Bilateral ulnar nerve entrapment anyone??

Anyone else have this?  Was told to try physical therapy first but probably wouldn't work and to expect surgery on both elbows. My hands are constantly numb. Having more and more trouble doing everyday things. Showering, curling my hair. And a lot of my job deals with drawing blood. That is difficult too as I can't hold the needle steady anymore. Dropped an open tube of blood several weeks ago because I lost my grip.

I also have VERY loose feeling joints. I can dislocate my shoulders at will.  Knee, hips, and ankle always popping out.  I am worried that I have some sort of connective tissue disorder and it's getting worse. My dad had terrible mitral valve prolapse (sp?) and a hammer toe and all sorts of other problems that could be as a result of connective tissue disorder and it's genetic.  Oh, and I can do all the "double jointed" tests I find on the internet.  I am one of those freaks that can hold a glove with my two hands and lift them up over my head and rest them on my bum without ever letting go. That's not supposed to happen .

Anyway, where to go from here??

 

 

Hi Mrs. Mike,

I'm not sure if this will help ypur situation, but I have tendon/ligament issues.  My joints are not as loose as yours.  Last fall, I used the computer and mouse all day long putting together schedules for work, and my right hand stopped working altogether.  It hung limp at the wrist, and I could not grip anything.  I couldn't write or floss my teeth, or lift anything with it.  When it remained that way the next morning, I got scared.  I searched the internet with my left hand, and I assume I damaged the right hand by using the computer too much at the wrong angle.  It took multiple visits to my chiropractor over 3 weeks to re-gain the functionality.  I had to learn to use my left hand for basic things for quite some time.  My hand works, but it's not quite as strong as it was beforehand.  I also experienced a lot of numbness and tingling in it while it was not working.  The nerve can catch at the elbow or in the neck, and mine was caught in both places.  Have you tried chiropractic care?  Perhaps you can find someone who does gentle manipulations so your joints don't get overburdened.  Perhaps you can also get a massage along the tendons and muscles in your forearms.  I know if I didn't have chiropractic care, my hand would not be working today.

 

I had to register and respond because i have learned so much about this the hard way.

It sounds to me like you have hyper mobility syndrome aka Ehlers-danlos syndrome. It has something to do with your body's inability to properly use a specific kind of protein and results in extra flexible muscles and tendons. One vascular form of this leads to life threatening complications by age 40 on average according to wiki. You can get genetic testing done to determine the exact type. For some reason people with hyper mobility are much more likely to be clinically depressed on a side note.

Hyper mobility and frequent dislocation of my arm have caused ulnar nerve entrapment and thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) in my left arm. In order to avoid having to remove a scalene muscles in my neck and a rib for TOS i have had 2 other less major surgeries.

I had my shoulder reconstructed. Basically they grind down all scar tissue and install some anchor points in the bone and tighten things up with a rope that dissolves in about 2 years in an effort to tighten the joint. Its only been a month and the first 2 weeks were PAINFULL ( i had to take so much narcotic pain killer that i was scratching my self all over like a crack fiend) but i would recommend it if necessarily.

I just had sub muscular ulnar nerve transposition 3 days ago. There are several options they can just remove a rogue bit of muscle or cut the cubital tunnel open to relieve pressure if your lucky. The second easiest is to relocate the nerve under the fatty tissue on the inside of your arm. For me that was not an option because i am lean i dont have any fat on my arm to protect the nerve so they had to cut the muscles and tuck it under there. Google ulnar nerve transposition surgery for videos. Less pain than the shoulder but having my elbow in a hard brace for a month is more limiting. After 2 weeks i was able to drive with my shoulder surgery. I dont think i will with this one.

Recommendations:

- Do a variety of free weight stabilization exercises to keep your joints tight and prevent damage. Im guessing your symptoms are not as bad in your dominant hand due to muscular strength. If you run try barefoot or minimal running shoes it did wonders for me. I do caution you that you must transition slowly hyper-mobility syndrome causes weak bones so a calcium supplement may help.

- If your dislocating your joints intentional ever because you can to show someone STOP it might not hurt now but you can be damaging nerves and other internal things by pulling them out of natural alignment.

- Get a nerve conduction test to verify where the problem is at. If you have thoracic outlet and ulnar nerve impingement under your shoulder elbow surgery might only fix part of the problem.

- See a vascular surgeon and have him check your blood flow in your arms that can also cause numbness.

- At least figure out if you need surgery or not now before you lose all feeling and its too late to fix the nerve.

- Dont rest your elbow on armrests in the car and in a chair. Sleep with it straight down your side not bent up above your head. Just doing that makes a big difference.

Im not a doctor i may have gotten something wrong im just trying to share everything i have learned in the last few months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermobility is a good place to start. If your like me everything wrong with you will appear to be connected by hyper mobility syndrome.


BTW typing all that with one hand sucked.

I will agree that If I were you, Id ask about the possibility of Ehlers_Danlos. they at one point thought that my 6 yr old has this. It is something you would want to know because one form involves vascular issues.

I thought of Ehlers-Danlos, too. I encourage you to check into it with your doctor. Your symptoms sound some like fibromyalgia and it's not impossible that you have fibro and some other disorder. The hypermobility along with the other symptoms raises some red flags, though. I wish you lots of luck in figuring it out!