Hello everybody,

I want to excuse myself for my bad English since i'm not a native speaker (I live in the Netherlands)

About a month ago I woke up with a numb right pinky and ringfinger. Within two weeks I lost all my "side motion" of the fingers in my right hand, and have almost no strength in my thumb (the pinching motion especially). I can’t turn keys with my right hand and can’t write with it (right is my dominant hand).
Also mousing and typing is too painful. I can see that the muscles are shrinking, the hand is only skin and bone now. I’ve had an EMG and the Neurologist said there was an Ulnar Nerve entrapment near the funny bone in the elbow. Working is nearly impossible (I’m a freelance digital artist).
The (I think strange) thing is that the Neurologist sayed that he wanted to wait it out and told me to come back in two months. Erm… is that normal? I feel like all function will be lost in 2 months. What do you guys and girls think… Should I get a second opinion?
Here is a bit of medical history

Male, 27
Tender build (Is that good English lol?)
No history of RSI
Rare use of mouse (use a wacom tablet)



Thanks a lot in advance,

DJ

Hi BrendaB,

That is what i figured. I compared my symptoms with what I saw on the forum and was getting suspicious. Problem for me is that I can hardly work with this. I don’t know if you have the same thing but I can not have any form of pressure on the outside of my hand (as in it gets too painfull) and I can not hold a pen or pencil due the lack of grip with my thumb. My profession is ‘compliance officer’ and that means lots of typing. And that is a big no no now .
On your advise I called the neurologist this morning and told him what I thought what has to be done, and guess how he responded: “Well, I guess if it is progressive, I’ll write a letter to the Neurosurgian.”

I’m glad that guy doesn’t operate on me. I wouldn’t even trust my guinea pig with that guy lol!

Anyway thanks again BrendaB and I’ll try to post the progress here.

Greetings,

DJ

Given your symptoms, especially the muscle wasting, two months is way too long to wait. And there's simply no reason to wait if you are not also doing conservative treatment. Unless you completely stop the activities that cause you pain, waiting without treatment is useless and dangerous, and your condition is likely to get worse.

Run, don't walk, to another doctor, and be sure to find one who has experience treating cubital tunnel.

DJ,

Glad to see you made contact to see about getting more immediate attention. Prior to my surgery, my hand experiences where 1/2 the palm (top and palm side) were numb, as well as my pinkie and 1/2 of my ring finger. I didn't have pain per say in it - I was luck in that regard. Typing, writing etc. almost impossible with that hand.

DJ, you mentioned your neurologist was going to "write" your neurosurgeon, can't he just give you a referral? I ask as I do not know how the procedure works in your country. Simodo hit the nail on the head too, you don't want to delay as more damage - possibly permanent damage may occur. Hopefully we all will hear that you get with a responsible doctor who can get you on the path to recovery.

@ simodo

I’m not sure what you mean by conservative treatment. I am seeing a Physical therapist at the moment on the Neurologists advise. The Neurologist’s plan was to try to fix it that way I guess and see in 2 months if it improved or not. Maybe I’m wrong but when I think logical , if the side motion of all the fingers of my hand is paralized and I have decreasing muscle size, there is no way it will get better by itself. That is also what the physical therapist told me. I shouldn’t expect any improvement at all untill the blockage is removed. He sayed the target is to preserve the bit of muscle that I still have. So that is what made me suspicious. Whether the neurologist had a bad day or not I dunno, but I don’t think he took it too serious so it seems.

@BrendaB

Thanks for your quick respond. I’m not sure if it is normal but I’m sure he said write. He told me to wait for the letter from the surgeon and he also told me that he wasn’t gonna see him again in thay case because all the contact will go via the surgeon now. So I guess that is a good thing. In the Netherlands the health system is pretty good but it takes ages and four different docters to get what you want. The Neurosurgeon isn’t the final step, the plastical surgeon will do the final procedure. So I don’t think a second opinion will do the trick since I have to start all over with the tests I guess. (An a new EMG is not what I am looking forward to.) I just hope it won’t take too long.