worry about getting ONE SHOT, that people get side effects when they get multiple shots but I had nothing to worry about & either it would work (cure me) or not work (worse case scenario as per him) and then I would come back for another "cure".

Seemed like backwards medicine but I trusted him and got the shot and IT WORKED, within a day or two my hand was back to it's normal working self, but then I started noticing over the next month or so a SINKING LOOK in my wrist, and a bluish white color, basically my wrist & arm looked 80 yrs. older THAN ME.

I found out from another doctor this was called "atrophy" & was a result of the shot, I was very angry I was never warned of this but never went back to that doctor, since pain went away and what could I do now?

I also had many menstrual problems the next few months (I never put two and two together until recently reading up on this). Here I am now a little over a year later & last two nights I have been waking up with that numbness (how it started back then) I am praying it does not get worse again as what do I do then?

If I get another shot my arm will deteriorate, the first shot already made my arm look SO BAD.

I am not doing anything with my left hand that I know of that should be causing this and then I find out MY SISTER just recently got the SAME PAIN, she is 2 1/2 yrs. older & they dx her with radial palsy but her symptoms are same AS MINE.

They told her to wear a brace. WHAT DO I DO.



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Heather.

1. Well, you just described exactly why I'm not a fan of the medical establishment for dealing with issues like Tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.


2. Radial palsey? A. What does that mean, exactly? And what pharmaceutical was she prescribed for it? B. How exactly did the doctor come by that diagnosis. C. Seriously all they did was tell her to wear a brace?? How is that going to fix anything?? (rhetorical question)

Good for you for asking questions!


3. It seems like another Corticosteroid Injection would not be a very good idea...

Corticosteroid injects are well documented to be able to cause connective tissue damage and other fun things. And it's a hormone, so your body could very well respond to it in other systemic ways as you mentioned.

And for the record that doctor was smoking crack when he said that you couldn't get any side effects from just one injection. Look around my site, people write in sharing that they got all sorts of side effects from a single shot.

And regardless of that, how does a corticoid steroid injection 'cure' anything? (that's a rhetorical question) All they do is, at best, knock out pain for a while.


4. It's a safe bet that when you were working, and in the time since then, you've been ongoingly developing all the tightness, connective tissue constriction, and poor posture that leads to Carpal Tunnel.

That's the way the Tendonitis dynamic and the Pain Causing Dynamic work. It adds up over time, and sooner or later you start feeling it.


5. Most of your issue is coming from up at your neck, I bet. Sure you have tightness etc in the wrist and forearm, but I bet that the numbness etc is coming from up at the neck.

Granted I'm biased, but I suggest that you get my The Carpal Tunnel Treatment That Works DVD. Included with that is the Quick Start Companion ebook.

Together they contain a complete plan to reverse all the factors going into your pain dynamic.


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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com