Aurora's Fingers

If you are one who awakens at dawn to feel around for your first 3 fingers, you could well have carpal tunnel syndrome or CTS, a malady I have had for the past 3 years and which I fondly call aurora's fingers (did Aurora, goddess of dawn, have it?). 

photo from Google images

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a disturbing hand disease that causes sensation of pins and needles, and numbness of the first 3 fingers (start with the thumb) and half of the ring finger, especially at dawn (aurora). During the first months, the symtoms can be fleeting, a few dawn awakenings due to numbness, and relieved by shaking the hands. Later, these symptoms become more intense, prolonged and associated with weakness of the thumb and index finger grip, or the pincer grip. Each dawn becomes a misery as sleep and the pins and needles vie for the few more minutes of slumber till morning sun.

There are many possible causes including inheritance, age, work-related causes,  as those seen in jack-hammer operators and long distance drivers and other events that cause pressure inside the carpal tunnel, (where the nerve that gives sensation and strength to the 3 1/2 fingers is lodged), to rise and create the nerve pinch. Perhaps for me, it's stick driving, and the vibration of  the wheel during the frequent long drives I do daily.

Rest from repetitive or wrist-intensive hand activities is paramount for relief during the early days of the disease and  a CTS splint can be helpful, but only for a time. Nerve-pain relieving drugs, and injections into the carpal tunnel are also known to relieve the pain. Don't wait though, for the pincer grip to be compromised to the point of being "clumsy", frequently dropping utencils and hand-held stuff.  Decreasing the carpal tunnel pressure by surgery can be a permanent cure.

For those with the inherited trait, prevention may not work, but those who don't have the symptoms yet might have to avoid some activities (operating jack-hammers, vibrating equipment, etc.) 

Common and disturbing as it is, it is far from life threatening and many an elderly chap or lady have lived with the aurora fingers, albeit, with misgivings.