Nerve Entrapment

[lynnifer]

I can't feel two fingers or half my forearm and the rest is a screaming 8.5/10. Immobilization helps.

[lynnifer]

My friend is going to take my dog and I can go to emerge and get checked out. Ive had bleeding bowels and been anaemic so hopefully get that taken care of as well.

[Bonnette]

If it's the ulnar nerve (that runs through the elbow), it will help to keep your arm as straight as possible so as not to stretch the nerve - especially at night, don't fold your arm under your head. Icing the elbow often helps and sometimes heat works, too. If the pain and numbness last for several days, it would be best to get a definite diagnosis. This has happened to me, and conservative treatment worked well - but without knowing for sure which nerves are involved and why, it's hard to figure out the best approach.

[Bonnette]

Just read your second post - I'm glad you're already planning to see a doctor and can get your arm looked at, too. Hope this is something that will respond to conservative treatment. Best wishes for a good treatment plan for your bleeding and anemia, too.

[SCI-Nurse]

Good advice from Bonnette.

Which fingers can you not feel?

An exam and perhaps an EMG and MRI are needed to determine if this is entrapment, and which nerves. You need to see a physician; either a neurologist or a physiatrist is best. Unlikely they can make this diagnosis in the ER. Most likely they would just give you pain meds and tell you to see a specialist.

(KLD)

[lynnifer]

I'll get bumped up to see a specialist if I go to the ER so win-win. Method to my madness.

Last two fingers on my dominant, right, hand. Pain in my elbow and radiating under my armpit. It all started with pain 'on the right side' of my spine four or five days ago. Mopping my floor may have aggravated it, but no one else is going to do it and it needed to be done.

It's so weak I can barely put my hair in a pony-tail.

It's funny you said about keeping the arm straight - that does help. Transfers are fun, not.

[Bonnette]

I'll get bumped up to see a specialist if I go to the ER so win-win. Method to my madness.

Last two fingers on my dominant, right, hand. Pain in my elbow and radiating under my armpit. It all started with pain 'on the right side' of my spine four or five days ago. Mopping my floor may have aggravated it, but no one else is going to do it and it needed to be done.

It's so weak I can barely put my hair in a pony-tail.

It's funny you said about keeping the arm straight - that does help. Transfers are fun, not.

Your symptoms all point to the ulnar nerve. Glad you'll be directed to a specialist.

[2drwhofans]

"Pain in my elbow and radiating under my armpit. It all started with pain 'on the right side' of my spine four or five days ago."

Let the ER Docs know this so they can check for brachial plexus stretch ( nerves origins in neck, upper chest, armpit. ulnar nerve comes out downstream)
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/figures/A00678F02.jpg

[graybeard]

Lynnifer, dont now what is messing with you, but I jus hope you will get better quickly from this aggervation.

[lynnifer]

ER doc sent me home with muscle relaxants and believed it was coming from my neck

Numbness is in my forearm now.