Surgery is always an option. Surgery can't be undone. The right time is when both you and your surgeon are sure it is the right time.

gosh tos is just mean sometimes. I just want to say that I truly believe that there is a time and need for surgery. I think the surgery does help when a major nerve is compressed. I had the worst pain ever from a nerve and the surgery did help that very much. The nerve pain stopped but I then had different pain to deal with from the surgeries. I can handle the new pain way better than my nerve being smashed.

the HUGE thing to know is that once the big nerve is compressed the surgery has to be done right away as the nerve gets injured from the compression, then once the nerve is injured the surgery does not work so well AND you have new surgical pain .

I got really lucky and Dr Urschel did emergency surgery 3 days after the severe compression started. The nerve did heal really well and I have never felt anything that painful since then. That was 10 years ago.

This is a major surgery! I think it is just as big as heart surgery ever was.

how do u know if the big nerve is compressed? i get numb pinkies, is that enough? maybe not. dr d said surgery could or could not be done.

Numb pinkies is just involvement of the ulnar nerve which is just part of the big nerve bundle (brachial plexus). If the brachial plexus has severe compression you would likely have symptoms (including pain, not just numbness) in the arm and entire hand. This severe compression should be seen on imaging.