CTS In Pregnancy

We have all heard of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, for those who haven’t its basically numbness or tingling in the hand and arm caused by a pinched nerve in the wrist.  That’s just a basic definition.  The Carpel Tunnel is what protects a main nerve to your hand and the nine tendons that bend your fingers.  When you hear the definition of CTS I’m pretty sure your first reaction is “oh it’s just a pinched nerve…nothing to cry or worry about“, BUT until you actually have it you don’t realize how bad and uncomfortable it is.

I woke up one morning and I might be exaggerating a little bit but I noticed that my hand hurt really bad.  At first I thought I had slept on my hands and that’s why they hurt and I figured it would go away in a few.  It wasn’t really a pain type of feeling.  It felt like if my hands had fallen asleep, or like a sore type of feeling you get when you work out for the first time.  The next day same thing, I woke up with that feeling, it would go away but in a couple of hours it would come back.  It continued for the next few days and I started to get a little worried because I knew for sure I wasn’t sleeping on them.  My doctors visit came up and I explained what I was feeling, he immediately said it was Carpel Tunnel Syndrome.  He said “Since your body is retaining extra fluid it can put more pressure on the nerve causing the numbness and the tingling….” He continued to say “…it’ll feel worst at night but it should all go away after the baby is born…”  My doctor is always very calm, which in a way is good because it allows me not to freak out about certain things, so I thought to myself “it’s normal, other women get it and it goes away“.

CTS in pregnancy makes its appearance around the second trimester through after birth.  For some women it’s not that bad but for me it’s bad.  I feel it all day and my hands get weak making it hard to hold things.  (just my luck right?)  I’m a stay at home mom so everything I do involves my hands, cooking, cleaning, driving … etc. It feels really bad in the mornings right after I wake up to the point where I want to cry. Throughout the day I still feel it but not as bad.  It’s not just numbness and tinglyness, it’s discomfort, in my whole hands, I can barely make a fist and my fingers cramp up.  The feeling has now made its way to my forearm and I can feel a sensation going upwards towards my shoulder.   There is no cure for CTS during pregnancy, most doctors don’t even examine you when you tell them what you’re feeling, they just suggest one of those wrist bands or you avoid repetitive hand and wrist movements (yea right, I told my husband the doctor said I can’t cook or clean and he laughed hahaaa).

I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to make a post about this since there is no actual remedy or cure for it.  I don’t want to start posting things that I don’t have a solution for but being that I had no clue CTS was even common in pregnancy I figured I’d post it anyway for any future pregnant mommas that may have this.  So CTS is very common in pregnancy but I should say symptoms may vary, some of us get it bad and some of us get it and probably don’t even think anything of it. In most cases it goes away anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks, if it doesn’t go away then you would have to go see a specialist.  If you’ve had this while you were pregnant and have any remedies or suggestions on what worked for you leave a comment down below. Thanks for reading guys! 🙂