by Luminis Health
Bernadette Hagerman suffered through pain in her right hand for years. “I let it go far too long,” she says. “I tried everything to relieve the pain, but there’s a limit to what you can do.” Despite wearing a wrist brace, Bernadette often woke up several times each night due to pain. As time went on, the pain spread to her arm and shoulder blade.
As a cashier at Home Goods, Bernadette had no time for hand pain. “My hands are constantly moving,” she says. “At work I would just power through and it was very uncomfortable.”
But powering through could only last so long. “I realized that I’m just too busy to let [pain] stop me,” she says.
That’s when Bernadette went to Alex Shushan, MD, orthopedic surgeon at Anne Arundel Medical Center, for carpal tunnel release surgery.
As an outpatient procedure, the surgery was quick and only required a few hours of Bernadette’s Friday afternoon. She was back to work just two days later.
“Before the surgery, just raising my hand up could cause numbness,” she says. “After five minutes of driving, my hand would go numb. I couldn’t sew, and handwriting was getting really difficult.”
Now, Bernadette enjoys better sleep and more ease when using her hands. With so much success in her right hand, Bernadette recently returned to Dr. Shushan for a carpal tunnel release on her left hand. “My left hand wasn’t as painful as the right, but I had the surgery to prevent more pain,” she explains.
Again, she returned to work just two days after the surgery.
Alex Shushan, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hand and upper extremity surgery at AAMG Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Specialists.