fingertip numbness

I have one numb finger...it happened when I had the sudden onset of radiculopathy one evening...woke up from a nap and had sharp shooting pains up my neck and across my left shoulder blade area.
My left arm and hand was limp and numb.

Over the next few months, the feeling came back except for my index finger - its still a bit numb on the end.

I do have the raisin looking finger pads - worse on my left (bad) side.

Some days the finger aren't wrinkly...

I don't have any thyroid issues, so mine is lyme/bart related.

I'm freaking out a little because my work is that I'm a pianist. Mostly I think I just don't feel well though.

marigold, have you ever had mono, or did you, in the process of being tested for Lyme, get tested for Epstein Barre Virus?

marigold33 said...
Girlie, that sounds sweet :) <3 <3

Julymorning, I am doing a homeopathic EBV treatment right now... We're not sure but it seems like my levels are high enough to indicate a woken-up EBV infection... And my doctor thinks EBV may be the cause of my hypothyroidism. Why, is numbness an EBV thing?

I have a friend in the UK that is treating himself for EBV, and I believe that's how his began. He's a musician like you, only a beautiful guitar player. EBV messes that up too.

That's great news, hdbits.


Did you have numbness in your fingers?

marigold33 - piano for a living? Wow. Double wow with lyme.

You have not had hand/finger issues with lyme? Many people with lyme lose some kind of hand motor control and get the electrical shock - carpel tunnel feeling.

I hope you get some kind of regular hand and forearm massage to keep the muscles moving smoothly around your three hand nerves. Learn / do hand / arm nerve glides if you dont. Ulnar, Radial and Median nerves are the names. They start in your neck, and go down to the hands. Look into it if you have not.

I dont know if pianists use wrist wraps, but guitarists do. By compressing the wrist (its stretchy elastic velcro), you elongate the tendons and nerves (this is good), sometimes eliminating the shock and numb feeling.

Doubt my hands will ever be the same. As much as I like acoustic guitar- its too hard on my fingers/hands/tendons. It looks nice in the living room though. If I could learn any style of instrument well, it would be Spanish guitar, but good, smooth, and fast reflexes are needed to do it. Another dream shattered. I was a metal head in the day LOL, but always loved the pureness of acoustic.

Post Edited (astroman) : 11/13/2016 12:29:01 AM (GMT-7)

astroman said...
marigold33 - piano for a living? Wow. Double wow with lyme.

You have not had hand/finger issues with lyme? Many people with lyme lose some kind of hand motor control and get the electrical shock - carpel tunnel feeling.

I hope you get some kind of regular hand and forearm massage to keep the muscles moving smoothly around your three hand nerves. Learn / do hand / arm nerve glides if you dont. Ulnar, Radial and Median nerves are the names. They start in your neck, and go down to the hands. Look into it if you have not.

I dont know if pianists use wrist wraps, but guitarists do. By compressing the wrist (its stretchy elastic velcro), you elongate the tendons and nerves (this is good), sometimes eliminating the shock and numb feeling.

Doubt my hands will ever be the same. As much as I like acoustic guitar- its too hard on my fingers/hands/tendons. It looks nice in the living room though. If I could learn any style of instrument well, it would be Spanish guitar, but good, smooth, and fast reflexes are needed to do it. Another dream shattered. I was a metal head in the day LOL, but always loved the pureness of acoustic.

Thank you for this Astroman.

My hands have slowly improved over the past year and a half. My wrists issues have resolved and the pain and tingling is gone in my hands. However, numbness is a constant in all my fingers and especially on the tips of my fingers. At one time, everything I touched felt like a sponge. My hair, my clothes......everything. My doctor did not know what I meant. Feeling is coming back more and more. When the tips of my fingers are no longer numb will be such a welcome surprise. I will look into what you shared and try hand massage therapy. Thank you again.

julymorning said...


My guess, and it's only a guess, is that it's from the vascular damage that the bacteria do.

That being said, this might be a good place and time to remind you that your body is made to heal itself, regrow, regenerate. We can look forward to that once the little buggers are put in their place, out of order, as it were.

I believe that as well about the vascular damage.

I also agree that our body is capable of healing itself over time. I can feel it happening. I am cheering it on. I am caring for my body as though I were caring for a loved one. I AM caring for a loved one. I tell my body every day to 'hang in there'. Hahaha.

As a side note, it was recommended to me to drink some Hawthorn tea everyday to help improve the circulation in my extremities. I took the advice. The tea is pleasant.

Anyone else hear of this?

Thank you Astroman. Will look into this for sure.

I too have had hand issues for a long time. Looking back early before my diagnosis I frequently would reach out to pick something up and drop it right away. I also have what I described as a loss of hand and finger dexterity with doing mechanical tasks. Maybe I should have been describing it as more of a numbness.

I just saw my LLMD on Sat to discuss my last set of labs where we focused on viral tests to see if that was hindering my progress. Coxsackie and EBV were thru the roof. Interesting that others here are noting a finger numbness and EBV correlation.

Post Edited (tickbite666) : 11/14/2016 7:00:06 AM (GMT-7)

As we know there are many variations of the hand issue symptoms. Nerves. Chemical-muscle changes. Maybe vascular too.

For others reading this- If someone has the electrical shock feeling, thats nerve issues by itself or from tight muscles (maybe from the infection -chemical muscle imbalance) impinging on the nerves (common but hard to Dx). Thats works just like carple tunnel syndrom - but CT is specific to wrist nerve impingment from repetetive injury. That can happen anywhere to any nerve thats "laced" with muscles when muscles are messed up from this.

nerve inflamation - and you can seem to have that without triggering basic inflamation tests. like sed-rate ect. In my deepest pain I never flagged that test.