Day 4 Unhelpful Specialist

I think one of the worst encounters I had with a doctor was with a Neuromuscular Specialist that I was really looking forward to seeing. My neurologist had made it seem like she was going to be the expert to help me where no one had before.

When I met with her, she did not address majority of my symptoms (basically ignored my glute pain/sciatica and neck pain) And told me that I was too young to have all of these things. Then she told me basically that my primary care doctor already diagnosed me with carpal tunnel (gee, thanks!). She did a few tests by poking around my fingers and wrists, and then said because of my elbow pain and pinky numbness that I was also having cubital tunnel. I had already had an EMG that was flawless at this point. She basically told me sleep with a brace (I already was at this point) and to not overuse my hands and arms. She essentially told me I was stuck with this (not her exact wording of course, but that was the gist of it) but at least it’s mild for now.

I think I definitely hang onto this unfortunately, even though I know that my EMG came back great. Every time my fingers start to tingle and go numb, I think to myself how much longer until I am going to need surgery. I am very aware of how much I need to stop thinking these thoughts in order to recover. I think it’s just hard because majority of the people I’ve talked to in my life that have had similar issues have just gone through with surgery. I’m not even at a point where they will offer me surgery, and yet I find myself thinking how long will I suffer with this. I know I just need to keep working on reminding myself that this is perceived danger Pain and my nerves are not actually damaged (I had the nerve conduction study to prove it). I just want to keep believing that you can recover from carpal/cubital tunnel and it does not always require a surgical approach.