This week, I “graduated” as a patient from Occupational Therapy. Why was I going to OT you might be wondering? Well, I should probably take you back to the beginning. Buckle up, it’s kind of a long story.

Two summers ago, I started feeling some discomfort in my left wrist. Luckily, I’m right-handed so it didn’t affect my day-to-day all that much. But when the discomfort started turning into constant pain, it was getting hard to ignore.

I told my parents about it and they suspected it was carpal tunnel. I started wearing a wrist brace every night while I slept, and while the pain wasn’t exactly going away, it wasn’t getting worse either, so I thought it was helping. I knew carpal tunnel wasn’t going to go away overnight, so I tried to be patient.

Flash forward a year and a half, and not only was the pain still there, it WAS getting worse now. It finally got to the point where I was tired of putting up with it and hoping it would go away on its own. At my annual physical at the end of September, I brought it up and was told I should probably go see an Orthopedic Surgeon. But before I could do that, I first needed to do a nerve conduction exam to make sure there was no potential nerve damage.

I’m not sure how many of you reading this have ever had to get a nerve conduction exam before, but I’m here to tell you, they’re not super pleasant. They had to literally shock several points on my arm and my hand to test the nerve function, and while it wasn’t painful per say, it definitely wasn’t comfortable! And they had to do it on my good arm too to compare, so twice the fun. 🙂

Luckily, my results came back showing no nerve damage so that was a plus.

In November, I met with one of the Orthopedic surgeons who basically told me the hand/wrist is a very complicated part of the body, and I needed to see a hand specialist. Buuuuut there are no hand specialists in Watertown, so I had to schedule a visit to see one in Sioux Falls.

At this point in the journey, I’m getting pretty frustrated. How many times have you been hurt or sick and just want someone to tell you what’s wrong and how to fix it? Yeah, that’s where I was at.

Growing up with two parents for doctors though, I try my hardest to give some grace. I know even they don’t know everything, and the body is a very complicated thing. It’s sometimes impossible to know exactly what is going on, and what may be causing it.

So, I took a half day off work and ventured down to Sioux Falls to see the hand specialist. He tested my hand strength and said my left hand was weaker than it should be, even as my non-dominant hand. My wrist was also making a horrible clicking sound whenever I moved it and when I showed that to him, he made a face and said that was definitely not normal. He said unfortunately, in order to find out what’s going on, I would need an MRI.

And I’m sure there are plenty of people reading this who have gotten an MRI before, but I’m here to tell you I’d rather get a nerve conduction exam once a week for the rest of my life than to ever have to get another MRI lol. I am very claustrophobic, and I knew it would be rough, but I also kind of hoped since it was my hand, that maybe I wouldn’t have to be all the way in the machine.

I was wrong! I had to go all the way in. Luckily, I was able to go in feet first though, instead of head first. So my head was even with the opening of the machine, and if I looked up, I could see out. I think that’s the only thing that got me through. My heart was racing so hard by the time it was over. I told Dan afterwards that they better find something to make it worth going through. I was kind of joking, but also, kind of not joking.

The MRI showed that I have two cysts on my wrist – one on the side and one in the middle. The hand specialist said there really wasn’t anything they could do about them, that they should go away on their own, but they could potentially be causing inflammation and it could be why I was in pain. They recommended I go see an Occupational Therapist for a few weeks and see if that helps.

Now, I’m really getting frustrated. Again, I was trying to trust the process and hope I would eventually get some relief, but it was hard not to feel like I was just getting passed along from doctor to doctor at this point.

My first visit with the OT, I proceeded to tell her what was going on and all the steps I had taken thus far. When I finished explaining, she told me it sounded like I might have torn my Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC), which is the little ligament that holds all your hand bones together. She said it’s possible that one of the cysts could have rubbed up against it enough to cause it to tear, since usually it’s torn from impact, and I don’t remember falling or hitting it on anything.

She also said it’s not something that would have shown up on an MRI because the ligament is so thin. I would need a CT scan in order to tell for sure. But she said we were just going to proceed with treatment as if that was what it was, and if nothing improved, we would know it’s something else.

Honestly, she was the best. Turns out, that’s exactly what was going on and I’m kind of kicking myself for not starting with OT to begin with. But, how would I have known? Over the last two months, I’ve been working diligently on all the exercises she’s given me and there has been a ton of improvement.

Earlier this week, I had my last appointment. I told her I didn’t think it was 100% better yet, but we were probably about 85% there. I stopped wearing the wrist brace at night; the clicking had drastically improved, and some days it’s not even clicking at all; and we’re back to a slight discomfort rather than all day pain. Which, if I keep up the exercises, should hopefully go away soon as well. We re-tested my hand strength at that last appointment, and she said it was right where it was supposed to be. So, I’m hoping if I keep up these exercises and continue to wear the TFCC brace when I work out, in another month or so, I bet it’ll be back to 100%.

I wanted to share this because I know plenty of other people have been hurt or sick without knowing exactly what was going on or how to make it better. It can be a long, expensive, frustrating process, but I can tell you it was worth it in the end. It’s so much better than being in pain all the time.

I know it’s easy to get frustrated with medical professionals – my parents had to talk me off a ledge plenty of times during this whole journey – but trust they are doing the best they can with your best interest at heart.

And before anyone tries to argue that, I know there are bad doctors out there that give the good ones a bad name. That’s going to be the case with any profession. There are going to be bad people out there no matter what. Find a new doctor if you must. But I sincerely hope you don’t just settle for being in pain or accept the fact that you’ll be sick forever. Trust the process and pray it leads to a solution. That’s really all you can do. Because unfortunately, it’s not really a matter of if you get sick or hurt, it’s when.

Stay healthy everyone!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Nelson