My Fingers Have Been Going Numb

Has anyone else on here had chronic back pain as well as numbness in the fingers on one or both hands? More and more often, I have been losing most or all of the sensation in my fingers on my right or, more often, both hands at once. This started happening as far back as the fourth of July but has been happening now every night. It seems to hit me right around 8:00pm every night now no matter what I happen to be doing. Almost nothing I do can bring the feeling back into my hands. After an hour or two, the feeling usually comes back as if it were never gone. There isn't really much pain involved, just really, really numb on all my fingers.

If anyone knows anything about these symptoms, please shoot me a reply back. I am getting worried that maybe my chronic back pain and this are related and due to a more general nerve issue. *shrug


Skrape

Skrape
I agree with Screaming and another thing is Carpal Tunnel for a repetitive motion. I've had neck surgery and it helped with the numbing but sometimes I have a numb sensation but nothing like it was before.

Cathy

Skrape,
You've been given some good advice already. Just thought I'd share my experience when I had numb fingers about 15 years ago. I also had chronic neck problems, and was convinced my neck was causing the numbness, although my hand surgeon kept telling me carpal tunnel surgery would fix it. Well, EMG's showed I had severe carpal tunnel on right hand, and moderate on the left. After nothing else would fix it I finally had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand back in 1994, and the numbness went away immediately. Course I was also having pain, too, and that went away. Had my left hand done in 2004. But even though my fingers are no longer numb, I still have problems with my neck!

It's definitely worth checking out all angles.

Good luck.

PaLady

Skrape... Seems like lots of us have similar symptoms! I agree w/ looking at the carpal tunnel angle - I have severe CTS in both hands and pretty much have numbness in my hands at all times. It can range from being painful to just super annoying. I also have issues w/ my neck and thoracic region of my back....so it's hard to tell which is causing which....

Anyway, I hope you get it checked out... let us know what you find out... --Tina

SKrape
Everyone has been right on about what they told you! May I ask what fingers are giving you the problems? Is it just one finger or tow or three or all of them including the thumb? Is it the outside fingers or the inside fingers closest to the thumb? Are your fingers completely numb or do you also have tingling in them? Any burning sensation of feeling hot? Make sure you note any and all of these symptoms and write them down so you can let your Doctor know! You doctor might want to do EMG testing and Nerve conduction test on your arms these test can show if the problem is from the cervical disk in your nck or from CT in your hands, Anyway you might want to keep a journal of when it happens and what you are doing when it happens, how long it last and what if anything you do to make it better or go away! This is all important information that can help your Doctor make a diagnosis!
Good Luck to you SKrape, I wish you well!

White Beard

When this happens, it doesn't seem to matter what I am doing. A few times I woke up from a nap on the couch and they went numb shortly after. My wife was telling me I probably slept on them in a bad position but they were not numb when I woke up as a numb limb would usually be if you cut off the blood flow while sleeping on it. It seems to happen just as often when I haven't taken a nap. I can just be sitting here watching TV, working on the PC, etc. It doesn't seem to correlate to any activity. It almost always happens in the late evening. I do work on a computer all day so I wouldn't be surprised if it was CPS but I have never had problems before and it came on so strong, so suddenly.

Every time I wake up from a nap and end of with my fingers being numb, I am super, super cold and am shaking uncontrollably from being so cold. I do have tremors a lot of the time (been checked out repeatedly and no one seems to know why) but these are so violent, it is scary.

Again, wanted to mention that it is usually in both hands and each are equally numb. All of my fingers are pretty numb but it seems like my pinkies and the fingers beside them are the least numb. Last time I shook my hands downward for about 5 minutes and it seemed to help speed things up but that may have just been in my head...

I do have pain in my neck on the left side. This pain is a sharp, hot stabbing pain that I get only after working (maybe stressful) most of the day. When it starts in, moving my neck in a certain way or opening my mouth wide (while trying to eat) will cause a vary sharp, burning, acute pain in my neck and it will shoot down into my left shoulder. This is painful enough to take my breath away. I do always have low back pain but I also have mid back pain that is always there to an extent but the severity fluctuates depending on what I am doing and how long I have been doing it. Staying benf over for any length of time is killer on my mid back pain. I am not sure if the mid back pain or the sharp, burning neck pain has anything to do with my fingers going numb since they do not seems to happen or get worse concurrently.

Anyway, thanks for all the helpful answers.


Skrape

When I first went in with my hands so numb/tingling...before my EMG...the doctor performed something called a "Phalen's Test". This is nothing definitive...but it "can" show if you have signs of carpal tunnel syndrome and the severity of it.... It's nothing major so you might give it a try:

Basically....let's see if I can describe this....w/ your hand's in front of you, bend your hands downwards at the wrist and push your hands together (back to back). Stay in this position for one minute. A positive test is if, in that one minute, you get numbness/tingling/etc. The sooner that these symptoms begin, a doctor can "guess" at the severity of the nerve damage. For instance, when I do that position w/ my hands, my symptoms begin within 10 seconds!

Anyway, as you all know, I'm not a doctor; this test isn't completely accurate; but it is harmless and something that might give an indicator that it's more a carpal tunnel issues than neck, etc. Also, CTS usually affects the fingers closer to the thumb more severely... But, again, call your doc, Skrape!

Take good care...Tina

Hi Skrape, I haven't read all the replies but this sounds like me. I had a nerve conduction study done to identify if it was from carpel tunnel or my neck, I don't know how but linking you up to the electric impulses they can tell where its originating. It was totally painless and they know instantly where the numbness is coming from. I had splints meade which helped the numbness at night by keeping my wrists straight, mine is carpel tunnel from RA.
Goodluck with it but I'd get the nerve conduction test done so you know for sure, golitho