[CatsPajamas]

I had the surgery done on my right wrist and it was really a pretty easy surgery. I hooked up a microphone to the computer and used the speech recognition software that's built into Windows and Windows products (office, word, excel etc). I was only out of work for a few days by using the microphone.

I had more tests done and ultimately we discovered that I had bad bone spurs on my carpametacarpal bone (base of the thumb) which were destroying the joint and nerves etc. I had surgery on each hand to remove that bone ~ quite a bit more complex than the carpal tunnel surgery ~ but I have full use of hands again and little/no pain now.

There are a variety of hand / wrist braces you can get that really do offer some relief. Ice worked for awhile, and so did a regular schedule of 800 mg of Ibuprofen (per drs orders). I was fairly pro active in getting the surgeries done as I didn't like having my movements and activities restricted.

Good luck.