Hi,
I'm new to the forum and was hoping someone can provide some advice to me.

About 3 years ago I was in a car accident that gave me bad whiplash. The day after my accident I started with pin & needles in my arm traveling to my pinkie and ring finger. To this day it has not gone away and has gotten worse. A chiropractor diagnosed me with CUTs and sent me to a neurosurgeon who did a nerve test that came back negative. He still believed I had CUTs and at the time told me to stay off my elbows and take asprin for the pain. He said if it got to the point I couldn't handle it, to coe back and he would "cut me open". I waited for awhile and went for a second opinion. The doctor I'm currently seeing had another doctor in his office perform the nerve test again. He found nothing and said that i do have a really bad sensitivity in my neck to it. He said I don't have CUTs but would recommend treatment with Lyrica and I should talk to my doc about it. He said I shouldn't let anyone perform CUTs surgey on me. My doctor is clueless about it and tried giving me Cymbalta. I was too scared to take it because there is a large amount of side effects and it seems on here that a lot of people have mixed results with it. My doctor has now recommended me to an orthopedic surgeon in his office that specializes in hand/arm surgery and said maybe he can do some injection treatment on me.

I'm so stressed at this point and don't know what to do. I just want the pain to stop. I have it in both arms, my right arm being my worse. I get pins and needles that come and go but my pain in my elbow has increased. Sometimes I can just move my arm and something snaps in my elbow (tendon or nerve???) and I get this rush of intense pins and needles down my arm into my pinkie and ring finger and it feels like someone is burning me. Now without the snapping I get this intense rush of hotness through my arm up to my hand. I don't know what to do and these doctors keep confusing me on what is wrong with me yet when I read on this forum it seems like this is what I have. Does anyone know if the way my symptoms have increased, if this burning feeling means that I'm starting to do some kind of nerve damage? Also, is this shot treatment my doctor talked about like cortisone shots and does it help at all?

It sounds like cubital tunnel syndrome. That snapping you feel is likely your ulnar nerve jumping over the medial epicondyle (bony point on your elbow). This can cause great pain and discomfort, as you experienced. It's also usually a sign that you have CuTS.

Note that the ulnar nerve travels from your spine near your neck, through your shoulder, around your elbow and into your hand. It's possible you damaged your ulnar nerve during your accident.

The longer you have pain and burning, the more damage will be done to your nerve. The longer you wait to treat these issues, the longer the recovery, and less likely you'll experience complete recovery.

I have not heard any good coming from treating CuTS with cortisone shots. I would avoid them.

Unfortunately, in today's medical world, you must affect your own care. If your doctors are not meeting your needs, and your symptoms continue or get worse, then you need to find another doctor who will help you.

Good luck with your arm. Please stop back and let us know what you end up doing. Take care.

My sister in law was in an accident similar to yours. She ended up having the CuTS surgery and neck surgery from it. She said both symptoms where different. What I am saying is that you could have multiple symptoms.

As for the doctors. As Timm said, keep going to different ones till you get the results you want. I have been to two neurologists and orthopedic surgeon a hand surgeon and family practice Dr. It was the hand surgeon that actually diagnosed me and listened to me and examined me. One neurologists started out my first visit saying he only had 15 minutes and that I needed to give him a brief description of my symptoms then come back later to be examined. I did not go back to him. The other was leaving the room while I was asking questions and would not tell me what to do with the diagnosis of carpal tunnel and CuTS. The hand surgeon was great. Listened to me, answered all of my questions and actually examined me. I had the surgery and my hands are much better. I also thought I had some neck issues because i get pain in my neck a lot. I had an MRI and it showed just minor degenerative changes. My hand surgeon said that my neck pain could be caused from the ulnar nerve in my elbow being pinched and causing other symptoms.
My point is, a good Dr is key. listen to your heart. You know what is wrong.

Also, do not do cortisone shots. It just delays things. Just my opinion.

thank you so much guys for the feedback. I am hoping i have better luck with the hand surgeon that I am going to make an appt with tomorrow. I had a feeling cortisone shots would just disguise what's really there and not really help. I just hate how desperate i feel lately because the pain keeps increasing. This whole weekend I have been laid out in pain between migraines from my neck and my arm feeling completely locked up in pain. Wish me luck that this doctor can pinpoint it and make it better

Ok, so I went to the hand surgeon and I had a really positive experience there The doctor was very good and explained everything to me. They took x-rays of my elbow when I first went in and then the doctor met with me. He pushed on my elbows and my neck. He said I definitely have CUTs and he thinks the nerve is double trapped in both my neck and elbow. He really doesn't like how tight my neck is and how inflamed my elbow is. He said he's shocked that the nerve test is negative due to the amount of snapping I'm having in my elbow. For right now, he wants me to go to physical therapy to teach me how to stretch my arm to relax the ulnar nerve and he wants to see if they can get my neck muscles to calm down to relax them. Then he sent me to someone else in his office that made me a splint for when I sleep so my elbow doesn't bend more then a certain degree. He says hopefully with this treatment, we can get some of the inflamation to calm down and maybe reduce the severity of the symptoms. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this helps because I can't take how painful my elbow has become and I think the cold weather is making it worse. Has anyone gone for the physical therapy? And does it help?

shivatheiceprincess

I am glad you had a positive experience. The hand surgeons really seem to be the most knowledgeable about this. I did not do any physical therapy but it is always a good thing to try. If it doesn't work your not out much except time. I would suggest if your symptoms are getting worse with the therapy then tell the hand surgeon and do the surgery. If it helps then continue down that road a while. You should notice changes fairly quickly, If it is not making it better at all or is getting worse, don't wait very long. No one wants this surgery if they don't need it but it has truly helped me. I am very glad I had it done and did not wait like one doctor told me to. He said I could wait a few years. What he didn't understand was that I could not function at my job or at home anymore. I did not want to wait and make that worse.