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Pinky pain after Carpal tunner surgery
by Msstress, Sep 28, 2008 09:30PM
I'm six weeks post-op after carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand. The palm/wrist seems to be healing on schedule.
However, since the surgery, I've had pain and tenderness in my right pinky finger. It feels stiff and swollen when I bend it, but it's not noticeably swollen. In addition, it catches sometimes when I bend it.
Sometimes the pain radiates all the way down my arm, along the path of the ulner nerve. I have no tingling or numbness.
Following the carpal tunnel surgery I had a lot of bruising and swelling in my wrist (I saw it after the large bandage came off.) Also a couple days after surgery, my pinky went totally numb for about 15 minutes a couple of times. All week while the dressing was on, the pinky looked darker than the other fingers (but not quite blue), like when a ring is on too tight.
I told the surgeon about the pinky pain and he said the pinky was a trigger finger. That's true, I could feel the nodules on the tendon after he pointed them out -- but I never had these symptoms before. I have nodules on the left hand pinky, but it doesn't hurt or catch.
The surgeon would not discuss the possibility it was related to the surgery.
So what happened? I'm thinking that I may have had the nodules before (unnoticed) but that when my hand swelled after surgery, circulation to the pinky was impaired. Plus, after surgery I was told to make a fist and then extend my fingers constantly to keep down swelling. All that repetitive motion could have flared up the tendon in the pinky.
Is this a reasonable scenario?
What would a finger normally feel like if circulation had been restricted for a week?
However, since the surgery, I've had pain and tenderness in my right pinky finger. It feels stiff and swollen when I bend it, but it's not noticeably swollen. In addition, it catches sometimes when I bend it.
Sometimes the pain radiates all the way down my arm, along the path of the ulner nerve. I have no tingling or numbness.
Following the carpal tunnel surgery I had a lot of bruising and swelling in my wrist (I saw it after the large bandage came off.) Also a couple days after surgery, my pinky went totally numb for about 15 minutes a couple of times. All week while the dressing was on, the pinky looked darker than the other fingers (but not quite blue), like when a ring is on too tight.
I told the surgeon about the pinky pain and he said the pinky was a trigger finger. That's true, I could feel the nodules on the tendon after he pointed them out -- but I never had these symptoms before. I have nodules on the left hand pinky, but it doesn't hurt or catch.
The surgeon would not discuss the possibility it was related to the surgery.
So what happened? I'm thinking that I may have had the nodules before (unnoticed) but that when my hand swelled after surgery, circulation to the pinky was impaired. Plus, after surgery I was told to make a fist and then extend my fingers constantly to keep down swelling. All that repetitive motion could have flared up the tendon in the pinky.
Is this a reasonable scenario?
What would a finger normally feel like if circulation had been restricted for a week?
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