For Simone, who is a paraplegic from an injury years ago, any issues with her hands or wrists can mean a complete loss of independence. So, when she started developing intermittent symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, she knew she would eventually need surgery, but she dreaded it.
Traditional carpal tunnel release surgeries tend to require a many-week recovery, and because Simone relies on her hands for activities of daily living, it meant she would have to go to a short-term rehabilitation hospital for up to five weeks.
“Recovery at a rehab center is a trial in and of itself—I would rather put up with the pain.”
Unfortunately, though, Simone’s pain and numbness became unbearable, and it was affecting her ability to do chores and impacting her sleep. “For someone like me, where I have to use my hands to transfer from my chair onto the couch or onto the bed, I need those wrists working and strong. And if I’m not rested, I could end up falling and hurting myself. I knew it was time to do something about it.”
A Life-changing Poster
During this time, when Simone was visiting her orthopedist, Dr. Niedermeier, for another issue, she spied signage in the clinic announcing an upcoming onsite educational seminar to go over a new technique to treat carpal tunnel syndrome: carpal tunnel release using Sonex Health’s UltraGuideCTR™ and real-time ultrasound guidance. Intrigued, she and her husband attended.
At the educational seminar presented by Dr. Niedermeier, the more she learned about this technique the more excited she got. “When I learned about the short recovery time, which put a lot of my worries to rest, I thought, let’s just get this done. So, we scheduled the procedure for both wrists pretty quickly.”
On the day of her procedure, Simone asked her doctor if she could stay in her wheelchair rather than having to deal with shifting from the surgical table and back into her chair, and he readily agreed. Dr. Niedermeier then pulled up a surgical table next to Simone’s chair and began.
“I was definitely a participant in my own surgery,” recalls Simone. “I was watching it and everything on the ultrasound as well.” After local anesthetic was administered, Simone couldn’t feel anything but a tugging sensation.
“I could see where the instrument was being put in and the doctor had to really finagle it to get it where it needed to go because my wrists are small and there’s scarring from a previous injury,” explains Simone. After the procedure, the doctor simply applied a Steri-Strip™ on the site and carefully wrapped Simone’s wrist so she would have extra support to be able to use her wrists right away. Then, switching the table to the other side of Simone’s chair, Dr. Niedermeier repeated the procedure on her other wrist.
“Being able to have something that’s really minimally invasive that you’re awake through and being able to be a participant in the process made it a lot less scary.”
Short-term Pain, Long-term Relief
Leaving the clinic, Simone was able to transfer from her wheelchair into the car to get home. She says it was a little painful, but definitely better than heading to a rehab facility for up to five weeks.
“That weekend, my husband did have to help me a lot and it was a rough couple of days. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t paralyzed, because I had to use my wrists a lot more than someone who has use of their legs.” And she’s glad she had both wrists done at once. “It was worth having to go through a weekend of pain to come out the other side and to never need this procedure again. After the weekend (a couple of days) I had minimal pain and was once again self-sufficient.”
“One weekend versus five weeks was an easy decision!“
Simone says for others considering this procedure — paralyzed or not — to forget everything they thought they knew about carpal tunnel release surgery. “It really is as minimally invasive as they say it is. I would tell them, ‘You will benefit from this and get back to your life quickly, so go for it!’” she exclaims with a smile.
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