Carpel tunnel doesn't normally come on that fast though. Generally something specific would trigger the earlier stages like pins and needles, numbness in the thumb and palm, weak grip, mine was riding my motorcycle.
By the time I went to the doctors with mine it must have been serious.
I went from gp to nerve conductivity test, (where I should apparently have been crying in pain from the voltage they needed for me to feel) to the knife in less than a month.
Trip to the docs to be certain.