I have a different perspective to contribute. In "Pain Free" by physical therapist Pete Egoscue, he talks about how misalignments and misuses in one part of the body can put strain on other parts of the body causing symptoms such as pain and nerve compression. If you want to read this directly, it's in the first three chapters of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Pain-Free-Revo...dp/0553379887/
I also bring it up because I experienced it directly. I used to regularly get severe pain in my left forearm and moderate pain in the left wrist. Upon doing his stretches and movement exercises, these symptoms abated. Was I doing wrist and elbow motions? No. I was doing things to improve the hips, shoulders and back. This in turn improved how I used my body and alleviated unusual stresses due to poor biomechanics.
However, your case is certainly fairly severe and I'm not trying to imply that you don't have some other underlying medical condition that needs serious attention.
If you want a non-surgical program to try before surgery, I can personally recommend:
-- Weisberg stretches (~3 mins 2 X per day)
http://www.amazon.com/Minutes-Pain-F...dp/0743476476/
-- Katy Bowman stretches (~5 mins) "Aligned and Well - From The Shoulders Up by Katy Bowman"
-- Somatics (see Thomas Hanna, Martha Peterson, Christa Rypins) (~7 mins)
-- "The Quieting Reflex" by Charles Stroebel for reducing muscle tone. (~5-15 mins per day, but integrated into the day--almost feels like 0 mins)
-- Egoscue program (~30 mins a day depending on what exercises you do)
Obviously, time is the major con for the above. The pro's include:
-- no surgical risks
-- no scar tissue
-- low cost
-- treats the whole body
You'd want to give it 1 - 3 months to evaluate what it can do for you and what is left over when you've fixed what you can on your own.
But I'm not proposing that you should delay the surgery. That is obviously something only you can decide.
Good luck.
