Me and my operation: carpal tunnel syndrome | Mail Online

Me and my operation: carpal tunnel syndrome | Mail Online: "Me and my operation: carpal tunnel syndrome by ANGELA BROOKS, Daily Mail.

I've been looking at articles about carpal tunnel syndrome in press and other medias. Below is a story from the British Daily mail. I write my bulleted comments between the lines.

The NHS undertakes 37,000 operations a year to tackle carpal tunnel syndrome - a condition in which the wrist nerve becomes compressed.

Here, Julie Jewitt, 40, a hospital theatre sister who lives with her partner and two children in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, tells us about her operation and her surgeon explains the procedure.

The patient says:

• Julie Jewitt found carpal
• carpal tunnel operation
• cured her hand discomfort

Strange sensations in my left hand started seven months into my first pregnancy seven years ago. I had pins and needles in my fingers which woke me up at night.

• Pregnancy
• Pins and needles in fingers "woke her up at night"
  

When I woke in the morning, my fingers would feel completely dead, but once I was up and about, that feeling would fade.

• Fingers feeling dead
• The feeling faded
  

I had a vague idea what it was, so I put off going to see my GP for two years. When I did finally go, he immediately told me he thought it was carpal tunnel syndrome and sent me for tests.

• Two years before visiting her GP (General Practitioner)
  

I knew a carpal tunnel release operation would combat the problem, but it was a matter of plucking up the courage. I decided I had to take action when it started to affect me at work, so I arranged an appointment with hand surgeon Douglas Campbell.

• Operation would cure
• Getting the courage
• Affecting work
  

He said it would be done as day surgery under local anaesthetic. They would wrap a tourniquet around my arm and then make an incision in my wrist, which would relieve the nerve under pressure.

• Surgery
• Local anaesthetic
• Incision in her wrist
  

I arrived at the hospital midmorning. Mr Campbell came along about 15 minutes before the operation and gave me an injection of local anaesthetic.

• There is nothing about the diagnosis
• Did she go direct to the hand surgeon?
• How about ENMG or mediracing?
• How about ultrasound?
  

I was very nervous walking to theatre, partly because I was among colleagues and partly because, as a nurse, you feel as if you're there under false pretences. At the back of my mind was the fear that they might find something else.

• The patient is a nurse
• Fear for finding something else
  

Mr Campbell provided a running commentary of what he was doing and it took no more than ten minutes. I left theatre with my arm bandaged and in a sling.

• The operation took 10 minutes
  

The bandage was taken off a week after the operation and the stitches were removed four days later. The scar is so small, it's hardly visible. My sleep is back to normal - my only regret is not having the operation done sooner.

• Bandage was taken off a week after the operation