6/3/20: Left Hand was a 7 on Pain Scale

The pain is intermittent, not constant.

My left hand is orders of magnitude worse than before. I am typing this with my right hand only. Typing with my left hand is impossible because either my hand hurts and can't be used, or it's fine at the moment but typing makes it worse.

After my last oncology appointment two weeks ago, I started wearing my wrist braces to sleep every night, plus I started doing yoga about every other day. Just a light start, first only 3 series one sun salutations, then gradually adding in 2-3 series two sun salutations. I followed the yoga with leg stretches. I noticed an immediate benefit in my legs; they didn't feel as stiff. But in retrospect, I think poses like the downward dog put the wrong kind of pressure on my wrists, even though my wrists did not hurt while doing yoga.

About a week later, my left hand started acting up. After getting up in the morning, instead of settling into the usual "baseline" (very mild tingling in just the first 3 fingers of both hands), I continued to feel increased numbness and tingling in my left hand throughout the day. Extreme temperatures (a hot plate from the microwave or a cold glass of water) made symptoms worse. Sometimes my fingers themselves felt cold, and I wondered if there was a problem with my blood circulation. In retrospect, at this point, I think I should have taken it easy and babied my left arm. Instead, I kept up with yoga and nerve glides and stretching and walking and housework and gardening as usual.

A few days ago, I woke up with my left hand in pain. It was super numb and tingly, and the pain came from a sensation that something like a rubber band was squeezing my hand so that my fingers felt like their circulation was being cut off, like they were under pressure and would explode. This is the level 7 pain (on a scale of 1 to 10) referred to in this post's title. I freaked out and walked around my bedroom. Any attempt at stretching or nerve glides made it worse. I even took a Lasix (and potassium pill) just to feel like I was doing something. Gradually, after about 30 minutes, my left hand felt better.

For the record, I don't think the Lasix helped. My left hand continued to look noticeably swollen, puffier than my right hand. I didn't even pee a lot, implying there wasn't a lot of excess fluid to get rid of.

At this point, I was worried, but not too worried because the last time my hands freaked me out in the morning, it eventually passed. But what finally got me super worried was that last night, I felt the level 7 pain in my left hand before going to bed, not in the morning when waking up. Putting on the wrist brace made it worse. Walking around helped a little, but what helped the most was squeezing my left hand into a tight fist, with the thumb on the inside. The problem was, once I tried to release the fist, I couldn't open my fingers all the way! It hurt a LOT. Ken noticed a very prominent "line" popping up on the inside of my left wrist, like something was stretched taut, and trying to open my fingers was stretching that line more than it could go. I took two ibuprofen to help dull the pain to fall asleep, no wrist brace on my left hand.

I had made up my mind to call the doctor today because the pain was getting unbearable. In the morning, Ken told me he Googled "carpal tunnel syndrome" and suggested complete rest. I took 2 more ibuprofen and walked around my bedroom for an hour. It's better now. I don't feel like I need to call anymore; I'll see how today goes. I'm going to take it easy for a while. No yoga or housework or gardening. Maybe I'll continue with leg stretches, but only minimal arm stretches, if any. I'll keep walking. Typing only with right hand, but I should limit that, too. Thank God my right hand is still functional. If both hands were acting up with level 7 pain, I honestly don't know what I would do.