A question, please–and it really is a perfectly serious question–
I am a 40-year-old man. As long as I can remember, definately back into my preteen years, if I have to postpone urination, when I finally do get to “go,” I have extremely painful aches in the fingers of both hands, which don’t stop until I stop urinating.
It doesn’t matter what I do with my hands; i.e. it’s not positional.
Has anyone run across this or have any idea of the why? Is this something that has ever been noticed by anyone else?
Please note that I’m not asking for medical advice. This is more curiosity–just wondering if I’m the only one.
Hmmm. My wife has mentioned for years of having a similar “symptom” in that regard (i.e. tingling in her wrists). It’s not like I don’t believe her, but I really can’t come up with a physiologic or anatomic explanation. I always assumed (without proof or even much logic) that the sensation was due to shared sensory pathways (somewhere) between the bladder (or urethra) and the wrists. Maybe some autonomic afferent that travels up to the low cervical (or high thoracic) cord?
Sorry, my last sentence was jargon. I should explain what I meant.
The autonomic nerves are those which govern things in the body for which we have no (or very little) voluntary control. In the context of my answer, an “afferent” means a nerve signal that’s coming in, towards, the spinal cord (and thence brain). By “cord”, I meant then spinal cord. “Cervical” and “thoracic” simply refer to that part of the spinal cord where the nerves to the hands and arms originate from.
I’m afraid I don’t know, but that reminds me of a symptom I have that is similar. Sometimes, for no reason at all, I have the sensation that my navel is attached to my pubic bone. It’s an unpleasant sensation–almost painful–like a cord attached to the inside of my navel and tightly tied downward.
I’ve googled it and discovered that while it’s not common, I’m not the only one. I haven’t yet found any explanation for this sensation, though.
I assumed it was a nerve thing-- like how some nerves seem attached regardless of distance or similarity in body parts. Could this be the same thing with your “peepee fingers”?
Yeah, that’s a good way to look it. But, I don’t think it’s totally random. My hunch is that some of the nerves coming from the bladder might join up with the spinal cord around where the nerves to the arm come out from it (that is total speculation. Don’t quote me, or worse, trust me).
There’s a occasionally discussed scenario in which a person during orgasm can experience all sorts of unusual sensations ranging from sneezes to numb feet to a tingly scalp. The explanation, speculation typically, is the same as that posted by KarlGauss. I expect it’s a very reasonable supposition that the mechanics involved in your wife’s urination sensations are comparable to those others experience with sex and/or orgasm.
Although not dealing with the OP’s question, this article does show that sensations originating in the bladder can be perceived as coming from somewhere quite remote from it (in this case, the knee and thigh). I haven’t been able to find a cite for what would be a related phenomenon where sensations arising from the bladder lead to perceived sensations in the arm or hand.
I’m not trying to be vulgar or sexual, but everytime I masturbate, well, post masturbation my feet ache for about an hour afterwards. But it never happens after sex, weird huh?
And I cannot help…I have noticed that during a catheterization…the pain was felt as multiple incividual raindrops of severe pain aimed perpendicularly toward the soles of both feet…this occured also when the caheter was being removed…
If I push on my belly button it feels like someone is stabbing me in the bladder…actually it’s more like there’s someone in my bladder trying to stab his way out. Maybe that’s a similar nerve thing like the peepee fingers.
No answer, but I get a similar feeling in my fingers in the same situation.
It is similar to the feeling that I get in my fingers that can be releived by cracking my knuckles.
Sometimes I have the sensation that I have six fingers on each hand. It almost rises to a body dysmorphism, except I don’t think about it that often, only when mentally counting on my fingers without looking at them. Then I try to count (and move) a finger between my middle and ring fingers that doesn’t exist.[/hijack]
woodflute, or James as you signed your post. I, too have the same thing going on with my fingers. I have noticed it for about a year, but it doesn’t only happen when I postpone urination it happens about 90% of the time and it also is not positional, me being a woman imagine trying to figure that out (I have tried repositioning my body along with my hands and fingers). The doctor looked at me like I was joking but I got him to realize I was being serious, he checked with some other doctors and they have no clue what could be happening. It is both index fingers and sometime will travel from there around the underside of my wrists and up my arms. I have been wondering if it could be side effects of medications I am taking or if it could be something in my brain from when I had viral encephalitis in 2008.
