My left hand is messed up.

[Becky2844]

I'm seeing the doctor next week, but until then I thought somebody might have an idea what's going on. A couple months ago my little finger got tingly numb. Annoying but not too bad. Then it spread to the side of the next finger. Now that part of my palm and the back of my hand are numbish, too. Little finger and ring finger are kind of curling under making my hand almost useless. The whole hand seems to be weak, too, but I'm not sure. Maybe a person needs those last two fingers more than I knew. Typing is interesting.

Anyway, anybody familiar with this?

[bup]

No answer, but I feel for you.

Good luck.

[Crafter_Man]

I had this happened to me.

Does it get worse when you position your head in certain ways? In other words, do some neck exercises (touch chin to left shoulder, touch chin to right shoulder, look straight up, look straight up and try to touch your ear to your shoulder, etc.) and see if any of the movements make it worse.

[Becky2844]

Nope. Just tried those things and doesn't seem to affect it. It's been a gradual thing. The curling just started 2 or 3 days ago. What did you do for it?

[Becky2844]

Thank you bup.

[Iggy]

You have described the distribution of the ulnar nerve. Sounds like it is getting compressed somewhere.

That can happen at the wrist, elbow, brachial plexus, or the neck.

[Becky2844]

Iggy, Aha! Is this something that can gradually fix itself, like it came on? (ty BTW)

[Crafter_Man]

Originally Posted by Becky2844

Nope. Just tried those things and doesn't seem to affect it. It's been a gradual thing. The curling just started 2 or 3 days ago. What did you do for it?

In my case it was a pinched nerve in the neck.

I tried neck exercises, but they didn't do much good. So I hit the gym and started lift weights, with emphasis on upper body muscles. This included lots of military presses.

At first the numbness got worse. But I kept lifting anyway. And then it went away. I believe my weight-lifting regime is what fixed the problem.

[Crafter_Man]

Originally Posted by Becky2844

Iggy, Aha! Is this something that can gradually fix itself, like it came on? (ty BTW)

I am not a doctor, not do I play one on TV. Which means I am not qualified to offer treatment options for you. All I can say is that, if my arm or fingers go numb, I would first adopt a weight-lifting & stretching regime designed to strengthen and improve flexibility in my arms, shoulders, and upper back.

[Becky2844]

Thanks Crafter-Man. I've now read up on it a liitle bit. Sounds like I should have brought it up to the doc a couple months ago when it first started, now that I have "the Claw." Bwwaaahaaaa. Oh well...live and get dumber. Hopefully there'll be something I can do. I have some one or two pound weights I could start playing around with.