Carpal tunnel syndrome?

Dear wife has been complaiing of swelling and pain around the wrist of her left hand for several days. The swelling is probably caused by inflammation of some nerves in her wrist. The pain occurs whenever she flexes her wrist when doing normal house work or lifting even moderately heavy loads. On some days, the swelling subsides a little and on other days it flares up again. Besides the pain she also complains of numbness in her fingers and the palm.

The symptom fits the medical condition called carpal tunnel syndrome. According to Internet search carpal tunnel syndrome is compression of the median nerve at the wrist, which may result in numbness, tingling, weakness, or muscle damage in the hand and fingers. I don't think the swelling is an indication of a deep tissue or bone trauma. To put her mind at ease I accompanied her to see Dr Lee in his clinic.

After the physical examination Dr Lee said there is some injury to her nerves around the wrist that causes her to experience pain and inflammation. Carrying heavy loads and doing normal household work chores like cleaning and washing can cause injury to the wrist. She told me that she had been moving some potted plants around the house during the week. The swelling is actually the inflammation of the nerves. The doctor prescribed some nerve relaxation medication to relief the pain and advise her to refrain from doing heavy household chores for the time being.

Although the doctor didn't mention anything about carpal tunnel syndrome, but from his diagnosis it appears to be so. Probably he was truing to explain the medical condition in layman's term.

With her mind at ease now we went to the Ipoh Kopitiam at Metro Point for some snacks and coffee. Later while we were relaxing, dear daughter joined us. She even took some photographs with her digital camera.