new symptom of mine?

I have been doing pretty well, lately.  They have been trying to taper my prednisone dose (unsuccessfully)- still at 4mg.  They want me completely off of it.  Everytime I go below 4mg, I start feeling bad.  Hopefully, tapering me 1mg at a time will work.

Anyway, I have a question regarding a weird thing that is happening.  I told my rheumy about it, but she didn't know what to make of it.  It started about once every couple of days or so, but I will wake up in the middle of the night, and my hand from the wrist down will be numb, tingly, and cold.  It isn't my whole hand, though, just my pinky finger and the one next to it.  I wake up and have to rub my arm and hand to wake it up.  It happens to one hand or the other, never both.  I thought at first I was just laying on it wrong, but I'm noticing now that I'm definitely not laying on it and it continues to happen.  It started just once every couple of days or so.  But last night, I woke up 3 times with it happening!

I looked up Carpal Tunnel, and it only affects the thumb, pointer and middle finger from what I'm reading.  So, I'm left thinking that it could possibly be related to my UCTD?  It doesn't seem to be Raynaud's Syndrome (which hasn't appeared yet for me) but then again, I haven't seen Raynaud's only read about it.

Any ideas?  It's starting to affect me mainly because I wake up 2 or 3 times a night and this week it has been pretty frequent.

I have had the same thing also.  Since I am just newly diagnosed, I can't help you.  Just want you to know that it has happened to me too.

Thanks sunshine, susan, and aim!

Susan, I have not yet been diagnosed. I am still playing the Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease game. Where ANA is positive with some other symptoms but no organ involvement and not enough symptoms to officially diagnose it as lupus.

I'm wondering if nerve damage which could cause numbness and tingling to the extremities could be lupus related? Everything I'm reading is calling it ulnar neuropathy which is related to injury of some nature, neurological disorders and autoimmune disorders. The last time I went to my rheumy she said if I wanted to get a nerve conduction test she could order one, but at that time it wasn't as frequent or bothersome and I'm not sure of the costs of all these tests!! I'm already getting a pulmonary function test in a couple of weeks. All of this testing gets so expensive even with insurance.

Sigh.

Thanks for the response Babs!

I'm just getting frustrated with appointment after appointment and test after test. It's expensive and it doesn't seem to get me any closer to some kind of definitive diagnosis. I keep having weird symptoms occur and I let ny rheumy know about them and she never seems to be able to know what's going on. I have this "catch-all" diagnosis and it's just frustrating. I don't wish for something to be wrong with me but am tired of not knowing the definitive truth about what is causing all this.
Sigh.

OK sorry. Just dealing with another one of my massive day-long headaches and needed to vent.