18 Replies

Hi Nikki,

I don’t have the answer to your question, just wanted to wish you all the best and I hope someone can help you.

Thank you very much for your well wishes :)

I have carpel tunnel in my left hand (which is my dominant hand) that is causing some numbness in two of my fingers, right now i am taking ibuprofen 4 times daily to help with the inflammation, I also have a brace for my hand that i wear when sleeping to keep my wrist/hand from relaxing and bending. I also work in a bakery as well as doing my own baking and decorating at home, so to help i don’t over fill my bags, i only have what i can hold in the palm of my hand (if that makes sense), at home my husband will kneed the fondant and gumpaste for me if needed, i am also (without much success) trying to train myself to pipe with my right hand, very scary results with my piping but hopefully over time with practice it will get better and i can relieve my left hand when needed. If there isn’t any improvement with the carpel tunnel my Doctor and I will be looking into corrective surgery.

Thank you so much for your feedback! Its nice to see that such beautiful work (and amazing piping!) can still be done with carpel tunnel. I have a bandage/wrap that I use on my wrist but only when I start to feel to pain (usually only when I work a lot) and then I sleep with it on for at least a day until the pain stops completely. And I do know what you mean by only filling your bag with a handful at a time. I have noticed a big difference in pain with a bag that is too full and one that is a good handful amount. I will have to be sure to be careful of that when filling, thank you! I use disposable piping bags because I havent had the money to splurge on some nice reusable ones yet. Do you think there is a difference? Grip wise maybe? that might effect the pain level as well?

Thankfully I have less pain when kneading fondant cause I already try to do it standing and use my body weight to kneed it instead of my wrists/arms. But if im sitting while kneading it definitely wears my wrists out pretty quick! I try to keep my fondant a little warm/soft to help with that.

Thank you again. Im hoping its these little tips that I can work into my habits to help keep my condition from getting any worse!

Make sure it’s carpal tunnel, too. I thought I was getting it, but I went to a physical therapist and he said that I was getting hand numbness because of my horrible posture. We spend so much time standing and hunched over a counter, our shoulders tend to slump forward, and that can make your hands go numb. My shoulder is giving me problems now, and I have no doubt it’s my horrible posture causing it.

I don’t use disposable piping bags but I don’t think it would make a difference, my experience is in how much is in the bag, i have also found at work that I need to scrape out the residual icing that is left in the upper part of the bags from the other decorators so there isn’t much of a build up or bulkiness where i twist the bag, and like you mentioned the temperature/pliability of the fondant is helpful as well, same goes for the icings at work, we have some that are quite firm ( especially during the winter months when the pails are left sitting beside an outside wall) and i need to put them back in the mixer to soften them so I am able to work with them more easily.

Costumeczar- I don’t experience any hand numbness. My pain is in the tendons in my wrists (both). When I start getting pain it feels like they are each pulled super tight, they ache and throb and are very sore. While, I have not talked to a Dr. about it yet I have described it to my loved ones who have carpel tunnel and they say that is how theirs started too. But I am also lucky enough that my table/bench is at a good height so that for most of my work I am sitting up straight. I do try to be aware of my posture! But thank you for that, If I ever experience hand numbness I will surely keep that in mind!

When I worked for Cookies by Design as a cookie decorator I didn’t think I was going to make it through my first Christmas there, my hands hurt so bad. I would wake up with what we cookie decorators called “the claw”…I couldn’t straighten up my fingers or hold my toothbrush or even a hair brush in the morning. Then I discovered compression gloves. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sm-Md-Compression-Support-Glove/14264842 What a life saver!!!!! Wouldn’t pipe without them ever again. I get mine at WalMart. This particular brand has support not only for your hand but also for your wrist. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THEM!! Seriously, they are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. (Have I told you how much I LOVE them!!??) Since I started using them, I haven’t had “the claw” once. I even wear them to bed some nights when my hands give me some trouble.

I also found that a hot paraffin bath for your hands helps a lot too. I used to have one of those plugged in in my bathroom all the time so I could put my hands in before I went to bed at night. (Until it burned out. I keep forgetting to buy a new one.) It helped immensely. I’d do that before I put my compression gloves on and I was good for the night. (Sexy, I know, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. :)

In addition to wearing the compression gloves, make sure your icing consistency isn’t so thick you have to squeeze really hard to get it out of the bag. And, I agree with the others who say, don’t make the bags too big.

Kathy, thank you so much for the link! And what an affordable price! I am going to order one right now! So far all I have had is a brace for my left wrist that my granny gave me after she retired from archery and a bandage wrap that I would use on my right wrist. But those look so much comfortable and hopefully much more effect then what I have! If only they had them in black :P

Kathy, I see that the compression glove is latex free, can you tell me what they are made of, I am curious about being able to wear it while at work, I am constantly washing my hands at work and wondering how it would hold up to that, as well as the breathablity of it for drying while wearing it. May also try the paraffin bath to see how it works. Thanks for the tips.

Nikki, thanks for starting this thread, it’s nice to see/hear what others do to manage it.

Great questions about the glove. I didn’t even think about being able to wash my hands with it on but I did read on the website that it was washable which is a plus at least. When mine arrives I will be sure to put some input on how it feels and such!

And you are very welcome, I am very glad I made it after getting some of these great tips and feedback! I hope it will help others as well!

You’re welcome. Mallory, It’s made of an elastic material that reminds me of support stockings but thicker. If that makes sense… When I wear them to decorate I always wear vinyl gloves over them, otherwise they will get dirty quickly. I always keep extras on hand. My hands tend to sweat when I wear the vinyl gloves over them, so this way I can change them. They are washable…I just wash them in the sink with Dawn dish soap and hang them up to dry.

Kathy, Do you cut the tips out of the vinyl gloves? That might help with the hand sweating. I’m glad you posted the link to your gloves. The next time I’m in Wal-Mart, I’m getting a set – plus the plastic food gloves. It probably would be good to use the gloves whether a person has pain or not, as a preventative measure.

Georgia, I do not cut the finger tips off the gloves. It never crossed my mind. lol Thanks for the tip! I really do recommend them as a preventative measure. One thing I might add about the gloves is, sometimes the hole where the index finger goes can be a little tight…you can take a pair of scissors and make the hole a little larger and the material will not fray, so don’t be afraid to do so. Now when I bought mine…they came two to a box for around $9. But buying them individually or in pairs, either way, they are a life saver. I really do recommend them for everyone.

My compression glove arrived today. I was excited and put it on right away. It feels great, super comfortable! Much like when I wrap my wrist with a bandage wrap but alot more support in the hand which is nice. I keep forgetting I even have it on. If I see them next time I am walmart I am definitely going to grab another one for my other hand (I wanted to try it before buying two).

Hi CorpseQueen! I hope that helps you out! I had some major issues when I was cake decorating at a grocery store. I ended up going to the doctor and they did a ultrasound on my wrists. My left hand (dominate hand) they said was somewhere between moderate to severe and my right was mild. I wore a brace at night but would always wake up in the morning with it across the room, I never remember taking it off. It took me months to figure out why it was so bad but the person making the icing for me wasn’t adding enough liquids to the buttercream so my hand was straining to pipe it. I recommend not filling up the bags very full, it is a big help and if you can work with softer buttercream hopefully it will get better. My hands dont hurt half as bad as they use to. I do experience numbness now when I’m reading books or on the pc for to long but just like costumeczar said, I think thats posture related.

Thank you very much for the tips! I don’t do a lot of piping thankfully, I mostly do fondant. A few weeks ago I did a buttercream cake with about 6 dozen matching cupcakes which what was inspired me to make this thread. The pain from that work lasted about 2 weeks, which was unusual my pain usually only lasts a few days at a time. Next time I have to to do any piping I am going to be wearing my compression glove and hopefully I will notice a big difference!

Today my dog got to my compression glove.. I guess she thought it was a little tasty. She tore the wrist open and im still waiting for it to dry to see if its still usable. I guess Ill need to go find some new ones. Hopefully better quality this time. I found that while wearing the palm of my glove was starting to sort of fray/get tiny fuzzies as if the threads were breaking. I guess I was doing something I wasn’t suppose to while wearing it but I always forget when I was wearing it because it was so comfortable! The fact that it was flesh toned didn’t help lol. I am hoping I can find some stronger ones in black.