At 5 AM I was awakened with severe burning pain and numbness in my hand from my carpal tunnel. I thought it had been moderately severe before, but this was a whole new magnitude. I was wearing my wrist brace. I got up and started pacing. I grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer. I decided there was no way I could go to France tomorrow with so much pain. The pain was 10/10 for 10 minutes and then 9/10 for 10 minutes and then gradually subsided over 90 minutes to spotty mild numbness and then gone for rest of the day. I have a whole new understanding of what “Crazed with pain” means.
I ultimately decided to come to Spartanburg and try several different things to try to avoid the pain tonight. I will wear the brace again. I “borrowed” a Tramadol to see if it will help; I took some Aleve midmorning and have used topical diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory. I am going to sleep sitting up as I do think lying supine makes it worse. The nurse said to try keeping the elbow straight so I will try to wrap it in an ace bandage to see if that will help me not bend it while I am sleeping. Fingers crossed.
When I left Nashville, my thinking was that if in spite of all of these changes, I still woke up with severe pain, I would not go on the trip. But as I had a pain-free day, I can suffer with the morning pain in France or Nashville. If I go back to Nashville, I could hope for a cancellation on the schedule to get the procedure before June 5th but that is not that likely.
So as I prepare to sleep, I hope I will be on the plane to visit St. Remy de Provence later tomorrow.
Tamara Unleashed 