peripherial neuropothy

[mpace6983]

Hi everybody,on week 30 of tx.Last wed 9/2, I woke up and my 1/2 of right hand,pinky finger and 1/2 of my ring finger was numb. I thought I'd slept on it wrong or something. By thurs. afternoon it wasnt any better and I was afraid I might have had a stroke or something,so I called my family Dr. He said to go to the E.R. and get it checked. He faxed over all my meds ect. The ER doc said it was periphial neuropathy. I have feeling in my 3rd finger, but only on the side that is next to my 2nd finger. On the other side of my ring finger (my pinky finger side) it's numb. I have taped my pinky and my ring finger together because I keep catching my pinky on things and Im afraid I'm gonna break it. I see my Gastro on the 17th and I'm gonna speak to him about it,but I was just wondering if anybody had experienced anything like this? Im not even sure if it's a side effect of the Peg/Copeg. Anybody got any 411?

[WriteItDown]

Hi, I'm very happy to be of help!  

When I read your symptoms I thought it must be what I had, since I also woke up in the middle of the night with that exact same numbness and pain.  Another thing you can do which helped me is to sleep with a thin towel wrapped around the elbow area -- not tight, but bulky -- so as to keep you from bending it in sleep.  I used to sleep with both elbows bent and my hands up by my head, but that made it worse, so I've trained myself to sleep with my arms by my sides.  

I recently discovered they also now call this condition "cell phone elbow" because folks who bend their elbows all day long yakking on their phones get it -- so I guess the idea is just to try to bend as little as possible.  Resting it helped me a lot, and now I just have to be careful not to do anything to aggravate it.  It can become a chronic condition if you don't take care of it, so be cautious.

I did see a physiatrist, but frankly don't think the physical therapy he gave me did much of anything. However, I was relieved to get a diagnosis, so maybe it would be worth it, for your peace of mind, to see one.

[mpace6983]

I think you hit the nail on the head.The effected area of my hand and fingers is exactly the area shown on the website. I think leaning my elbow on the table while surfing on my laptop is probably the cause. I bought an elbow support to keep me from bending my elbow so much and to just keep me aware that I need to babt it. There were some hand and finger stretching exercises. I'll do this for a while and see if it resolves itself. It's pretty scary when the numbness starts. I thought my God a stroke, right in the middle of TX! Anyway thankx to you guys for the 411.

[ladybug52]

I'm so glad Bill spoke up and said to be suspicious. Also WriteItdown.

I'd like to throw my own experience into the fray....I had numbness along the ulnar nerve (pinky side of my hand) and it was caused by herniated discs in my neck.

[WriteItDown]

Sorry to keep posting, but here's another good source -- they show the shading of where the numbness is and it's just like what you reported.

http://www.handuniversity.com/topics.asp?Topic_ID=8

[WriteItDown]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulnar_nerve_entrapment

[WriteItDown]

I had something like this from a repetitive stress injury to my elbow.  I think the ulnar nerve can get pinched and cause numbness of these two fingers.  Have you been doing anything that might've stressed your elbow -- like golf, tennis, digging, or too much computer use?

[Bill1954]

I’d be suspect of that diagnosis, personally. Peripheral neuropathy typically manifests itself over time; I have some in my feet from diabetes, and it’s a very slow process taking years to establish itself. I’d be surprised to hear it’s something you woke up to.

IFN can cause neuropathy in combination with one of the HBV drugs; in fact, this was just addressed earlier this week:

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hep_b/news/2009/090409_a.html

and has been reported in IFN monotherapy anecdotally in here as well.

I’d follow up with my primary and see what his/her take on it is,

Bill