undiagnosed arm pain

[shekee]

I am a 35 yr old female. I have had pain and occasional numbness in my hands for about 10 years. I used to think it was due to excessive typing at the office. Then, it moved to my wrists, forearm, elbow and now up to my shoulders. The pain and numbness wakes me up at night.  I am not working on a computer any longer in my job-just doing normal projects around the home but the pain has continued to increase. Carpel Tunnel has been ruled out and my last doctor suggested I see a neurosurgeon because of the blanket numbness. Is this the best place to begin? I tried looking for a neurologist thinking surgery might be too extreme to start with- but am not sure how to narrow my search because I don't know what this is enough to find the kind of neurologist who might specialize in "it".

[bambi1976]

I also had pains like that...had a couple issues going on. I would wake up in bed in pain with total numbness from shoulder to fingertips. Went to ortho and they sent me to interventional radiologist for a shot in my neck for my disc issues (again).  I knew it wasnt that because my issues were different.  Went back to ortho and he did an MRI of my shoulder after I pressured him to do so. Turns out I was right, i had a fairly large labral tear with bicep involvement. That fixed one issue.  He told me to see a hand doctor because they do work from the elbow down and that was a source of my numbness in my fingers.  They did an EMG nerve study and that showed an ulnar nerve entrapment in my elbow.  Cortisone shot in my wrist then took care of that problem.  Do you sleep with your arm bent under your pillow??  Thats what aggravates it.  Let me know if this helps and what you find out.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
There is a chance that you have compression of the spinal nerves in the cervical spine region. This can happen due to overuse of computers, work involving straining of neck, herniated disc, canal stenosis, bone disease, spondylosis, poor posture etc. A MRI of the cervical spine and nerve conduction studies may be required. Please consult a neurologist. The treatment is to remove the compression. You have to discuss the best treatment option with a neurologist, which can range from medication to physiotherapy to traction, cervical collars or even surgery.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[cheshchesh819]

i would see someone it sounds like muscle damage to me or trapped nerves,or maybe repetetive strain.