Questions: feet, bands, numbness in hands

[biowham]

I'm waking up every day with a foot (the right one, where all of my troubles began) that aches and feels really stiff. My calf also feels that way, kind of the way you'd feel if you stood on your toes for a long time. Also, when I wake up, my foot feels like it's "waking up", too, not really from a pins and needles thing but just "coming to life." Oddly, I get the exact same "waking" feeling in my left hand at the same time--my left hand and my right foot often mirror one another. I get this tightness after teaching or walking around, also.

Questions.
1. Can the foot thing be from a compressed spine (t-spine)? Seems like it could.
2. I feel like I'm wearing an armband around my left arm, in the mid upper arm. It's a band of strange feeling about two inches wide. It comes and goes. Is that "banding"? What is banding?
3. In the front of my torso, on the right, just under my ribs, something tightens up in there, like a muscle going tight,  stays that way for a minute or so, and relaxes. This happens several times a day.  I'm wondering if that could be a T-spine symptom?
4. If I sleep flat on my back, when I wake up, my pinkie and ring fingers on BOTH hands are numb, a numbness that goes all the way to my elbow, at least. Doesn't matter where my hands are (at sides, on abdomen). What is up with that? My C-spine has no herniations or nerve entrapments, certainly nothing that extends to both sides.

I don't ask about things like this unless they've gone on for many days, so...these things have gone on for many days. Many thanks.
Bio

[biowham]

Thanks, Jen.

Does anyone else have any insights? I'm especially curious about why my ulnar nerve tracks go numb when I lie flat on my back. That seems weird to me.

[jensequitur]

Spasticity is caused by damage to the spinal cord or to the brain.  If your spinal cord is being pressed upon by a disc, or has some sort of damage, then this could cause the leg and feet problems.

I'm not sure about your numb hands, but once I woke up with a numb leg... it eventually woke up, but not before spilling me on the floor.

[biowham]

Thanks for the response. I had no idea you could get banding on your ear. This stuff is so strange.

Numb like Novacaine. Dead. They "come to" when I start moving around, just go from numb to awake. Maybe some tingling at that point.

I guess my real question about the feet thing is, can you get that muscle tightness thing from spine compression. I'm thinking you can.

Thanks,
Bio

[jensequitur]

1 - Problems with the legs can come from the spine, or from the brain.  

2 - Yup, that's banding.  Feels like somebody's tied something tight around the affected area.  I got this across my right ear the other day.

3 - Spasticity - in this area it's called the MS hug.

4 - Are the hands numb like when they've fallen asleep, or numb like novocaine?