When you feel a tingling sensation in your fingers, you might immediately suspect carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common medical diagnosis that affects more than 300,000 thousand people in Canada each year. Look for these signs in order to determine if it's time to see a medical professional about a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis and treatment.
Tingling Sensation
The most common complaint of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome is a tingling sensation in the fingers and thumb. Typically, your symptoms will be more noticeable at nighttime, because you are likely sleeping with bent wrists. The tingling may make you feel like you need to shake your hands out to relieve the sensation.
Feeling of Pins and Needles
Feeling as though pins and needles are pricking your fingers and wrist is another common symptom in the patients we see. You may notice this symptom after you are engaging in activities that involve you bending your wrist, like driving a car or reading a book.
Numbness
Another early and easily recognizable symptom of carpal tunnel syndrome is the feeling of numbness in your wrist or fingers. This will typically begin in your thumb and fingers, and may not be immediately recognized in your pinky. As time passes, the numbness will travel throughout all of your fingers.
Feelings of Being Shocked
Over time, you may start to feel as though you are being shocked in your fingers. This feeling will come and go as time passes, meaning that the pressure on the median nerve may be worsening. This will cause more pain in your fingers and wrist.
Pain that Radiates up Towards your Shoulder
You may also experience pain that begins in your wrist and travels up to your shoulder. This is a symptom that you will notice as the carpal tunnel syndrome grows worse. This also may cause you to easily drop things or have a difficult time gripping simple objects. The median nerve travelling into your hand is becoming more compressed as time passes, which causes more significant and noticeable pain that can travel its way up your arm toward your shoulder.
If you are experiencing any of these above signs, you may have carpal tunnel syndrome. Early detection will help treatment be more successful and less intense. Contact Harbourview Therapy in Winnipeg today to schedule an appointment if you are experiencing the signs of carpal tunnel syndrome.