Same thing for carpal tunnel surgery another friend's mother underwent. The efficacy rate for these is bad.
Carpal tunnel surgeries are sheer butchery dine out of greed. I've known several people who have had them, and NOT ONE good result. There are also similar surgeries for the elbows and the tendon behind the knees; they're called something different, but it's essentially the same concept.
I have dodged these types of surgeries FOUR TIMES in my life; elbows and knee once, and carpal tunnel twice. The last carpal tunnel guy was pissed that I said no, and promised me I'd never use my hands right again.
There's a very cheap, easy solution to these problems: stop doing whatever repetitive motion that's causing it. Immobilize and pad the area, day and night. There are nighttime carpal tunnel sleeves that are very comfortable for sleeping. There are gel elbow pads and knee pillows if that's where the problem is. After a VERY long time of being very diligent, the area will heal.
The carpal tunnel thing was bad; took about a year of wearing braces on both wrists 24/7. The elbows, about two months wearing them 24 hours, and 6 months at night. Knees are difficult because you can't just stop using them, but after a year of sleeping with a flat pillow jammed between my knees, it's a lot better. I can use my hands just fine as long as I don't do any repetitive movements for too long, and I'm careful while lifting heavy weights. Elbows, completely resolved, but I still have the pads if I ever have a problem.
These greedy bastards KNOW that tendon surgeries don't work, that the results are often more crippling than the problem, but they want to do it anyway, because they want the money. They don't tell the patients about the appalling success rate; instead, they tell the patient "This is your only hope."
Unlike back surgeries like the lumbar fusion with the 40% success rate, there is NEVER any circumstances in which you should say "yes" to carpal tunnel or other tendon surgeries. NEVER. It will fuck you up, the surgeon will bruise or even damage the nerve, making it worse, and eventually the tendon sheathing will heal back around the nerve, and you'll be back at square one. NEVER accept this quackery. It should be illegal to even do surgeries with such a low long-term success rates and such a high rate of patient dissatisfaction. I have a friend who had the surgery FIVE YEARS AGO and she still can't feel her fingertips and has numb patches in the palms of her hands. You can say NO. Who cares about the doctor's feelings, fuck that guy.
