Ulnar nerve causing numbness in hand

IanM

IanM

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Hi guys. So yesterday my left hand started acting up with a tingly, pins-and-needles type of feeling in my little finger, palm directly below little finger and ring finger. I am pretty sure it's because my ulnar nerve got pinched, because I work a desk job every day in front of a laptop and sometimes apply too much pressure on my arms and elbows resting on the table.

So a quick question:
1.) I've read that anti-inflammatory medication helped some people without having to visit the doctor or physio. Will the medication relieve the pressure on the nerve and back to normal again?

I don't think it's serious at the moment, more of a nuisance to have little to no feeling in part of my hand. But it will probably get worse (nerve damage etc) if left untreated.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
See a doctor. You randomly assume this is a nerve problem ? how you know its not a blood flow issue ?
 
Don't you know the interwebs are the very best place to ask for medical advice. We all just throw bones and read the pattern and look at coffee grounds in our polysterene cups and tell you what we think. Some of us even have uncles in the pharmacy business.

Many of us spend all day and all night in front of computers and over the year we have lost various body parts due to repetitive strain injury amputations . First it starts with the fingers, then the hand at the wrist and then the lower arm (never both of them, mind) and some of us have our feet amputated as all the feeling long since departed thank to cheap arrse company policy which buys chairs from China that cuts all circulation off at the knees. Then there'sa bunch of us that work too close to cell masts and we have Tumours the size of watermelons protruding from our eyeballs which we use for Post-it notes.
I wouldn't worry too much. Just go with the flow and when it becomes a nuisance, just get the offending digit lopped off.
 
There can be a whole array of causes for that.
The most common one for a lot of us.... you guessed it, the computer.
 
My mother has circulation problems, and I seem to have inherited them. The problem you have described is similar to something I get sometimes during winter, or if I've been sitting at a desk for too long. I usually just get up or make sure to flex and move my arms around.
 
venous return is dependent on muscle contractions. Make sure you move about you cant stay in one position for 5 hours and expect things to be fine

edit:

when you get the tingling feeling in your hand, try squeezing a stress ball or something. If its a blood flow issue that should help a little bit
 
Thanks for the advise guys. I'm going to take some anti inflammatories over the weekend and if not better next week I'll go see a doc.
 
IanM said:
Hi guys. So yesterday my left hand started acting up with a tingly, pins-and-needles type of feeling in my little finger, palm directly below little finger and ring finger. I am pretty sure it's because my ulnar nerve got pinched, because I work a desk job every day in front of a laptop and sometimes apply too much pressure on my arms and elbows resting on the table.

So a quick question:
1.) I've read that anti-inflammatory medication helped some people without having to visit the doctor or physio. Will the medication relieve the pressure on the nerve and back to normal again?

I don't think it's serious at the moment, more of a nuisance to have little to no feeling in part of my hand. But it will probably get worse (nerve damage etc) if left untreated.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Both my hands suffer from the same fate, the computer and my desk are definitely to blame. My small and ring fingers are like permanently slightly numb/dead and it also started with the pins and needles years ago.
 
Had that before...its a biatch.

Riax is of course right...seek the advice of a doctor.

That being said I fixed *my* problem by raising my arm off the table. Crucially I put something under the main part of the arm though (think halfway between wrist and elbow) - foam pads...with cloth over it so that I can cycle it for hygiene. NB note difference vs the standard gel pads attached to mouse pads...those make contact at the wrist (eish) and end up making it worse for me. I actually did go to a world class doctor about it (my family is connected in the hand doctor world)...he reckoned he can either do surgery worth a lots of bucks...but since the raised arm thing seems to be working for me he hinted I should rather stick to what works for me instead of surgery.

As for your question - yes anti-inflams can help in the short term but I'd advise you to tread cautiously. For this you'll need pretty powerful NSAIDs - and those aren't exactly harmless. If you think you can fix a problem by treating the symptom (pain) then you're in for a surprise. NSAIDs do suppress inflammation too but the effect is temporary & the dangers are real (esp Gastric ulceration).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-steroidal_anti-inflammatory_drug
 
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