Non-Diving Related Medical Question About My Back Issue...

[Rick Inman]

If I sneeze, I herniate a disk in my back. It's always fun to discover what new strange and different symptoms I'll get each time. :shakehead

This one is relatively minor, but starting to drive me nuts.

At night in bed while I sleep, my thumb, index finger and middle finger goes numb. Kind of like asleep, but not asleep (you back people know what I mean). To get the feeling in my fingers back, I need to get up and walk around for a bit. It's neat, I get like 30 mins sleep, get up and walk around, then another 45 mins sleep, then get up again - all night long. In the day I'm starting to feel like a zombie from lack of sleep.

Here's my question: I am concerned that if I just sleep through the numbness and let it remain all night long, I could cause some kind of permanent damage, or cause the numbness to remain even after I get up. Is this possible? I think I can learn to just sleep through it and not get up when it goes numb, but is this wise?

Thoughts?

 

[ArcticDiver]

If I sneeze, I herniate a disk in my back. It's always fun to discover what new strange and different symptoms I'll get each time. :shakehead

This one is relatively minor, but starting to drive me nuts.

At night in bed while I sleep, my thumb, index finger and middle finger goes numb. Kind of like asleep, but not asleep (you back people know what I mean). To get the feeling in my fingers back, I need to get up and walk around for a bit. It's neat, I get like 30 mins sleep, get up and walk around, then another 45 mins sleep, then get up again - all night long. In the day I'm starting to feel like a zombie from lack of sleep.

Here's my question: I am concerned that if I just sleep through the numbness and let it remain all night long, I could cause some kind of permanent damage, or cause the numbness to remain even after I get up. Is this possible? I think I can learn to just sleep through it and not get up when it goes numb, but is this wise?

Thoughts?

An SB Old Timer like you thinks you are going to get an answer here that will actually help? Or, knowing the internet discussion sites the way you do is this actually a troll? Maybe this post is the product of a sleep deprived mind?

JIC: Pick your favorite blend of MD/DO/NP/PAC; spend the money for some testing and maybe PT and you'll have the best chance of getting a useable answer.

 

[Rick Inman]

An SB Old Timer like you thinks you are going to get an answer here that will actually help? Or, knowing the internet discussion sites the way you do is this actually a troll? Maybe this post is the product of a sleep deprived mind?

JIC: Pick your favorite blend of MD/DO/NP/PAC; spend the money for some testing and maybe PT and you'll have the best chance of getting a useable answer.

Yeah, yeah... I know, you're right. As far as the MD/DO/NP/PAC, over the years, I have be X-rayed, MRI'ed, ultra-sounded, poked and prodded by "experts", and the reality of back and neck injury is that most of it is medical guess-work. A couple of times I was assured that without surgery I would never recover, and then without the surgery I did recover.

Chiroquacktors want to do their voodoo on you and then take credit for naturally retracting herniations.

There was a while there when I dropped so many hydros to make it through the day that I felt like Dr. House. I hate those things.

One nice thing, there are never any symptoms underwater.

 

[do it easy]

Call DAN!!

 

[ArcticDiver]

OK, Sleep Deprived mind, or what is left of it anyway , but not a troll.

As a long time back pain sufferer, along with some high percentage of the population, I"ve learned some exercises that mitigate the situation. At the same time, if you haven't checked lately there are some relatively new procedures that show promise. There is a lay summary in one of the later issues of Readers Digest (I know not exacty a bastion of medical authority) that may give you some things to discuss with your pro.

One thing I "know" is if you are having consistent symptoms while sleeping it is time for a single focus, all out effort to find a solution. In the past there were no good solutions; only less disasterous ones. But, there is so much money to be made for the medical community that a significant amount of research has gone into this area. Now, there appears to be some reason to think there might be some good solutions.

 

[Rick Inman]

Call DAN!!

LOL!!!!!!!!

Stop that! It hurts when I laugh!

 

[hnladue]

Rick,

Your thumb and index fingers going numb at night is, what I'm told, a sign of carpel tunnel. If it's your other fingers, it's a pinched nerve in you shoulder.....

again, just what my Dr's have told me.

--Heather.

 

[TSandM]

I agree with hnladue. Thumb, index and middle fingers are median nerve. The most common cause of median nerve symptoms is carpal tunnel syndrome, which is compression of the median nerve as it passes under the band of connective tissue that keeps the nerves and tendons in place at the wrist joint. Carpal tunnel problems are usually most symptomatic at night -- People often awaken with the symptoms that resolve during the day.

Treatment of carpal tunnel can include nonsteroidal antiinflammatory medication, splinting the wrist to reduce the motion and the inflammation created thereby, steroid injections, or surgery.

This is NOT a back problem. It could remotely be possible to have these symptoms as a result of a herniated disc in the NECK, but not in the back.

 

[Rick Inman]

I agree with hnladue. Thumb, index and middle fingers are median nerve. The most common cause of median nerve symptoms is carpal tunnel syndrome, which is compression of the median nerve as it passes under the band of connective tissue that keeps the nerves and tendons in place at the wrist joint. Carpal tunnel problems are usually most symptomatic at night -- People often awaken with the symptoms that resolve during the day.

Treatment of carpal tunnel can include nonsteroidal antiinflammatory medication, splinting the wrist to reduce the motion and the inflammation created thereby, steroid injections, or surgery.

This is NOT a back problem. It could remotely be possible to have these symptoms as a result of a herniated disc in the NECK, but not in the back.

Thanks, Lynne.

My doc thinks it's neck (again). I said back, but I ment neck. I usually sleep with 2 pillows, and last night, as suggested to me, I went to just one, and it was much better. Best night's sleep I've had in weeks.