Stay Away From Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

By Author: Nancy Rose
Total Articles: 53
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A career in medical coding means that you have to be on the computer for at least six hours a day. And you can even average an hour or so at home when you get home. As such, your chance of getting carpal tunnel syndrome is pretty high. Read on to find out some of the warning signs for carpal tunnel and ways you can prevent it.


It's very important that you detect carpal tunnel syndrome early. Many in a career in medical coding ignore the signs and often end up paying a heavy price by having to undergo surgery.


But you can prevent this if you check out this sampling of carpal tunnel symptoms and possible non-surgery solutions from National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke (NINDS): According to NINDs, symptoms start slowly. Frequent burning, tingling or itching numbness in the palm of the hand and fingers, especially the thumb, index and middle fingers is a bad sign.


According to some carpal tunnel sufferers, their fingers feel ...
... useless and swollen, even though little or no swelling is apparent. Often, the symptoms first appear in one or both hands during the night as many people sleep with flexed wrists. Someone with carpal tunnel syndrome may wake up feeling the need to shake out the hand or wrist.


As they get worse, the tingling may present itself during the day as well as an inability to distinguish hot and cold through touch. Decreased grip strength may make it tough to form a fist, hold small objects or perform other manual tasks. The muscles at the base of the thumb may waste away in chronic or untreated cases.


The bad news for women is that they are three times more likely than men to develop carpal tunnel syndrome as the carpal tunnel itself may be smaller in women than in men.


What you need to do: Get your hands and wrists checked out by a doctor. Treatment should start under a doctor's supervision as soon as possible. Initially treatment normally involves resting the affected hand and wrist for at least two weeks, staying away from activities that may worsen symptoms and immobilize the wrist in a splint to avoid further damage.


The world of medical coding is one of the fastest growing in the medical field, but many would-be medical coders do not realize the full spectrum of employment opportunities. So getting updated and knowing more about medical coding career