For the past several months I have been experiencing extreme pain in my wrist, forearm up to my elbow. I have constant tingling and numbness in my ring and pinky finger with no relief. I was sent for an EMG and the outcome of that was Severe Cuts with possible Refelx Sympathetic Disthropy. I have a lot of strentgh loss and have lost most feelings in the affected area. I have to constantly keep my 2 fingers curled up together just so it doesn't touch anything due to the sensation of stabbing like pains. So, I went to see a hand surgeon this morning and he recommended surgery due to the severity along with the results of the EMG. So, now I have my surgery set up for Sept 10th, and I have never been so worried about something as I am with this. I don't even know what the surgery is called all he informed me was to move the nerve towards the side of my elbow. I have no idea what to expect, the lentgh on surgery I was told was about 2 hrs, anything else I am clueless. How long can I expect recovery to last? What size of incision? I have 3 kids at home all under 9 yrs old, so I have a pretty busy day normally. I felt so rushed when seeing the hand surgeon today it was very uncomfortable and didn't feel sure of anything when I left. He was writing as I was speaking, getting up and walking out to answer calls, the doors aren't even shut in any of the exam rooms. On the other hand I would realyl like to see something done, with the pain and numbness I have at this point I haven't had much use in my hand for months now and the stiffness is terrible. I have read through the forums and have leanred alot, but not knowing what kind of surgery I am having doesn't help me gather much info. The only other thing he told me was I would have a splint after surgery not sure if this is due to diabetes or not?? Any help would be much appreciated, I have never had surgery before and I am completly terrified, of something going wrong!

Hi, I found the biggest problem is doctors are too rushed. If you don't go in with a list of questions, your are left wondering. Usually you will have a pre op appointment, make a list to ease your mind. I was in the same situation, thanks to this forum & a short list of questions I am ready (not really)for my Sept 4 sub muscular transposition. Good Luck & remember to ask questions.

What do you believe was the cause of your ulnar issue. Like you,I have constant numbness though the pain has now gone way (not sure if that means improvement or that it is getting worse.) I had direct trauma to the area as I broke humerus and had surgery to secure the fracture with a metal rod. Curious as to what caused your issues...
Wish you the best!

I really doubt you have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Usually you see those symptoms in the feet and hands bilaterally.

My guess is that if you're having a transposition procedure done, and it's going to take two hours, then you're probably having a submuscular transposition in which they move the ulnar nerve above the funny bone and place it beneath a layer of muscle. The recovery is more involved as the muscle they have cut and reattached needs to heal and strengthen and physical therapy may be prescribed. The other commonly performed transposition procedure is subcutaneous trans. In this case they place the nerve below a layer of fat/soft tissue and secure it with a "sling" made of soft tissue. Both of these procedures involve the use of a splint that's worn for 10 - 14 days to restrict the arm's movement while it heals. Generally, by the six-week mark you'll return to normal activity.

The procedure I had done, and will probably need again on my other arm, was a simple decompression. The nerve is left in place and the overlying ligaments and other soft tissue is cut away from the nerve. This has the quickest recovery. I had one day of mild-moderate pain that was handled with an ibuprofen and then pain-free after that.

Hope that helps!

Erik

To be honest I have no idea what caused this, and they didn;t seem interested in finding out. I have never had an injury what so ever. The shooting/zinging type pains I have in my elbow to hand has been around for at least 15yrs and I just always thought, I set my elbow down wrong or something. But the numbness and tingling in my hand came about 4 mons ago.