ARM PUMP OR CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME?
PART 3: Post Surgery Results
It´s been one day shy of 4 weeks since my surgery, and I have been very good about doing my rehab work, and I actually started riding some, about ten days ago, just easy stuff for short periods of time. I increased that over the last ten days, riding a little more and a little harder about every 3 days, doing other rehab exercises in between rides, but letting it recover for a few days between the short rides. At first the rides really made it sore, so I was not pushing to too hard, or I would not have been able to do my other rehab exercises in between rides.
2 days post surgery, still swollen and discolored
10 days after surgery, stitches out!
The healing has gone well, and 2 days ago I rode for about and hour and a half non stop, at a pretty good pace. Enough of a pace to make my left hand start to go numb, but the right hand which was much worse pre-surgery, never went numb. Normally it only takes about 20 minutes for the right hand to go totally numb.
So I made the decision to try a race, which I did earlier today, 1 day shy of 4 weeks post surgery, I raced a SETRA Hare Scrambles, with the plan to go easy and if the hand/wrist bothered me too much, just turn the race into a nice trail ride, or pull off if I felt any intense pain that would indicate I was too early to be back racing. My right hand was still a little weak, and my grip strength was not 100%, so I had to ride a bit under the WFO level.
I got a reasonable start, about 4th or 5th through the first turn in the grass field, then got tangled up with another rider as we ducked into the trees We came together, then he ricocheted left, I went off to the right and unfortunately, there was a tree on the right, which I hit, and crashed, 150 yards into the race. Then I got run over by someone, and another person hit me as I was standing up. That rider actually stopped up against me, then clutched it and roosted over me. If anyone thinks the 50+ A class is a pussy class, think again. These guys are all former factory riders, ex-national champs, and ISDE vets. It´s a tough crowd. I got up, got to my bike, fired it up, and started the race again - dead last. Oh well.
Once I got going and started passing people, I found it hard to really go hard and hang onto the bar with my right hand in the choppy stuff or on big hits. About halfway through the first lap I turned my steering damper up a lot, and that helped, but of course made the bike feel sluggish and slow steering in the tight stuff. I put up with that to keep my right hand on the bar.
I felt OK through the 12 mile course, so I kept a pretty good pace and passed most everyone in the 3 laps we had, finishing sixth overall, third in class. I missed second by 16 seconds, first by 57 seconds. Not too bad for less than 4 weeks after surgery.
My hand and wrist are sore now, but guess what? My right hand never went numb during the race! Never even tingled like it was starting to go numb! Wow. I have to call the CTS surgery a 100% success at this point. I´m really, really happy I did the surgery, and now I just have to plan the time to do the left hand.
If your hands go numb when racing or riding hard, and you thought it was arm pump, seriously consider carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) as a possibility. If you live near the Atlanta area, I can recommend a surgeon that specializes in this type of surgery, and came highly recommended to me. She did a great job that healed wonderfully and had me back racing in less than 4 weeks.
Dr Kay Kirkpatrick
Resurgens Orthopedics
404-531-8590
I hope this series of articles will help folks better diagnose problems you may have with your hands going numb while racing. The surgery to fix CTS is not very expensive (as surgeries go), so if you have medical insurance that covers 80%, your cost will be minimal.
Paul Wright
