ulnar nerve entrapment

Ruz

man this bites. I got this from leaning on my left elbow too much whilst working long stretches at the pc.
Left little finger and hand goes totally numb and hand is weakened
Its like having severe pins and needles all the time.

I recommend any of you guys to be careful how you sit and if you must lean on your elbow, put a cushion under there

Dr Stench

use a better chair and try keeping your back straight.

Lamont

Does it go away? Or is it one of those things you gotta just live with?

Ruz

it does go away with rest, but it came back recently with a vengance.
you have to be careful because if left untreated it can cause muscle wasting

Lamont

Isn't muscle wasting just laying around the house?

danshewan

Lamont wrote: »

Isn't muscle wasting just laying around the house?

I think what Ruz means is that the muscle can deteriorate due to the inability to use it as a result of the original condition.

aesir

Best of luck. I don't know if you can, but a leave of absence would probably be smart for an extended vacation.

Ruz

yeah re the muscle wasting stuff, danshwewan got it right. bit worrying reallly

cheers aesir . I took last week off, but have a new contract on the go tomorrow. I will have to see how it goes.

Marnik

I don't know much about it personally, but I would trust Stench... He's a doctor.

Thanks for the heads up though, I always forget how much posture can help/hurt me. Good luck!

EDIT: Oh, and I'm pretty sure you guys are talking about muscle atrophy =]

Mongrelman

Problem solved.


Any hand exercises you can do that might help? Maybe one of those gripper things?

Ruz

probably I think it best to rest it for now and if its no better, see the doc.
I did try some exercises, but they seemed to make it worse.
It's really uncomfortable. last time it took about a month for it to wear off and its been mild ever since.
But last week I did a 2 day stint with no sleep and that seems to have triggered it again

Lamont

Rest would be the best option. When I wrecked my back, I stopped sitting in chairs so much and just got away from the computer for a couple weeks.

Joshua Stubbles

I had carpal tunnel in both hands when I was a glass cutter. Lift all that shit for 12hrs a day for nearly 4yrs puts some serious strain on you. Most of the problems are gone (intense numbness and pain in hands/forearm), but my hands still tend to fall asleep if I start working on the PC shortly after waking up.

rollin

hey ruz.. sad to hear that,

I use an old mousepad as rest.. bc I tend to the same thing

benclark

probably best not to go see a doctor, I went to see my GP with a trapped nerve in the base of my spine (probably from sitting badly) and got the old paracetamol and rest treatment.

I went to see a sports physio and it was fixed in under 10 minutes, I put up with it for weeks and all it needed was joint manipulation - something that GPs won't do

I don't know how similar it is to your problem but I would say its definitely worth a try. Cost me £25 for the appointment. The guy I saw said about a quarter of his patients were cases of trapped nerves and that they are easily fixed

JohnnyRaptor

tried anything like this?

[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerball-Neon-White-Pro-Signature/dp/B000MLPGZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sports&qid=1258113674&sr=8-1[/ame]

Chunkey

aaw painful- I had tendonitus in my right forearm/hand a couple of times, ended up wearing a tubagrip support which seemed to help.

hope you can get it sorted before there's any long term damage dude

dejawolf

get one of those good fat health pillows, and stuff it under your arm. the arm ache i usually got from working on my computer just vanished within a day.

butt_sahib

Hey

Just a little information for you guyzz (ruz)
Ulnar nerve is responsible for supplying motor function to hypothenar muscles aswell as the deep intrinsic muscles of the hand. It also supplies sensory innervation to the skin on the ulnar side (duh) upto the hand for the twinky and half of the ring finger.
Ulnar nerve entrapments arent common but it basically happens in two places. The majr one is on the posterior side of your elbow and then at the wrist. If your forearm hurts a little or theres numbness it means that the fault is at the elbow. If only your hand gets affected, its at the wrist.
basically you have to see if the pain goes away or not. If it doesnt, its largely due to the fibrosis of the nerve fibre, but if it does (as you say) then its more likely a compression and not an entrapment (which occurs when the surrounding areas fibrose which isnt whats up in your case). Make sure you dont keep your nerve compressed for SO long as it might continually add up to starve your nerves and cause permanent ischemia (which would result in muscle atrophy). Not to worry though, muscle atrophy is a very long and slow process.
So yeah, keep taking some suppliments, do some physiotherapy like adducting or flexing the hand or fingers regularly and lay off the pc for a while. Its better to lose that contract and make yourself better rather than being a money whore haha

This is all just general stuff though from me, i havent physically examined you so i dont really knwo whats up. BUt still
Take care!

Ruz

thanks for all the advice guys. managed to get through today ok. put a cushion under my left arm and then the cat decided it would be fun to sit on both the cushion and my left arm:)

cheers rollin, I think having two cushions to rest on should help

JohnnyRaptor - yup i bought one a year or two back. I am not sure if it helped really, but its fun to mess around with

Chunkey I got tendonitis is my right wrist when i was in the army- caused by sweeping leaves all day. my wrist actually creaked. Really painful also

cheers Dejawolf, will try that

butt_sahib - thanks for taking the time to go through that. will try the exercises also

FAT_CAP

I had carpal tunnel syndrom a while back after some really intense day job and evening freelance sessions when I didn't have my proper desk and chair setup.

The pain and numbness was really unsettling and made even more frightening by going to the doctors to be told to take some asprin and if it didn't subside then an operation where they cut the band keeping the tendon in pace to release them from the stress they are in would be the next step.

Luckily it all subsided once I got my proper work chair to use at home and this has really helped things so far.

I hope things get better for you quickly as I know what a strain it can be.

Ruz

cheers FAT_CAP, yeah, its slowly getting better. its still numb, but no as uncomfortable now, which is a relief.
Who would have thought you could get sports injuries doing cg:0

Andreas

Ruz wrote: »

you have to be careful because if left untreated it can cause muscle wasting

Wank with your left then. ;D

00Zero

Hey

Just a little information for you guyzz (ruz)
Ulnar nerve is responsible for supplying motor function to hypothenar muscles aswell as the deep intrinsic muscles of the hand. It also supplies sensory innervation to the skin on the ulnar side (duh) upto the hand for the twinky and half of the ring finger.
Ulnar nerve entrapments arent common but it basically happens in two places. The majr one is on the posterior side of your elbow and then at the wrist. If your forearm hurts a little or theres numbness it means that the fault is at the elbow. If only your hand gets affected, its at the wrist.
basically you have to see if the pain goes away or not. If it doesnt, its largely due to the fibrosis of the nerve fibre, but if it does (as you say) then its more likely a compression and not an entrapment (which occurs when the surrounding areas fibrose which isnt whats up in your case). Make sure you dont keep your nerve compressed for SO long as it might continually add up to starve your nerves and cause permanent ischemia (which would result in muscle atrophy). Not to worry though, muscle atrophy is a very long and slow process.
So yeah, keep taking some suppliments, do some physiotherapy like adducting or flexing the hand or fingers regularly and lay off the pc for a while. Its better to lose that contract and make yourself better rather than being a money whore haha

This is all just general stuff though from me, i havent physically examined you so i dont really knwo whats up. BUt still
Take care!

did you stay at a holiday inn express last night? hehe

Japhir

damn after reading this I catch myself sitting with my elbows at the table so often!
I keep thinking that my forearms are feeling numb and that I really ought to get me a kushen or something .
Good luck with your revalidation Ruz! sounds like something pretty annoying/serious!

Calabi

I had pain in my finger from playing too much Diablo. I gave up playing it after that and learned to use the mouse with my left hand, now I almost permanently use the mouse left handed(except for fps etc).

As long as you rest it and dont do what you did before it will better.

Irreal

I'd actually recommend going to the doctors on this occasion. I had a trapped nerve in my leg for weeks before finally going to the doctors. The Anti-inflammatory tablets they gave me helped a ton and I was back to full health in less than 2 weeks.