About 18 months ago I started experiencing occasional twitching in the little finger on my left hand. This happened mostly when I was playing guitar, when I tried to extend my little finger. I assumed it was happening because I was playing a lot of guitar, so I didn’t take it too seriously.
12 months ago it got worse. It started happening more frequently, and the little finger would spasm uncontrollably whenever I stretched out all my fingers. It really started bothering me, not just because it was messing up my abilities as a guitarist.
Shortly thereafter I experienced severe loss of strength in my left hand. The side of my hand furthest from my thumb felt “spongy”, and I couldn’t turn the key in my Land Rover (which is on the left hand side of the steering column).
I went to see a reputable physiotherapist here in Somerset West, who diagnosed the problem as carpal tunnel syndrome. I received some mild electric shock therapy in my left arm, and had to dunk my hand in ice cold water for 15 minutes every night, and do various stretches. After two months this hadn’t made any difference, so I tried a chiropractor.
The chiropractor said it couldn’t be carpal tunnel syndrome, and said that it was the nerve running from my neck, down the back of my elbow, to my little finger. He tried various things on my spine / neck, and tried to stimulate my forearm, but this also didn’t help.
Being the stubborn idiot that I am, I decided I’d just ignore the problem and self-medicate on Disprin. With hindsight this wasn’t terribly wise.
Anyway, a couple of months ago I told my GP about this problem, and he said I needed to see a neurologist. So two weeks ago I did.
Within a couple of minutes he told me it was most likely my ulnar nerve. He then connected my arm up to a bunch of wires and proceeded to shock the blazers out of me for the next 45 minutes. Apparently he was only using 100 milliamps, but it felt like quite a bit more.
Anyway, the electric shock tests confirmed that it’s my alma nerve, which is severely damaged behind my left elbow. Bugger.
The tests were actually quite logical. He basically sends current down the nerve, and then measures how long it takes the current to travel various sections of the nerve. If the nerve is damaged, the current travels more slowly across that section.
So, now I know what’s wrong. We don’t really know when it happened, or how it happened though.
Apparently taller people are more likely to develop this (because the nerve is more likely to get damaged, I suppose because it’s stretched further around the back of the elbow or something).
The neurologist suggested that I have surgery to reduce the pressure on the nerve. I’m not entirely sure how they’ll do that. It will most likely involve a knife though.
I’m busy reading up on “Ulnar Nerve Entrapment” to educate myself (because I don’t trust doctors all that much). Here’s some of what I’ve discovered so far..
- This is usually caused by direct trauma to the elbow, or prolonged external pressure on the nerve. Bugger. For years now I’ve been sitting at a desk working on a computer, and I often find myself leaning on my left elbow while I work. Not good.
- Symptoms are weakness of the wrist, difficulty moving the little finger and sometimes the ring finger, and wasting of the hand muscles (in severe cases).
- In mild cases a supportive splint or elbow pads can help to prevent further injury.
- Surgical removal of lesions that press on the nerve may be of benefit.
- I found some exercises at this site, as well as a suggestion to sleep with a towel wrapped around the elbow to stop one from bending it. I’ll try this from tonight.
