Ive had both carpal tunnel release done one nearly a year ago and one this August. The first one took a long time to heal and recover from. The scar tissue went very lumpy and solid, so ended up having treatment on that, but thankfully things have worked out now. The only problem i have now is i lost the feeling in my thumb tip from the first operation. I was advised not to have the other one done for 6 months until i had full working use of my first hand which is why i had such a big gap in between the two. Hope your recovery speeds up for you x

You're welcome. Hope it helped 💜

The fear of pain worsening in fibromyalgia patients can be a big deterrent to surgery, but it doesn’t have to be. People with fibromyalgia can still have surgery, even elective surgery, whether it be for a knee replacement, a cosmetic procedure, or something else.

“It is not a contraindication to have surgery,” says Gordon A. Starkebaum, M.D., emeritus professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology at the University of Washington in Seattle. “One just has to realize that because people with fibromyalgia have higher intensity pain, that post-op may be more painful. Recovery period may be longer. There is the risk that pain may be somewhat worse after surgery. But it doesn’t exacerbate the fibromyalgia condition by itself.”

While surgery shouldn’t exacerbate the fibromyalgia in general, there are incidences of short-term flares after other more benign procedures.

I had thumb surgery 5 years ago and I read it does take fibromyalgia patients longer to recover. I found a few articles to convince my doctor to give me more tramadol for an additional two weeks. He refused to refill it because he thought I was becoming an addict. He didn't take the time to notice that in all the 7 years the family practice saw me I was on tramadol and never abused it. In fact, I have no history whatsoever of drug abuse.

Sorry to hear that Andrea. I know when your in pain and have nothing to take to help. When I had this surgery, they only gave me 15 hydrocodone pills. I had excruciating pain when the nerve block wore off. They would not refill. They gave me Tramadol instead, and they would not call it in to my pharmacy, they made me drive 40 minutes to pick up the prescription. I was so darn angry! My carpal tunnel incision is all lumpy. It feels like a hard ball inside there. I doubt it's going to dissolve on it's own. Lots of nerve pain going on too.