Numb pinkies at night?

Lately I've been awakened at night with my hands numb, only along the ulnar nerve distribution. Both hands, pinkie and part of the ring, down the side of the hand. This is something that has been coming and going for a few months now. I've had NCT/EMG on both hands and don't have "cubital tunnel" or carpal tunnel or any other kind of tunnel that they can detect, which sort of surprised me because I've had paresthesias in both hands for quite awhile and was expecting that dx.

Anyway...anyone got ideas about the numb pinkies? It doesn't seem to be positional--i.e., I get them lying on my back or on either side.

Thanks,
Bio

[syndismilez]

Hi,  No ideas what it could be, just a fellow numb pinkie at night experiencer.
I had it on one hand then it went to both and included numb middle toes on my left foot.  
It lasted about a month and is gone now. It was preceded by a spasm in my right hand that made my hand freeze open all night!  It was hard to use it and it eventually spread to include both hands. I Cath, so it was very difficult!  
I do not have a Dx. I wish I had answers for you. I hope it will go away for you too. It is very annoying!!!
Cyn  

[biowham]

Thanks, Cyn.

Bumping in case anyone else has exp or input.

Thanks--

Bio

[LATW]

I have the exact same problem. I have no pinched nerves in my neck or upper back so I just assumed it was the MS.

LA dx'd MS 2-2008  Avonex since 2-2008

[itsallinmyhead1969]

mine has been numb exactly same place since april. doctor said i am B12 deficient. said when that is corrected, hopefully all will go back to normal.  maybe you should get it checked out.

[biowham]

I have. My b12 is fine. We were hoping that all of this would add up to something that addressable AND identifiable. But alas, no.

Thanks, and thanks also LA...I don't have any pinched nerves there, either, and I've got the CT myelgram AND the MRIs to prove it.

Bio

[Deb61]

I get numbness in my pinky fingers (and toes) often.  I assummed it was MS.  In my case, I don't know what else it could be.  Numbness is the most pervasive symptom I have.

Deb

[meg321]

Hi, i have had numbness in my hands, mostly my right hand and also tingling and they hurt, but then i also have arthritis in both hands.  But there is no numbness with arthritis,so i have had not known what it is. But i m beginning to think it is part of my problem, just not sure it is MS yet. And i sont know whay to do but i always used chondroitin, glucosamine & msn, it seemed to help but not really sure.

meg

[wonko]

Hmmmm, one thing that stands out to me is that you say this is not positional, because it doesn't matter what side you are on, but it happens at night when you are prone.

I have paresthesias in all extremeties that get worse lying down, but it also does get worse if I am on one side, while if I'm on my back, it is kinda even all over.

I've have 2 EMG/nerve conductions come back as "unremarkable," though both my docs and I strongly suspected some carpal tunnel.  Not that C.T. could explain all of "this" for either you or me.

I've heard you can have some mild carpal tunnel that won't show up on EMG's/nerve conduction studies.  

For me, my paresthesias are about the same on the R and L side.  BUT on my R side, if I tap the center of the bottom side of my wrist, I get a wild burst of tingling in my R hand.  I think this is a touch of carpal tunnel, though again not enough to show up on EMG.  The same tap on my left doesn't do a  thing.

So, my babbling is trying to say that you could have some mild carpal tunnel, and it could act up at night and not have much to do with your position.  No, I don't think that C.T. explains ALL of your symptoms, but a mild case of it could be in there and adding to the mix.

My mom had some C.T. years ago, she wore braces (that you can get at the drug store) at night and found this helped her condition a lot, and not in too much time (though I forget exactly how long it was before she felt improvement).  I have a brace that I sometimes wear while typing, and another I sometimes wear at night, just on my R hand.  I also switched my computer mouse to the left, thought that trick might not help if you have equal issues with both hands.

Good luck!

[biowham]

Hey wonko. This would actually have to be bilateral cubital tunnel--it's the ulnar nerve, not the median, that hits the pinkie and that half of the ring finger. I'm trying to figure out what would be hitting that bilaterally because I would think that a radiculopathy would be on one side or the other, but I may be wrong about that. At any rate, I don't have a radiculopathy that I know of.

I've had a history of carpal tunnel-like problems. Given the longevity of my carpal tunnel-like signs (which I've had in the past, although most obviously when pregnant), I had expected some pretty dazzling NCT/EMG results and was surprised that they were normal. I had been wearing a brace on my right hand for a few years--I was pretty much pregnant most of that time with my various children--and I know it was carpal tunnel because the brace helped. But Tinel's is negative now, as is Phalen's, so it doesn't seem like CT now, and I don't really have problems in the median nerve distribution anyway. Definitely was that when I was pg, though.

Bio

[wonko]

sounds like you know WAY more about carpal(cubital) tunnel.  I was just putting the idea out there that mild cases may not show up on the standard tests, and this could add further confusion/frustration to other ongoing undiagnosed paresthesias/neurologic symptoms.

My hands started out tingling just a bit and falling asleep more easily than I thought was normal about a year ago.  Since then, the tingling became constant (though of varied severity), and turned into burning and pains.  My hands also developed a werid stiffness.  All this gets worse and moves up my arms when I am lying down, and will get worse on the side I am on.  Overall, it's not too bad, though some dexterous activities, like video games, have suffered ;-)

I tried neurontin, but could not get a good balance between dose, relief, and side effects.  I'm recently on lyrica and am still adjusting, but it's helping.

Are you taking anything for nerve pain?

[biowham]

No, I'm not taking anything for anything.

Here's a fun one: When I'm flossing my teeth, my fingers sieze up. They freeze, stiff, and I have to stop and unlock them to keep flossing. Am I just getting old? Is this what happens to you when you turn 40?

Bio

[wonko]

"Is this what happens to you when you turn 40?"

If so, I need to table my efforts to invent teleportation and instead seek the fountain of youth!  Just kidding.  If I was really working on teleportation, I wouldn't be here procrastinating.

Have you been offered anything, or do you chose to take nothing for anything?

My stiffness is not as severe as what you describe, but has (very slowly) progressed, so it bothers me.  

Is your stiffness temperature dependent?  I posted another thread about hot and cold, but didn't get many replies so I'll ask you here :-)

[Rena705]

hmmmm...let's see...I am 46 and I have problems with my hands being completely numb (not pins and needles but can't feel em in the a.m.) and then they slowly get feeling back in them as the morning progresses...

HOWEVER, when I first started to get really sick last July, it seemed to start with severe pain in my left middle finger which would "freeze up" constantly and the pain was terrible and gradually has moved to pretty much all the fingers.  My mom got me a Magnetic Bracelet and it did amazing things for the pain in my fingers...it virtually disappeared within a month of wearing the bracelet!  When I finally got in to see the Rheumatologist she diagnosed me with Osteo in my fingers but only in my fingers and was quite happy that I got results from the bracelet!  Maybe it would be worth a try for you...they are not expensive (around $16)...give it a whirl...can't hurt can it?

Hugs,

Rena

[biowham]

Wonko--everything is worse for me in the heat. We just dropped about 10 degrees on average here--from high 90s to high 80s for highs with lovely cool mornings in the 50s-60s, and ALL of my symptoms have mellowed, the buzzes, the stiffness, the WEAKNESS...all of it. Except that right now, I have a URI, so my legs feel VERY weak.

Another thing about the heat for me is that it brings on pretty severe depression (severe for me). It's like the difference between night and day in my struggle to overcome my mood it's hot vs when it's cooler. In the heat, I'm just unhappy and angry and movement is just so hard. I'm not crazy about the high 80s, even, but the mornings in the 60s are like heaven to me. I actually can walk FASTER now that it's cool. How weird is that?

My stiffness is really less temp dependent than it is dependent on moving from one position to another. I'm extremely stiff when I get out of bed in the morning (I walk like an old person) and whenever I get up from a chair, no matter really how long I've been sitting.

No one has ever offered me anything for pain, paresthesias (what would they offer anyway?), stiffness, tiredness, nothing. I was offered a dopa drug for my "restless legs," which I still laugh out loud about when I think about it.

Rena--I'm kind of chuckling about your mom and the magnets because my mom has been pushing magnets on all of us for YEARS. She sleeps on them and things. I've always told her that if magnets could help me, the MRI should be my "cure" instead of one of my evaluations.

Bio

[Rena705]

Guess ya won't know unless you try...I didn't say that it would cure everything but it may help the pain in your fingers...totally up to you, just a suggestion because it did help me and I have had several MRI's and they didn't help my fingers either.  I think that the extended use directly in the area of the pain would be more beneficial anyway rather than the zap you get in your head for 20 minutes every six months or so...

Rena

[biowham]

I was kidding, Rena. I hope you didn't take that the wrong way.

[Rena705]

Nope...I was very skeptical too when Mom suggested it but nothing else seemed to work including hot wax dipping and hot water hand baths and pills...so I gave it a try and it worked...like I said for the sake of $16.00 and no side effects what can you lose...except perhaps a little pain which in our situations is a wonderful thing!

Rena

[shoshin]

I woke up feeling like my hands and fingers were asleep the other day and thought about you. That was just the one day, but it has happened in the past off and on for quite a number of days in a row. I don't think it has anything to do with position. It doesn't wake me up. I just notice it when I wake up. Moving my hands generally improves the situation. On the other hand, my hands have been feeling generally number the last couple days (and they have been ongoingly somewhat numb for a couple years anyway now). My fingers are also somewhat stiff.

At first, though, the numbness in my hands wasn't all the time, just off and on. In the beginning, it was so subtle that I talked myself into thinking I was imagining it for quite a few months because the legs and feet were bad enough; I couldn't stand the thought that it had spread to my hands. Too scary. Until eventually I couldn't deny it.

I used to have trouble falling asleep sometimes, because it seemed like whatever position I tried, I felt like it was making my hands numb. I guess now they're just numb all the time and I've habituated.

I have horrible problems with stiffness in my legs when I first get up, too. Especially if I've been sitting for a while, but not necessarily. Mornings tend to see me staggering quite a bit as my knees are not inclined to bend right off.

FWIW, I am dx'd with MS. Was previously dx'd with peripheral neuropathy (even with a normal EMG/NCS)

sho

[Rena705]

I wake up a lot in the a.m. with my hands numb...sometimes one, sometimes both and when I mentioned it to the gp she had me try something.  Put the backs of your hands together in front of you and hold them there for about 3 minutes with your elbows elevated.  If after this 3 minutes if your hands are numb, she said the odds are you have some carpal tunnel issues and wearing splints at night will help if it gets unbearable.

Now this is the same gp that told me that my speech problems are probably from the "CIS" I had when I was first diagnosed with MS back in 1993...she felt that the problems were just dormant until now...anybody interested in a lobster farm in Alberta??? he he

Lots of Hugs,
Rena

[biowham]

Hey, Sho and Rena--

Neuro stuff just makes the head spin, does it not?

Rena... that's somebody's sign...Phalen or Tinel...and I'm negative for both. One is a "tap tap" over the nerve, and the other is that thing you describe. It's pretty weird because the first neuro I ever went to for this stuff, I went to because she was a CT specialist, and I was just damned sure I had CT (and something weird in my foot). And then...no CT. I left there completely confused...and so the journey began...and continues...and continues...

Bio