In October, 2001, I woke up one morning with a tight feeling in
my wrist. I hoped it was a one-time thing. It happened again later
that week. As a computer-geek (even other engineers see me as a
computer-geek), I knew what this meant. I hoped to make it to March,
the next time I could get health insurance. Within 2 weeks, it got
to be a throbbing. Within another month, it was not one incident
every 3 days, but 3 incidents per day. While they were only mildly
annoying, I knew *^&% well what they meant. I was amazed at how
quickly things got worse.
In December, I woke up with two hands, numb on the pinkey side.
I gave up waiting for health insurance. I didn't bother with a
doctor visit. I knew what I had, and what had to be done. I went
shopping locally for carpal tunnel braces. The ones I found were
uncomfortable. I searched the net like any geek would do. I found
ones I liked, and ordered them.
Bird & Cronin cinch-lock braces are WONDERFULLY comfortable!
They are well padded, and they don't cut into my forarms like the
ones I tried on locally (at least the 11" long ones don't). With the
stays on top and bottom, it eliminated the problem of being able to
bend the wrist upwards, as I could with most brands. While probably
not the best for warm climates or factory work, I highly recommend
them for the common user.
I wore them 16 hours per day for about 4 months. The last two
weeks of that, I had no incidents.
Carpal Tunnel may haunt me the rest of my working life (about
another 35-40 years), but I never got to the shooting pain symptoms,
and avoided surgury. Early treatment worked well.