Hi everyone! I've been off the forum for a while - busy with work, life, and nursing some ongoing injuries. My first issue is with my hands. I continue to have numbness and pain while riding and it has made me down right miserable. I have logged over 8,500 miles this season...and I can honestly say that not ONE of those miles were ridden without some degree of hand numbness and pain. I finally broke down and went to see a doctor (a physiatrist) in November. He performed an EMG and diagnosed me with moderate bilateral carpel tunnel. I sought out a second opinion from a highly recommended orthopedic hand doctor. He wasn't completely convinced that it was 100% carpel tunnel, so he did his own little "experiment". He gave me a cortisone injection in my right wrist only, and told me to go out and ride the upcoming weekend. He wanted me to report back to him if I felt any difference between the hand with the injection compared to the other hand without it. While the hand with the injection wasn't 100% pain-free or numb-free, I DID feel a substantial difference compared to the non-injected hand. My left hand was "gone" within the first 20 minutes of riding, while my right hand still had feeling to some degree, throughout the entire ride. A large enough difference for me to notice, for sure. So based on these findings, along with the results from the EMG...this second doctor feels that carpel tunnel release surgery is my only chance at being able to ride "relatively" pain and numb-free. We have not scheduled the surgery yet, but if I decide to do it...it will likely be in mid-January. I would have my right hand done first, and then a few weeks later, the left hand done...with the assumption that by the time I'm back on the bike (probably late Feb/early March) on a regular basis, I will be fully recovered. For anybody that has had carpel tunnel surgery, is this a "conservative" assumption? Or am I looking at a longer recovery time? I'm a bit scared at the prospect of this procedure. I have never had any type of surgery before (except dental), so naturally I am quite nervous. My biggest fear is going through all of this, and ending up worse off than before the surgery! I know that is probably not a likely scenario, but it DOES cross my mind.

My second issue is my left foot. Back in August, I was diagnosed by a podiatrist with tendonitis of the peroneal brevis tendon in my left foot. I did 6 weeks of physical therapy. My last PT session was on Dec. 6th. My foot STILL hurts today. It throbs with pain nearly everyday. After doing some of my own research, I'm beginning to think I might be dealing with a stress fracture of my fifth metatarsal. Of course, I have no proof of this...yet. I'm considering having an MRI done to see if anything shows up. But that would be a costly hunch if the MRI ends up showing nothing. Has anyone ever been misdiagnosed as having tendonitis when all along it was really a stress fracture? Any advice here? I know there isn't much that can be done for a stress fracture other than resting and ice. But I'm open to hearing any other options. Thanks!!!

Linda