Wellness

[AnikaBrodie]

Is carpal tunnel syndrome a possibility? I know symptoms are computer related for some people. I found the following information on the Internet:

Mild carpal tunnel symptoms most often affect the hand and sometimes the forearm, but they can spread up to the shoulder. Symptoms include:

• Numbness or pain in your hand, forearm, or wrist that awakens you at night. (Shaking or moving your fingers may ease this numbness and pain.)
• Occasional tingling, numbness, "pins-and-needles" sensation, or pain. The feeling is similar to your hand "falling asleep."
• Numbness or pain that gets worse while you are using your hand or wrist. You are most likely to feel it when you grip an object with your hand or bend (flex) your wrist.
• Occasional aching pain in your forearm between your elbow and wrist.
• Stiffness in your fingers when you get up in the morning.

With moderate or severe carpal tunnel symptoms, you may have numbness or reduced strength and grip in your fingers, thumb, or hand. It may be hard to:

• Do simple hand movements, such as brushing your hair or holding a fork. You may accidentally drop objects.
• Pinch an object between your thumb and first finger. (This is called loss of pinch strength.)
• Use your thumb while doing simple tasks such as opening a jar or using a screwdriver. With long-term carpal tunnel syndrome, the thumb muscles can get smaller and weaker (atrophy).

Symptoms most often occur in parts of the hand supplied by the median nerve: the thumb, the index finger, the middle finger, and half of the ring finger. The median nerve doesn't affect your little finger. So if your little finger is affected, you may not have carpal tunnel syndrome.

Symptoms often occur in both hands, but they are usually worse in one hand than the other. You may first notice symptoms at night. People with carpal tunnel syndrome can usually fall asleep, but pain or numbness may wake them up.

Not all pain in the wrist or hand is caused by carpal tunnel syndrome. There are many other conditions with similar symptoms, such as:

• An injury to the muscles, ligaments, tendons, or bones.
• Nerve problems in the fingers, elbow, or neck.
• Arthritis in the thumb joint or wrist.

Please have her see her primary care physician for an evaluation and exam.

[Moonchilde]

On 3/19/2015 RedConvertibleGirl said:

I cannot believe she waited 2 hours before seeing a doctor. Patients with chest pains always get priority and are seen right away. At least that has been my experience.

When will she be seeing her regular doctor?

If she had an EKG and blood work on arrival that showed no cardiac event or suspicion of same, the doctor could take his time. She didn't see the doctor for 2 hrs but she was having tests, the results of which were being relayed to the doctor.

[sophiamarie]

I also took the OP to mean that she wasn't seen for 2 hours, which didn't sound right for symptoms like that. IF she had said they had done the workups and by the time everything was read, a doctor came in and spoke to her, that would have made more sense.

Sometimes the wording doesn't come out the way the poster meant. I was going to question it until I saw the above post. Makes sense that way.... At least, I hope she was being taken care of during those 2 hours...

[bells4me]

Heaviness in the chest is scary. I would have called 911, plus she would have been seen immediately. I don't want to scare you but the same thing happened to my friend in 1981. She had a normal EKG at the hospital, went home & was found dead on the floor the next morning. She was 29. Please call for a follow up.

[pggoody]

Thanks for all the replies. And yes, my daughter is following up next week with her Primary. The wait in ER was over an hour to be seen EVEN with her symptoms. An EKG was done first and read by the nurse. My daughter was sent back out to the lobby for another hour before seeing the doctor, who then ordered labs, chest X-ray, and an echocardiogram. 2 hours later she met with him again to go over the results . He explained that her ekg read normal, but he ran the echocardiogram to be safe. I WAS THANKFUL he ordered the additional testing, as I have always heard an EKG is just baseline. It alone is never sufficient . The ER was packed when we arrived, however it was alarming that they made her wait over an hour BEFORE seeing her given her symptoms. Waiting over 5 hours to get the results was stressful for us both. Thank you again for your concern and input??

[pggoody]

Oops meant input!!)

[sophiamarie]

On 3/20/2015 pggoody said: Thanks for all the replies. And yes, my daughter is following up next week with her Primary. The wait in ER was over an hour to be seen EVEN with her symptoms. An EKG was done first and read by the nurse. My daughter was sent back out to the lobby for another hour before seeing the doctor, who then ordered labs, chest X-ray, and an echocardiogram. 2 hours later she met with him again to go over the results . He explained that her ekg read normal, but he ran the echocardiogram to be safe. I WAS THANKFUL he ordered the additional testing, as I have always heard an EKG is just baseline. It alone is never sufficient . The ER was packed when we arrived, however it was alarming that they made her wait over an hour BEFORE seeing her given her symptoms. Waiting over 5 hours to get the results was stressful for us both. Thank you again for your concern and input??

This is very alarming to me. With those symptoms, she should have been taken in immediately. I can tell you that an ECG technician is more qualified to read that, than a nurse. It's possible the tech. told the nurse that it "looked" normal but IMO, she should have been seen before anyone else, with the symptoms she had regardless of her age.

I think she should be seen by a Cardiologist. He will pick up things in an ECG that other doctors won't. That's his specialty. They can perform every test pertaining to the heart, but if the right Specialist doesn't read them, the results can be disastrous......

I hope things turn out okay for your daughter and you come back and let us know. Good luck.....

If this should happen to anyone else, please call 911... They will assess the situation first and the patient will be seen ASAP. The ER figures if you got there by yourself, then you couldn't be that "bad"..... Unfortunate, but true....

[sophiamarie]

On 3/19/2015 straitgirl said:

Heaviness in the chest is scary. I would have called 911, plus she would have been seen immediately. I don't want to scare you but the same thing happened to my friend in 1981. She had a normal EKG at the hospital, went home & was found dead on the floor the next morning. She was 29. Please call for a follow up.

Ooops, sorry I just saw this.

You're absolutely correct. I speak from experience.

[Chrystaltree2]

I don't know but when you find out; let me know because several times I have had symptoms that mirror your daughter's. The docs I saw didn't (thankfully) fall back on that old "stress" thing which means "we don't know". You daughter should definitely follow up with her own pcp for complete exam and her DOCTOR refer her to any specialists he feels she should see. I did but my pcp couldn't find a cause either. So, in my case, it might be stress. The numbness is my lips and the tingling down my arm and into my fingers scared me the most. I do have some arthritis in my neck, my doc though that might have caused those symptoms and then I got anxious about that and my heart started beating fast and it was like dominos falling. The human body is a complicated machine and while people think there's always a reason for every symptom, sometimes there is isn't. Sometimes there's a "blip" in the machinery and nothing is wrong.

[Chrystaltree2]

On 3/19/2015 straitgirl said:

Heaviness in the chest is scary. I would have called 911, plus she would have been seen immediately. I don't want to scare you but the same thing happened to my friend in 1981. She had a normal EKG at the hospital, went home & was found dead on the floor the next morning. She was 29. Please call for a follow up.

It seems like you haven't been to an ER in a very long time. The ER is a busy place and there is pecking order and heaviness in the chest does not get top priority. If a patient arrives on their own and is conscious, talking, breathing without difficult and not bleeding; that patient takes a seat and waits to be called. If said she had crushing chest pains or stabbing chest pains and difficulty breathing, she would have seen a clinician for assessment immediately.