Hi,
I'm sort of a complicated situation with my elbow and arm.
In 2004 when I was 17, I suffered from radial head fractures (broke into 3 pieces - 2 were reattached and 1 was removed) which left me with limited pronation and extension. It was a year and a half full recovery and I was in occupational therapy for 8 months.
A year after my surgery I figured that I should go back to my doctor about my numbness in my pinky and ring fingers. He said it was cubital tunnel syndrome. He figured that it was due to the fact that when I broke my elbow it was a dislocation and relocation (the relocation broke my radial head). The dislocation left my medial humoral epicondyle jagged and not smooth. My MD believed this was the reason why I had my numbness and to just watch keeping my elbow bent for long periods.

This has proved to be extremely difficult as a student I spend time when my elbow bent (as my dominant hand is the arm I broke) writing notes or working on papers. Over the past four years I have been just dealing with the numbness and tingling but recently it started to become associated with pain that keeps me from falling asleep and on occasion requires painkillers to get me to sleep.

I saw my doctor today and he said that at this point I will end up having surgery but he wants to wait as long as possible. He administered extremely limited tests and I believe that he is some what blinded by my extreme recovery from my elbow trama - I have more range of motion in my elbow then was ever expected after my accident. He even said today he can't believe how well I've healed. His current solution is going to see him every 6 months to wait and see when my arm begins to deterioate which would be a signal to him that I need surgery.

and to add to all of this, he diagnosed me with a compensation injury in my shoulder - rotator cuff tendinitis.

My problem is that whenever I go to doctors my body goes into the whole fight-or-flight mode and my body is able to mask my symptoms with adrenaline.

I need to go get another opinion, but my problem lies in the fact that I am 22 and while I understand that I have to live with some symptoms but as this is a workers compensation case I get frustrated with the fact that I shouldn't have to deal with it.

I am planning to find another doctor in Boston to get a second opinion because I can't live like this because my job, education, and quality of life depends on my ability to use my right hand.

Any ideas or encouragement would be incredibly helpful.
thanks.

Welcome to our "family." Do you know which tests were performed? Unless your doctor is in a facility with specialists he probably didn't have the equipment to do NCS and EMG tests, or the expertise to read them properly. Did he have you hold your arm bent and time how long until symptoms set in, and did he tap on your funny bone to see if that sent an electric shock sensation into your fingers? Those seem to be the most common tests used to make a clinical diagnosis of CuTS, with the nerve and muscle tests used to confirm the location of the injury and to determine severity. If this doctor is not a specialist I strongly recommend finding one of the following:

an orthopaedist
an orthopaedic surgeon
a neurologist

In any case, if you can, find out if they have particular specialty in CuTS, some will concentrate in other areas.

Based on my own experience, if surgery is required it should be done sooner rather than later. The purpose of the surgery is at least as much to prevent further damage to the nerve and associated muscle atrophy, as it is to provide relief from your symptoms.

Your fight-or-flight reaction is common but it shouldn't affect your diagnosis. That should be done with a combination NCV/EMG test. The adrenaline rushing through your body is irrelevant with these tests because they measure nerve signals, not levels of pain. If you didn't get these tests, demand that they are done. You need a scientific baseline to determine the state of your ulnar nerve. It is possible to have symptoms and a negative NCV/EMG (which was the case with my first test). But at least then you'll know how serious your condition is.

And you are correct that you should not have to live in pain. Be persistent. You have to affect your own medical care, because frankly we are just tiny cogs in a big system, and so the squeaky cog gets the grease. Good luck.