Cubital Tunnel Syndrome | FAQ with Dr. Sophia Strike

[jreverie]

Thanks for the video. I have it in both my arms. It just makes me want to break down. I’m only 26 sigh 😔

[Ricky.Z]

Oh my gosh, I have had mystery elbow problems for 6 years (I'm 25) and I saw doctors and did physical therapy, we thought it was tendinitis (first tennis elbow then a couple years later, golfer's elbow). PT helped to a point and then plateaued progress. Gave up my preferred college degree because using my hands for anything was incredibly painful. I can hardly do almost of any kind of work because I come home in pain. This year I decided to do everything it took to get a correct diagnosis because all the doctors I've seen think it's a form of epicondylitis (tendinitis in elbow) at first. After months of repeat visits this year I am finally hearing about cubital tunnel syndrome. Sounds pretty close this time. Maybe simple things like leaning on my elbows and not bending them so much at night will help. Will see. I just don't get the numbness at all. Feels like burning pain. One occupational therapist this year had me try nerve glides and I can hardly do them. My doctor and I are waiting on EMG results to come in. I'm a little nervous because when I got EMG done a few years back it came up negative (fine). Could have been a false negative. We'll see.

It's heartening and devastating to at least see so many young people have this because it is such a huge hindrance. It has definitely affected my mental health and makes me feel so hopeless about the future. x.x

[scottsrocketship]

Try Graston technique, also use a lacrose ball on the upper traps and lower neck. Make sure to massage out all ur muscles, biceps, triceps, delts, upper traps, neck and forarms. Use the graston technique on all muscles also. Use a foam roller to massage all muscles. It’ll ease tension across the body.

[chakantaote]

Thank you Doc. Just consolidated what I am learning now in med school.

[Rush]

I just had surgery for cubital tunnel. The pain pryor to surgery was absolutely brutal! Mostly at night while sleeping. I was up 3 times every night. Wore a brace at night before the surgery surgery. It made a huge difference after about a week.

[soy_red]

I was dianosed with desmoid tumor on my left brachial plexus 11 years ago, and now I have this. I am 33.

[CozyAutumn_Knits]

Knit for a week straight for hours at a time and my right arm and hand has been pins and needles for days with swelling. I’m only 34 and already have arthritis in my wrist and fingers 😞 Currently unable to knit and it’s been so depressing.

[loricalass]

If other people are helped by cubital tunnel syndrome exercises, or splints, then I’m very happy for them.

I did not try the splints but the exercises didn’t seem to help me personally.

Here is what did help.

First, I generally only had a problem with the tingling in the pinky finger and ring finger when I was doing art because I was bending my elbow. I set up my iPad digital art program at a high-level to try to help me not bend my elbow. But that didn’t work too well. And I never really got used to working at that height.

So I tried very strong gauss therapeutic magnets. White ones larger than the size of a quarter. I taped one below the elbow crease somewhat to the left of midline. I taped one about an inch and a half above the elbow crease, fairly far to the right. The reason I chose these placements is because if the magnets get too close to one another they will clamp together and may be very difficult to disconnect. Even though the same polarity, south, was exposed upward for both of them, it seems the north pole side could still attract.

Anyway, this worked! I only have to use the magnets when I am doing art. If someone has to use them in public, they could just wear long sleeves.

And by the way those who are experts on magnet therapy say to always put the north pole side of the magnet against the skin, not the south side. The kind of tape I used was Nexcare.

[tahirkhan]

I have been facing this in my both arms for last 3 years and i lost all hopes .

[Realtalk]

This is horrible. At night it hurts and pins and needles in little and ring finger. I wake with pain all over body including headaches.

[CutiePie]

I'm female 24 years old 147 lbs 5.6 feet.. I went to take ncv test because only 1 of my hands was having burning sensations when used alot... So i did NCV test on both hands, one was fine before test but after the test it got bad and it started burning me that very same night and i feel my fingertips getting numb and heavy., they used 50 mili amps on me with pulse width 100... and it was so painful and my hand jumped alot.. Is there a chance ncv tests are harmful?

[taraboo]

Is it common to have this in both arms. I go for my EMG in two days, I literally woke up a month ago and thought I re-broke my hand, scheduled an X-ray for the next day. Well by the time my friend got me to the DR BOTH hands had started to swell, it was then I realized something wasn’t right. I can not use my hands for very long or they will do double doors in size The pain in my arms from my elbow to my fingertips mimic the pain of when I broke a bone in my hand, the one under my ring finger right hand. Over a month I’ve taken two rounds of steroids and I still feel like I’m walking around with broke hands. Never had any symptoms before I woke up that day.All the videos seem as if it’s only one elbows just need some feed back please

[osamafarooqiaca]

Yikes, had this since, some years. 1. feel and hear click while doing push-ups in left elbow, 2. Working out makes my pinky and ring finger go numb and irritates my hand. Not painful but it affects work out routine.

[DanielGennaro]

I fractured my pinky at the base of my proximal phalanx and they also told me I have cubital tunnel... the surgeon offered to do both but man Im so afraid of surgery, maybe it would give me relief from all this stress and misery.. but I dunno. I’m a guitar player, singer songwriter and I fractured my LH pinky finger in the base of the proximal phalanx. It healed with a malunion, malrotation and hyper extension and pseudo claw deformity. This was 1+ year ago now in March of 2021. Unfortunately the surgeon I went to originally just told me to buddy tape it and live with it. I went with his advice and didn’t get a second opinion till soem time later. The other surgeon I believe played local politics and after I told him the first surgeons opinion said yeah he agrees and it was a month (four weeks) from initial break. I didn’t get any other opinions till about four months ago. All surgeons said if I would’ve came to them first, they would’ve fixed it with reduction and aligning it. It just breaks my heart. I want to take the risk and do it. Cause I found a surgeon who seems very competent at banner univ in Phoenix named Joshua Hustedt. He’s slightly younger. He said 80% chance he could make it better 20% he could make it worse. However there’s no guarantees and every other surgeon I seen, probably five others, told me to just live with it cause it’s a large amount of risk for a little bit of rewards. You can see how the rotation of the finger makes it difficult to make certain chords and my wrist and forearm and entire hand has to compensate. It’s caused me discomfort. Not necessarily PAIN though. And that’s what I’m afraid of. It feels weird. It sits kinda low to. See the original X-ray. It’s all healed now. Definitely lost length with some shortening. I just heard it’s obviously not a good place to do surgery. Basically going in through a volar approach, completely resawing through bone just to shift it a bit to put pins it and make it more straight. I’m concerned it will make it worse. I have good mobility and not much stiffness. But i always want to crack my PIP knuckles and joints as it feels like it creates contracture due to rotation. My wrist also gets this strange striation sometimes. I’ve been driving myself nuts trying to decide because I only have the preauth for another few months so I need to make the decision now. I would love for it to be better. But man I’d hate myself if it was worse.

[denisecataldi]

I feel like I have this. I had to get stitches when I was around 12 or 13 years old on my forearm between my elbow and pinky, like around the back of my arm. Ever since then I was never able to extend my pinky fully, I felt like my nerve was damaged on my forearm. Well here I am 26 years old and I got back into lifting weights again and I was having pain in the same area and one day I just couldn’t do bicep curls it was super painful. That was about a week ago and now I’m thinking the worst. Will I ever get to lift weights again?!

[dawnroberts]

I get shaky hands weakness aches and up my lower arm to I have been suffering from severe anxiety for a few months wich made me tence my hands up for six weeks none stop using my phone a lot also tencing wile using I now feel weakness in them they feel stiff and like I can’t grip … also weird feeling on lower arms x

[SheeshMaster]

im 20 and just got this a few days ago from being on the computer 24/7 and im trying to fix it myself so i dont have to pay 10k for a doctor

[eli_are_ftw]

I have some tingling running up from both my ring fingers. Same with my 4rth toes

[nonsense]

One should also try acupuncture for pain/nerve/numbness relief. In general, acupuncture has great relief for these types of musculoskeletal pain/discomfort.

[ceciliaorigel]

Small incision? The surgeon I saw said it's a 6in incision!? I really do not want that