About two months ago, I noticed that if I drove longer than 30 minutes at a time, the last two fingers of my left hand would go numb. Typically, the sensation would return after about 30 min - an hour.

It started to happen with greater and greater frequency and for slightly longer periods of time.
About a week ago (last Wed night) my fingers went numb and DIDN'T wake up... they stayed that way through Friday, and I started to experience pain in addition to the numbness (around my elbow and in my fingers.)

I work at Home Depot in the paint department, and the pain became so intense I had to leave. When I tried to lift paint or move stock, I would experience a burning sensation from my elbow up through my fingers, and lose feeling in the fingers.

I bought a wrist brace at CVS which I have been wearing ever since. I notice that in the mornings, (I wear the brace at night and have been wrapping a towel around my elbow to keep from bending it) I feel best. I have more sensation in my fingers and there is usually never pain.

But as the day progresses, the pain comes back and the hand goes numb.

I am a musician and a student as well; the idea of possibly losing use of my hand terrifies me (because it is of course the hand I play all of my instruments with!!)

I am off the schedule at work until Thursday. I have an appt with an orthopedic clinic on Oct. 2nd (the soonest they can get me in). I don't know what to do until then! I don't want to damage my hand any further and the pain is terrible, but I can't afford to miss much more work!

I am in a quandry. Also, my employers are very skeptical. Any advice?

Howdy barbaryloki and welcome aboard!!!

It sounds like you are getting into the Cubital symptoms due to some continuous repetitive actions/movements. It sounds like you are trying hard to give your arm a break already. If it is possible, can you switch hands for picking up merchandise to move and such? Stretching your arm and flexing your fingers up and down might help a bit. As for the musical side, I only play a bit (amateur) keyboard, but if you are having problems, until you see your doctor, (I know this sucks), stop doing it for now. Give your arm a break. Hopefully they can give you some gentle physical therapy and get you back on track, as it sounds like you are still on a road of return without surgery. Good luck and keep all of us posted please.

Hi barbaryloki,

Time to play detective and try to figure out what activity(ies) are causing your cubital tunnel syndrome (CuTS). Sleeping on bent elbows, leaning on your elbow, using the computer, playing sports, playing a musical instrument, and long distance driving are all potential causes, along with injury and cysts. If you can start to understand the root cause, you can take steps to begin conservative treatment and reverse the damage that's occurring to your ulnar nerve.

CuTS is a tricky problem with employers, friends and family because it can cause severe pain and weakness for the patient while exhibiting no outward visible signs. As a result, some may believe you are faking it or overreacting. Even your doctor may question your sincerity if the initial EMG/NCV tests come back negative, which is often the case. The best thing to do is educate those around you with medical information from this site and others. CuTS is most definitely real and has serious effects on the patient, so be persistent and don't give up until your symptoms are finally fixed.

Good luck with your appointment. Please stop back and let us know how it went.

barbaryloki,

I fully agree with Timm's assessment. I think if I remember right, it was around 4 visits to my doctor before he realized that there was a definite issue. He sees so many patients, hence he only gave me a "glancing blow" initially. I didn't even give it much seriousness until one day on the range when I went to do a "magazine exchange" and I dropped the damn thing! It fully hit that I wasn't imagining that my fingers were becoming "fumble fingers" on manipulating things!!! Our bodies are great at telling us things are wrong - example, I had an abdominal tumor that I "internally" - in my brain knew something was wrong, but didn't acknowledge it until I collapsed at home. Your body is telling you that you are heading down a path that is a bad time for your Ulnar nerve. Like Timm said, co-workers, employers etc. might not think you are "for real" when you tell them that you are numb or are hurting. Unless they can directly relate to what you are going it, it won't be "real" to them. Good luck with your next check up, hopefully he/she will give you some improvement options. Take care.barbaryloki

barbaryloki, do you have any idea what's causing your problems? Since you feel best in the morning, but symptoms return while you're doing your job, that seems to point the finger at your work at Home Depot. Specifically what part of your job causes you pain? Just lifting items usually is not a cause for CuTS. There must be something else?

I tried to write a response and my connection timed out, so it all got lost.

The gist of it was this.

I have an EMG on Monday.

I have regained some of the sensation in my fingers (as long as I keep my wrist in the rigid brace and don't use it.) They are starting to get stiff/non-responsive and have a tendency to curl more than normal. I can still fully extend them, but they start to get tingly and it hurts down my arm.

Performing just about any activity (typing, driving, playing music) for more than about 5 minutes causes the numbness/burning to return.

Since Friday, I have stopped playing my instruments and lifting weights. I try to limit my driving and my time on the computer.

Today (at 4) I go back to work.
My job has a lot of repetitive lifting and moving of heavy merchandise, as well as typing and operating levers and machines. I expect it to be frustrating because almost everything I do requires two hands. On Friday when I got to work, my hand was already numb; by the time I left, the numbness had spread down to my elbow and there was pain as well. I don't know what specifically caused it. I had been front-facing merchandise and mixing paint (which involves going to get the cans off the shelve and carrying them to the counter, putting them under the dispenser, closing the lid with a hammer or a lever-machine and placing them in a shaker.)

I also discovered this weekend (unintentionally) that my elbow hyper-extends. This makes me think I must have injured it somehow, but I don't recall getting hurt.