What Carpal Tunnel Taught Me

Last week, I talked about unhelpful beliefs that can pop up during pregnancy. Some examples of these beliefs are:

“I am a failure.”

“I am being dramatic/over-reacting.”

“It is my fault/I am responsible.”

“I am losing control/I have no control.”

“I am losing control [of my body]” was a belief present during my first pregnancy.

Did you know you can get carpal tunnel syndrome during pregnancy?? ME NEITHER.

When I was about 28 weeks pregnant, I woke up in the middle of the night with my right arm in excruciating pain. 

What I soon learned was that I developed carpal tunnel syndrome.

When you sleep during pregnancy, all those lovely additional fluids in your body spread up from your legs, causing there to be more fluid in your arms.

In other words, carpal tunnel during pregnancy is the worst at night.

I wore special wrist braces.

Saw a hand therapist.

I did all the PT exercises.

NOTHING helped.

I felt powerless, and like I had zero control over the pain I felt at night.

Having no control of the pain caused a lot of emotional discomfort. 

But it was when I realized my resistance to the pain caused me more distress, that there was a shift in my experience.

I coped by thinking about the ways this pain could be teaching me something:

• How to breathe through the pains of labor

• Getting used to being awake throughout the night, which is inevitable with a newborn

• And having gratitude for the stretches of sleep I did get

This is not toxic positivity, but rather it is radical acceptance that I had no control. When I viewed this experience differently, my suffering went down, even though the physical pain remained.

If you resonate with any of this, and you are interested in identifying, and changing, your own unhelpful thoughts or beliefs… 

Try my FREE eBook, What’s Holding You Back?: 10 Common Limiting Beliefs in Parenthood!