Pins & needles/numbness in hand

[mjb1]

I've been suffering with pins and needles sensation in my right hand and fingers recently. Not sure what started it off, possibly sleeping funny on my shoulder/arm. Had it for over two weeks now, and it never disappears completely. The intensity of it comes and goes but I've not noticed anything in particular that aggravates it.

I'm a pretty fit and active 40 year old with no other health issues. Thinking it's probably about time to see my GP about it. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be, or what to try to relieve it?

[drmike37]

Most likely to be carpal tunnel syndrome. There are other causes, however, so more detail would help.

First thing to try is a simple splint to wear at night. Look up Futura splint on Amazon or similar.

[anonymous-user]

I’m no expert. Try taking vitamin B-12.

It worked for me.

[MXRod]

Are you on any form of medication , side effects can sometimes cause those symptoms , I am for a blood disorder , and have similar symptoms .
Also has your blood sugar been checked ,DONT PANIC , but I understand diabetes can also cause these symptoms .

[frisbee]

Use a mouse a lot? I found this affected my hand when I was gaming a lot and CAD at work (and wearing a watch on that wrist also seems to cause it).

I started using the mouse with my other hand at work and it went away.

I'm not ambidextrous by any means but I do try and do quite a lot with my other hand.

[mjb1]

Update on this: I tried a wrist brace thing for a short while, made no difference. Saw GP end of Jan, their initial thought was that it didn't seem like CT, so referred me for nerve conduction tests. Managed to get a cancellation appointment for that so didn't have to wait months. Nurse doing the test asked me my symptoms, and responded that she was almost certain it was CT. Only did nerve conduction tests on my lower arm, and refused to tell me what the test results showed, just to contact my GP in a weeks time.

Took about 3 weeks for the results to get back to GP, another week for them to phone me. Apparently test results were normal, so it's not CT. I again explained the tenderness in my shoulder and that prodding around that area can cause shooting pains down my arm, so they're coming round to it being trapped nerve in my shoulder.

This morning, my GP has prescribed me a weeks course of Naproxen, and if that helps he'll refer me for physio. Now given all the current covid-19 stuff, and the theories that anti inflammatories could be antagonistic for it, I was quite surprised that GP was so quick to prescribe them, but didn't mention it during the phone conversation. Frankly, I'm inclined to wait til after I've had covid-19 before I start the Naproxen. Shoulder/hand has been bad for 3 months now, it's irritating but not sure it's worth taking a chance with anti inflammatories right now??

[anonymous-user]

It can also be caused by tension in your shoulder muscles and nerves in your neck. All of these areas tighten up and change shape when working at a desk or lying down with your iPhone on the sofa.

Try deep tissue massage in your shoulder blades, upper arms, and neck with a TP massage ball. If you don’t have one you can use a tennis or baseball.

[jb2410]

I had this a couple of years ago. Start looking into it too much and you can scare yourself, which I did.

Went to GP and he sent for X-rays etc and also told me to change my pillow to one of the firm (and it had to be firm), shaped types that support your neck, did that and symptoms resolved pretty quickly.

I do have psoriatic arthritis which is why he suggested this, but for the sake of the cost of a pillow it’s worth a try.

[Pothole]

mjb1 said:

Nurse doing the test asked me my symptoms, and responded that she was almost certain it was CT. Only did nerve conduction tests on my lower arm, and refused to tell me what the test results showed, just to contact my GP in a weeks time.

Are you annoyed that she appears to have stepped outside her area of clinical expertise once, or that she refused to do it further?

[Bill]

mjb1 said:

Update on this: I tried a wrist brace thing for a short while, made no difference. Saw GP end of Jan, their initial thought was that it didn't seem like CT, so referred me for nerve conduction tests. Managed to get a cancellation appointment for that so didn't have to wait months. Nurse doing the test asked me my symptoms, and responded that she was almost certain it was CT. Only did nerve conduction tests on my lower arm, and refused to tell me what the test results showed, just to contact my GP in a weeks time.

Took about 3 weeks for the results to get back to GP, another week for them to phone me. Apparently test results were normal, so it's not CT. I again explained the tenderness in my shoulder and that prodding around that area can cause shooting pains down my arm, so they're coming round to it being trapped nerve in my shoulder.

This morning, my GP has prescribed me a weeks course of Naproxen, and if that helps he'll refer me for physio. Now given all the current covid-19 stuff, and the theories that anti inflammatories could be antagonistic for it, I was quite surprised that GP was so quick to prescribe them, but didn't mention it during the phone conversation. Frankly, I'm inclined to wait til after I've had covid-19 before I start the Naproxen. Shoulder/hand has been bad for 3 months now, it's irritating but not sure it's worth taking a chance with anti inflammatories right now??

The advice re NSAIDs has changed, and only referred to taking it to treat C19 symptoms anyway. It's out of your system in a day so even if you stopped it when you started feeling ill you'd be fine. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sciencealert.com/...

We (a rural cottage hospital) are going over to telephone consultations and aiming for video. So try the naproxen and get yourself referred to physio.

In the meantime, where exactly do you get the tingling. ie which fingers and which parts/sides of them.

And what's the pattern over the day ie more when you wake up, more later in the day...

[bridgdav]

Has anyone mentioned this :
https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions...

I had similar symptoms when I moved to the States.. I went to GP in the morning, Specialist in the afternoon, then test clinic the day after.
They performed an electric shock nerve test, zapping nerves in shoulder and all down my arm, with a receiver on finger tips to measure the speed of the signal.
All very clear, differences from one arm to the other.

The next week, I’m in the operation, slice, move entrapped nerve, stitch and then home.

I hope it’s that simple for you OP, but knowing the UK health system, they will spend time finding out what it isn’t for a while first.

Edited by bridgdav on Saturday 21st March 11:05

[mjb1]

Pothole said:

Are you annoyed that she appears to have stepped outside her area of clinical expertise once, or that she refused to do it further?

I'm not annoyed about that, I've no idea what the boundaries of her clinical expertise are! Maybe she wasn't a nurse, I don't know her job title or anything? I just assumed she knew what she was testing for and what the numbers on the screen meant, I thought she was more than just an operator of the test equipment. If she'd said her job is just to take the specific measurements requested by the GP, then I'd have just accepted that's how it works. I thought she'd be better qualified and experienced to interpret the results than a General Practitioner? And it was only because she started the consultation by asking me questions about my symptoms, seemed to be more knowledgeable on it than the GP, and speculated on the the likely cause. She seemed to conduct the test based on that.

Neither her nor the GP explained that I was being referred for nerve conduction studies purely to rule in or out CT. The GP seemed to think that it wasn't CT from my symptoms, so I was expecting the nerve tests to focus on my shoulder and/or neck. If anything, I'm just a bit miffed that neither of them actually told me that.

Bill said:

The advice re NSAIDs has changed, and only referred to taking it to treat C19 symptoms anyway. It's out of your system in a day so even if you stopped it when you started feeling ill you'd be fine. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sciencealert.com/...

We (a rural cottage hospital) are going over to telephone consultations and aiming for video. So try the naproxen and get yourself referred to physio.

In the meantime, where exactly do you get the tingling. ie which fingers and which parts/sides of them.

And what's the pattern over the day ie more when you wake up, more later in the day...

Thanks, that reassures me somewhat on the Naproxen. My daughter has just started coughing today, probably nothing, but who know knows!

My index finger is more or less permanently and totally numb, middle finger a bit tingly, ring and little finger and mostly unaffected. Occasionally a bit of tingling in my thumb. Tingling carries on across back of my hand to the wrist. This last few weeks, I've noticed more tenderness and tingling in my shoulder itself. If I prod at the joint, just under my right clavicle, or articulate my shoulder in an exaggerated manner it sometimes seems to provoke tingling down my fore arm.

There doesn't seem to be any set pattern as to time of day, index finger is always numb, the tingling comes and goes almost randomly, but usually after I've used my shoulder in significant way (picked up an object, stretched etc).