“AFK” means “away from keyboard,” right? The reason being that I’m having a minor procedure tomorrow that will most likely prevent me from typing anything for a (hopefully) short while.

I say “minor” because it’s an endoscopic procedure that they say will only take 20-30 minutes, but it’s really just good ol’ carpal tunnel surgery.

About two years ago, I noticed that I was having numbness in my pinky finger and half of my ring finger on my left hand. My doctor referred me to an orthopaedic specialist, who sent me for nerve testing. I was diagnosed at the time with cubital tunnel syndrome, which involves the “funny bone” nerve that runs through the elbow and affects those 1.5 fingers I just mentioned. We decided not to do anything at the time because it wasn’t that bothersome, and the tests showed that the condition was mild.

Earlier this year, I began to notice that the rest of my left hand was going completely numb at times, especially in the morning, possibly because I was sleeping on my side with that hand folded up under the opposite arm (it’s hard to picture, so I’d recommend you not try.) I went back to the orthopaedic doc (spell check is telling me “orthopaedic” is spelled wrong, but it just looks so dang cool with that “a” in there), who sent me for more nerve testing. The tests involve electrodes and tiny electric shocks. I don’t recommend it.

Anyway, this time the tests showed that my cubital tunnel condition had improved, but that I also had moderate carpal tunnel syndrome. This involves the median nerve that goes from your shoulder, down your arm, through a “tunnel” in the carpal bones of the wrist, and into 3.5 fingers.

Pressure on the nerve in that area is causing the symptoms I’m having, which mostly include numbness and tingling. I also have pain in my wrist sometimes, but that might be psychosomatic. Because the condition was “moderate,” not “mild,” the orthopaedic doc recommended surgery. Since I’ll be there anyway, we decided to fix the cubital tunnel problem too.

I do not recommend Googling “carpal tunnel surgery” if you don’t want to see pictures of what the inside of the human wrist looks like. I’m glad that we’re doing an endoscopic procedure instead of one that looks like a high-school science-class dissection project, but that’s just me. The procedure, as best I understand it, involves cutting the ligament surrounding the carpal tunnel to relieve the pressure on the nerve. Some theories about the condition, from what I’ve read, suggest that carpal tunnel syndrome is most common in people whose carpal tunnels were unusually narrow to begin with. I don’t know if that’s the case for me, but I know that no matter how much weight I gain or lose, I’ve always had skinny arms.

The doc’s PA tells me that I won’t be laid up for too long, and the only definitive restriction they gave me was not to lift anything excessively heavy for a couple of weeks–that’s fine by me :). Since I make my living typing things, my biggest concern was if I was told to stay away from computer keyboards for a month or something. They said it’s up to my comfort level. I type two-fingered (or really fast hunting and pecking, if you will), which I always assumed would protect me from carpal tunnel problems. Alas.

Anyway, my problems are extremely minor.

Photo credit: Blausen.com staff. “Blausen gallery 2014”. Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 20018762. (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons