How I Avoided Surgery and Walked My Way Back to Health
A Personal Account by Yamin Ismail — Founder of Walking4U 🚨The Diagnosis That Could Have Led to the Operating Table At 64 years old, I received a medical report that most people would have treated as a straightforward surgical referral. The assessment from the Musculoskeletal (MSK) Service confirmed a full-thickness tear of the supraspinatus tendon in my right shoulder, and bilateral Grade 5 carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in both hands — the most severe grading, with the right hand actively symptomatic. For years, I had lived with a grinding, popping right shoulder that ached whenever I lifted my arm to the side or overhead. At night, burning pain and numbness radiated through my right hand — thumb, index, and middle finger — waking me repeatedly. Holding a pen, a steering wheel, or a mobile phone had become an ordeal. These problems had crept up gradually, a long-term legacy of my earlier years spent rock climbing, abseiling, white-water canoeing, karate, squash, and heavy lifting. The orthopaedic pathway was clear: surgeon review and likely operative intervention. But after careful reflection, I chose a different route entirely — and at the heart of that route was something beautifully simple: ❤️ walking with poles. 👉 Read attached article - thank you.