About 3 years ago I got a small tear in my ulnar nerve. Long story short, after 10 months of hoop-jumping, I had a surgery in which they moved my nerve from around the elbow to lay under the muscle; this was supposed to alleviate the problem.
For the most part it worked.
However, during the 10 months I was hoop jumping, there were occasions when I would tweak the nerve by moving my head a certain way, and it would send a jolt down my arm or up my neck. Sometimes these jolts were so strong that they literally made my black out; kind of like when you get punched in the face.
Anyway, for the last few months I've been dealing with tight neck and shoulders, with the tightness and pain sometimes radiating into my arms. I've seen 2 physical therapists, and though they haven't been unpleasant, they haven't done anything to alleviate the actual problem.
So these last few days have been pretty bad. I am not usually one to complain, and I've always had a bias against younger people who constantly complain. This attitude no doubt came from all the AA people I saw over the years who went on disability, or who constantly took painkillers, or meds, or whatever... and who, in my mind, simply didn't want to work; I took their complaints as excuses fabricated because they didn't have it in them to get their shit together. They exemplified a culture of victimhood, and I silently judged.
Now, I know not everyone was doing this; some people did (and still do) have legit ailments. But most were not as bad off as the claimed.
Now, I am in the unenviable position of basically feeling like shit nearly all the time.
I have been trying to get things taken care of now that I have some decent insurance, but nothing so far has addressed the real issue, whatever it may be.
I am getting a sleep study done at the end of the month. I have had serious insomnia for over 10 years now ( and I mean clinical insomnia; I rarely sleep more than 6 hours at a stretch, and can remember only three nights since we moved to Vegas where I slept an unbroken 7 hours; once in San Jose, once in Switzerland, and once a few months ago. EVERY other night for a decade or more I've slept in fits and starts, usually to the tune of about 5 hours a night. It sucks.)
About a month ago I finally got a lift (my right leg is shorter than my left, and the doc thought that may be contributing to my neck and shoulder issues), but I'm wondering if it may be the reason for my current neck problems. In the last month or so, my neck and shoulder stiffness has gotten noticeably worse.
So that brings me to today. I was laying on the bed this morning, on my stomach, and when I stretched my arms above my head I felt a sharp burning pain right next to my armpit. As far as I can tell, it's exactly in the sheath-thing that covers the main nerve into the arm. It really hurt, but I kept stretching, hoping that doing to would loosen things up. Well, a little later I took the bike to a coffee shop to do some work. As I was typing, the numb-tingles associated with my original ulnar nerve damage crept up, only this time it wasn't just in my fingers. I've got numbness and tingles in all of my left hand, as well as sporadic feelings of stuff crawling up and down my arm. The tingling is also wandering up to my neck. It has me pretty worried, and I am so not a worrier.
So tomorrow I have an appointment with my doc. Hopefully he'll refer me to a neurologist. I've done some poking around, and all the symptoms indicate an impinged nerve, but they checked for that when I first went in a few years ago, and said that wasn't the case. They took X-rays, but not an MRI or CAT scan, so hopefully they will do one of them and find out what's wrong.
I just hope that they can get to the bottom of the problem. I am beginning to forget what it feels like to not ache, and it's starting to really get to me.
I honestly can't imagine what I could accomplish in my life if I actually could get a full night's sleep and could wake up and go through the day without hurting. I hope someday I can find out the answer to that question.
OK, enough complaints from me; I'll post more after my doc appt. tomorrow.
2 comments:
Sorry about your woes, Tyson.
You need to go to see a neurologist. What you described did sound like a pinched nerve. Even though that was not the cause of the original pain, it could be now, especially since you have had surgery. Sometimes, people develop adhesions at surgical sites. Adhesions are scar tissue. If the adhesion(s) form around a nerve, well then you have an impinged nerve. This can be a pretty tricky situation because often the cure for adhesions is surgery to go in and break up the adhesion to free up the nerve. But, since surgery caused the adhesion... well it can turn into a vicious cycle with no end in sight. There are some non-invasive techniques such as ultrasound that can be rather successful. I've even heard of success with acupuncture. Neurosurgery was my favorite specialty when I worked in surgery. Pretty much neuro-anything is super interesting to me. Good luck. Keep us posted.
Sorry about your insomnia thing. I have that too, have had it all my life. It sucks. Just last night I woke up at 3:00 after going to sleep at 11:00. That was pretty much it for me for sleep. I envy you your 6 hours sleep. I'm lucky if I get 4 hours straight through. I linger between 2 hours and 3 hours of straight through sleep. Insomnia runs in my family on the female side. Mine's getting worse. Docs have been trying to prescribe sleep aids to me for 20 years. I won't do it. It scares me. Those things are addictive. I mean shit, I have taken benadryl and melatonin as a sleep aids. Both are over the counter, both have unpleasant side affects after a while, and I have become dependent on them to sleep. Granted, I don't get "physically" addicted them as they don't possess those chemical qualities. But, if I want to stop taking them because of the side effects, then I have to be willing to go 2 or 3 nights with no sleep what so ever. Usually, they stop working and just leave me with side effects.
Well, good luck.
I am sorry you're broken, baby. Good luck at the doctor tomorrow.
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