Hey, I get that. For me it's sleeping -- my sleeping position is with my hands up by my face and my elbows bent, and then I wake up with numb fingers. You say these exercises helped?
I also have ulnar nerve issues, although it's never been entirely pinned down where the entrapment takes place, and whether it's in the cubital tunnel, or somewhere higher upper in the shoulder/neck area. I've had it for well over 20 years. It's not severe, but it does limit how much time I can play guitar pain free or without weakness.
I have tried the gliding stuff, but I've never been consistent enough in doing them, so should try again. I saw a specialist musculoskeletal guy for a while (NHS, not private) who had me doing Alexander Technique stuff for the neck and shoulders -- postural stuff, as my neck flexibility is actually quite good -- and some gliding stuff. I didn't feel that helped much, although, if I'm honest, I probably could have stuck at it a bit longer.
I like how the woman in the pictures looks like somebody told her to go direct cars into parking spots, but she's never done it before and got no further instructions.
Anyway, I wake up with numb fingers all the time. And they get numb after working if it's been busy.
I had my ulnar nerve surgically relocated in January. It worked.
Escaped the cubital tunnel and wandering around freely, I guess.
9: How bad did it get before surgery seemed reasonable? How did recovery go?
I'm glad it worked.
This reminds me of something that happened back in school. A kid hit his elbow on something and passed out instantly. Dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes that was wearing corduroy trousers. He was probably only out for a few seconds, but it seemed like ages. Woke up, said "the fuck?", and tried to get back to class as if nothing happened. The teacher sent him to the office to call his parents.
I remember in high school, a friend threw a rock at me, and sort of winged it as hard as she could, and it hit my funny bone, and I thought I might pass out from the pain. Not literally like that kid, but it was shocking how incapacitating it was. For a long time, it was bruised and tender and unreal how easily it would send sparks flying.
It would be pretty cool to have an ulnar nerve that's like a wandering ronin traveling your arm and helping where needed.
I had a bout of cubital tunnel a few years ago and determined by pure reason that I would have to give up my favorite lounging position slumped sideways on the couch propped on my elbow, which was how I spent most of my waking hours in grad school. It faded away over a couple of months once I stopped doing that.
The Missus and I both had carpal tunnel issues. She got surgery on two wrists. I got a wrist rest for my mouse hand. Worked out well for both of us.
I'm not enough of a utilitarian to spend that much time with a mouse.
I knew I was walking into something. Gotta give credit. That was better/worse than I expected.
This year, and not going to the gym, has been bad for a variety of familiar aches and pains but *knock on wood* my carpal tunnel has been doing okay (annoyingly I've been having some foot soreness -- for a while I got in a routine to do a decent chunk of walking every day but that's been much less comfortable lately. I remembered that the person I worked with addresses previous foot pain by focusing on posture and avoiding compression/slouching in the lower back. I've been making an effort to do that, and it's helped, but I still have the challenge that I'm spending more time sitting than I was before work-from-home). Ah, middle-age.
Wearing different shoes helped me. Not getting new shoes, but mixing them up, running shoes one night, hiking boots the next, switching insoles, etc.
I've done exactly those exercises for the ulnar side pain and numbness in my right hand/wrist. They helped, but not as much as weekly occupational therapy. More recently, I've developed numbness and weakness on my left side, particularly when playing the piano. It's different and much weirder -- a section of my hand, usually including the ring and pinky fingers, goes stark white and ice cold, and feels very numb. Sometimes part of my hand turns purple. Googling, it might be Reynaud's? Anyway, it's annoying.
LB, you should try to sleep with your arms straight. Wrap a towel around your elbow if necessary, and tape it into place.
It may be just me, but that sounds like a really unpleasant way to sleep.
Is it bad if I occasionally sleep on an arm such that it cuts off circulation so badly the entire arm is numb? Not talking tingling but literally can't move it, pick it up with the other arm and it drops like dead weight. I could cut it or stab it and feel absolutely nothing. Once I take my weight off it feeling returns in a minute or so. I guess it could be useful if I ever had to have hand surgery and didn't have anesthetic available.
24: if you had a fast surgeon.
10: back from class, so can answer now. I like to play tennis and I had "golfer's elbow" which is medial epicondylitis, pain in the big elbow tendon where all the forearm squeezing muscles attach. It had been hurting and/or numb, and stopping me from sports, for almost three years, with three cortisone injections providing temporary relief. So I had surgery for that, but when he got in he saw the wildly inflamed ulnar nerve moved that too. Recovery was easy, though I wasn't supposed to swim for a month or two in a removable brace.
It's possible i can't stop that even if I wanted.
I could see that coming before I finished typing.
Oh hey, I've had similar issues too. I just tried out some of these exercises and they do seem to help a bit.
I first thought was "that's not true." But then I realized you were talking about the elbow thing.
Moby is winning this thread for sure.
Nope. I'm writing code. Nothing else.
Right after I first started a job where I had a desk with a keyboard and monitor, I started getting pain on the outside of my left wrist, and the nerve gliding exercises worked for me. They were resolved when I bought a tenkeyless keyboard. The issue was that with a full-sized keyboard, in order for my mouse to be in a comfortable position for my right hand, my left hand had to bend a little outwards (towards my left) for the alphabet keys, because the numpad took up so much space next to the mouse. Getting a keyboard without a numpad meant I could shift the keyboard more to the right so that my left hand had a more natural position w.r.t. the alphabet keys
Bravo to 3. Caused me to click the link, lol, AND explain why I was laughing.
Ditto 31.
I'm so achy since hydrobaby. My joints have hardened back to no flexibility but worse than before. I can't touch my toes now and before I did years of yoga so I could. I can't even touch my hands behind my back like I've always been able to. I'm doing a yoga app (DownDog - highly recommend) but without classes I'm so much less motivated.
At least I have no former sporting injuries to reoccur?
As I get older, I feel increasingly affirmed in my life choice of never having played any sport.
umm, so I wanted to laugh at 3, too and clicked on it. This took me to a page asking how much I wanted to be tracked and targeted. I answered "not at all, thank you" and was dumped out onto another page, which explained that this meant I couldn't see the article I wanted:
While we continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will allow all readers to experience our content, we are providing you with 10 articles that highlight the breadth and quality of our content.
So here they are ...
Looks exhaustive to me.
I have some intermittent numbness in my hands. Intermittent symptoms make diagnoses very hard. We've ruled out all the scary stuff, so we're left with either neck/posture as the root cause, or something else, but the problem is that basically everything I do exacerbates it. I type a lot. My hobbies are cycling (aggravating posture) and playing the piano (poor hands.)
Carrying the weight of a piano around on your bike is probably making your posture even worse.
Compounded by the awkwardness of walking around with cymbals between your knees and pulleys attached to your toes that connect to drum mallets that tap on drums as you cycle. And the horn of course tucked on your shoulder to be played with your head.
On topic because of hand pain: Why punch somebody wearing a football helmet in the face?
I get that. I've advocated punching cars for that reason. But when I say "punching" I mean "slapping". Make a bigger noise and no broken fingers.