carpel tunnel surgery

[mjnansen]

I just had the first of two carpel tunnel surgeries and after the stitches come out I'm recovering in my second home on Roatan. Anyone have any diving experience after this type of surgery? My surgeon thinks I can try it as long as I avoid heavy lifting (thats what my husband/pack mule is for!), and stay at rec depths- my surgeon is a diver so I am very tempted to try! I will be doing a repeat on the other hand in about 6-8 weeks, so I will be spending 2 months or so in Roatan and would love at least a little diving!

 

[Mr.X]

I just had the first of two carpel tunnel surgeries and after the stitches come out I'm recovering in my second home on Roatan. Anyone have any diving experience after this type of surgery? My surgeon thinks I can try it as long as I avoid heavy lifting (thats what my husband/pack mule is for!), and stay at rec depths- my surgeon is a diver so I am very tempted to try! I will be doing a repeat on the other hand in about 6-8 weeks, so I will be spending 2 months or so in Roatan and would love at least a little diving!

Had both hands done. Have been happy (although never quite as good as before carpal set in) to dive in all sorts of water. Depth is no issue. I would make sure to recover properly, work the scar tissue and do the recommended after surgery exercises. I wish you a swift recovery. X

 

[TSandM]

Skin healing is undoubtedly fine for any depth within 10 to 14 days of extremity surgery, barring complications.

Avoid the activities with the hand and wrist that you were told to avoid, and diving should not, as far as I can imagine, be a problem.

 

[mikerault]

Just out of curiosity, which hand was it, what were the symptoms? About a year ago I noticed shooting pains in my hand and wrist usually when doing motions such as opening a car door or lifting a plastic bag of groceries (things that pulled the fingers length wise). I also noticed it was only on my left hand, the same side as I usually wore my watch. I wear a dive watch all the time, eiter a dress or working model. If you look at a dive watch, most have a huge crown (well, compared to normal watch) that sticks out from the right side.

This large crown was digging into the nerve junction between the second and third fingers, after typing all day where the watch pushed on the nerves there all day (I do computer work and write books, articles and such) it would leave me in agony.

I switched the watch to the right hand, the symptoms went away, and I haven't had any problems since. It seems to be a similar situation to guys with large wallets in the rear right pocket of their jeans....causes the sciatic nerve to flare up, move the wallet, the symptoms dissappear.

Just a word to the wise in case a Doctor gets a bit cut happy...look to other causes before doing a surgery.

Mike

 

[mjnansen]

I just had my right hand done, but I have it pretty bad in both hands- left hand will be next. I've waited for too long to do this and have lost strength in both hands due to the onset of muscle wasting. I have all the tingling and numbness issues as well as pain. It is a work related condition so as you can imagine I had to jump through hoops before the surgey was performed. The surgeon also reported back that my condition was actually far more advanced than originally thought when he did the surgery- the ligament was far thicker than expected, so unfortunetly my recovery may be slower than we were hoping for, but that surgery is definetly neccessary for me. Still early enough that I can't really tell what improvements have been made, but I think warm water therapy should help tons!