Hello fellow makers & Knife Nuts!

R

Rhinoknives1

Joined
Jul 1, 2013
Messages
32,479
I have Carpal Tunnel in both wrists and Cubital Tunnel in both elbows from close to 20 years of knife making & sharpening and most likely the cement work I did when I was young.

I'm getting the left arm done tomorrow and then in a few months going to get the right side done.

I'm going to be bionic pretty soon! ;)

So Ladies & Gents. Some smoke, Prayers, good thoughts or whatever your thing is, would l be greatly appreciated!
 
Best of luck, Laurence. What procedure are they going to do? I just had cortisone shots and bindings on my wrists. Knife making can get hard on the ole body sometimes.
 
Thanks David,
The surgeon is going to make room for the nerve in the elbow and wrist tunnels. He said the shots wouldn't do a thing as advanced as mine is.

Grinding and sanding sure do stress those places. LOL I sure hope those shots help you. I am in a fair amount of discomfort and my hands will lock up and contort on me. Looking forward to getting it done. I have some orders to fill. lol.
 
Laurence---smoke and prayers going out to you. And the same goes for Bubb-san, as he has no internet access currently. Stay strong my friend...
 
35 years in the construction business and I have never seen a concrete guy make it past 35 ;0) especially those poured wall guys, There is a formula for calculating the age of cement workers that is similar to figuring dog years LOL

Good luck with the surgery, my older brother sider/roofer had both wrists done and it worked wonders for him ;0)
 
Laurence, I wish you a full and speedy recovery, my friend.

Can you give any words of wisdom for those who may be at risk of one day finding themselves in your position. In other words, have you learned from your mistakes?:p

Having been a drummer for 28yrs+, a competitive fighter/martial artist for 17yrs, in the tool, die and mold industry for 14yrs and a fulltime bladesmith for the last 7yrs.... I have had to actively search out ways to preserve my body. There is a path of least resistance in most endeavours we take on in life. I have had to learn enough things the hard way that I now make the effort to finding the easy way.
 
Laurence

Best wishes - I'm sure you will do well. These are routine operations, but make sure you follow the post-op instructions - we surgeons really DO have a reason for them:D

There are several relatively "easy" things you can all do to decrease the risk of these neuropathies -

1) Don't smoke !

Smoking is obviously not good for a lot of reasons, but has a major effect on the tenuous blood supply to these small nerves.

2) Avoid vibration when possible

obviously, many of the tools you use create vibration - if you can SAFELY use gloves that incorporate gels, these really decrease the vibration.
Forgers, make sure your anvil is as solid as you can make it.

3) Never use "small" muscles if you can use "big" ones instead

i.e. bigger handles so that you don't overuse hand and finger muscles too much


4) Ice is cheap and has basically no side effects - use it on elbows especially if you are sore after working


Things you can't control:

Diabetes - if you have this, you will be more prone to these types of problems. Keep your blood sugar in good control (Glc A1C)

genetics - can't pick your parents! Some folks are just much more prone to these problems

Hope this helps


Bill Flynn
 
billf said:
Laurence

Best wishes - I'm sure you will do well. These are routine operations, but make sure you follow the post-op instructions - we surgeons really DO have a reason for them:D

There are several relatively "easy" things you can all do to decrease the risk of these neuropathies -

1) Don't smoke !

Smoking is obviously not good for a lot of reasons, but has a major effect on the tenuous blood supply to these small nerves.

2) Avoid vibration when possible

obviously, many of the tools you use create vibration - if you can SAFELY use gloves that incorporate gels, these really decrease the vibration.
Forgers, make sure your anvil is as solid as you can make it.

3) Never use "small" muscles if you can use "big" ones instead

i.e. bigger handles so that you don't overuse hand and finger muscles too much


4) Ice is cheap and has basically no side effects - use it on elbows especially if you are sore after working


Things you can't control:

Diabetes - if you have this, you will be more prone to these types of problems. Keep your blood sugar in good control (Glc A1C)

genetics - can't pick your parents! Some folks are just much more prone to these problems

Hope this helps


Bill Flynn
Click to expand...



Bill, you are a good egg in all regards.



Laurence, good luck with the procedures!
 
billf said:
Laurence

Best wishes - I'm sure you will do well. These are routine operations, but make sure you follow the post-op instructions - we surgeons really DO have a reason for them:D

There are several relatively "easy" things you can all do to decrease the risk of these neuropathies -

1) Don't smoke !

Smoking is obviously not good for a lot of reasons, but has a major effect on the tenuous blood supply to these small nerves.

2) Avoid vibration when possible

obviously, many of the tools you use create vibration - if you can SAFELY use gloves that incorporate gels, these really decrease the vibration.
Forgers, make sure your anvil is as solid as you can make it.

3) Never use "small" muscles if you can use "big" ones instead

i.e. bigger handles so that you don't overuse hand and finger muscles too much


4) Ice is cheap and has basically no side effects - use it on elbows especially if you are sore after working


Things you can't control:

Diabetes - if you have this, you will be more prone to these types of problems. Keep your blood sugar in good control (Glc A1C)

genetics - can't pick your parents! Some folks are just much more prone to these problems

Hope this helps


Bill Flynn
Click to expand...

First,
Thanks to all of you for the good thoughts!

Rick,
Being an insulin dependent Diabetic I am predisposed to this kinds of problems due to the nerve damaged caused by the diabetes.

He are a few things that helped me put off the surgery for at least 10 years. I also studied Judo, Wado Ryu & San Soo for a number of years in my youth.
Always keep your posture as good as possible like I never let my shoulder sag and always keep my wrists as straight as possible along with a good grounded even weight distribution stance in front of all of my machines from buffer, sander to hand sanding and grinding. Along the lines of what Bill has said about using your big muscles instead of the small ones.

I never work more that say 45 minutes at a stretch.
I put my hands as far as I can over my head and work my way down from finger to nose to toes much in the same manner you warm up and stretch at the dojo before doing anything serious. This is for about 10 minutes and then I sit down and rest for say another 10 before resuming work.

I'm really a walking disaster and will be completely bionic in a few more years.LOL

To date I've had two back operations, "fused from S2 to L-45" had four eye surgeries and two trigger finger surgeries and now my left wrist & elbow with the right two possibly needing it in a few months along with a pronated left foot from being born premature that I have put off having any surgeries on for many years and the discomfort is getting bad so I will TALK with a foot surgeon tomorrow to see if I can plan out perhaps having her do some work on it next July- August when the knife buying and sharpening is in its normal slump.

Bill,
One of the reasons I got into knife making was the small thin handles on most knives just plain sucked for my big mitts.
As a stock removal maker the amount of vibration I expose myself to hasn't help any from your list of No No's! LOL.

I really think full gloves are dangerous around a grinder and that's why I invented my Rhino Finger Skins.
I don't smoke and never have and have always hated Cigarette smoke. Phew!
My A1C is 6.2 and I am trying to get it lower

It all started catching up with me at about 30 and I will now be 56 on the 10th of this month. I found knife making in 96 and though I may have inflicted some damage from this work it has allowed me to make my own schedule to a degree and work around some of my difficulties.

I really am GRATEFUL to be able to walk and lead a fairly normal life with my loving wife, two cats and my doggie!

If any of you have questions that you want to ask me you are welcome to PM or email if you wish to keep it private.
I am not a trained doctor but I think I should have an honorary degree in medicine with all of the crap I've been through! LOL

I had the surgery yesterday and it now seems like I have better sensation and less numb buzzing in my left fingers so that's a great start.

Its time to rest the left now cause it's smarting at me!

Thanks to everyone one for your good wishes and replies! It means a lot to me.
 
Last edited:
Laurence,

Good luck with your surgeries. I've had carpal tunnel surgery in both hands by the doc who does
the Red Sox and Patriots. Great outcome, but, do not shirk on the physical therapy. It's a good
half of recovery. Find the best PT people you can and DO WHAT TELL YOU! It's really important
to your complete recovery. People I've talked to who had a poor result all said to a one that they
really didn't do the complete PT thing. There's a lesson there. Smoke and good wishes.

Bill
 
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