Why are my arms numb?

Woke up, no was woken up, at 4:49 this morning and my arm were aching beyond belief. That feeling when you've made an arm go numb from laying on it, and the blood rushes back into it? Felt like that. Burning aching and intense numbness.

Except it hasn't gone away.

I also shoveled/plowed snow for 12 hours Sunday/Monday.

I'm a diabetic and I'm on an experimental basal insulin. I when to my endocrinologist. He said its not from the insulin. Perhaps a pinched nerve? With the intense shoveling, I don't doubt it. Both Thumb. middle and pointer fingers are dead, with the right ones totally numb.

What could it be, and what do I do? Need to try home remedies before I go to the doctor. No insurance.

Yikes.

I guess I'd try drinking lots of water and relaxing in the dark as much as possible with my eyes shut. Not sleeping - I'd be focused on feeling my body relax. Maybe take a warm bath. But I also find that I have lots of neck tension due to poor vision habits and that neck tension can mess with a lot of other crap.

If that didn't help, I'd drink beer until the problem was gone. (Wink).

Both hands? Go to a doctor. With obamacare, you can sign up now and get treated, I hear.

I have low blood pressure so I can lose circulation to my limbs and have them go numb pretty easily (sometimes I wake up with a dead arm and have to move it with my other arm), but they're always back to normal within 10 minutes.

So go see a doctor.

Dr. Hess wrote: Both hands? Go to a doctor. With obamacare, you can sign up now and get treated, I hear.

Jeebus....

Tralfaz wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: Both hands? Go to a doctor. With obamacare, you can sign up now and get treated, I hear.

Jeebus....

Well yeah... with both arms numb it will be harder to fight back as you get bent over...

I'm no doc, but I would get hydrated and stay hydrated. Take a warm, soothing shower or soak in the tub. Do some gentle stretching of your neck and shoulders. Very gentle. If you have a tennis ball handy, try squeezing it gently with the thumb and one other finger on the same hand, repeating several times with each finger.

If you have any signs of loss of circulation to the area such as discoloration of the skin, or if your condition has not improved by tomorrow, please go see a doctor asap.

let's keep politics out of this....

Appleseed has a serious issue going on and taking political potshots does nothing to help.

personally I would run, not walk, to the doc or hospital, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. What you are going through scares me and I am not the one experiencing it

Dr. Hess wrote: Both hands? Go to a doctor. With obamacare, you can sign up now and get treated, I hear.

How in the hell do you make EVERYTHING political?! You're a doctor and you're injecting politics into a berkeleying medical question?! Unreal.

Ah...politics. Weeeee, that was fun!

Lets assume, for a second, that its a pinched nerve. How do you un-pinch one?

That feeling of "the blood rushing back in" when a body part has gone numb is an impinged nerve allowing feeling to start flowing again. I'm gonna go out on a limb on this one and say that it is definitely due to you snow shoveling marathon and most likely inflammation in you neck and upper back pinching the nerves that feed your arms.

Treatment will be rest, gentle massage, and most importantly: starting a regimen of anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen 200 mg every 4 hours unless you have anything better).

A physical therapist would likely start you on a path of strengthening and stretching key areas so this doesn't happen again.

Hope you start feeling better dude, let us know how things go.

Added for clarification. All your nerves have pathways. Some of those pathways are big and loose with plenty of "shoulder" if you need more room due to inflammation. Some of those pathways are through tunnels. With Jersey barriers. And in those spots when things get congested, the nerve traffic gets jammed up resulting in the numbness. (I assume you've heard of carpel tunnel? Similar, but in other areas of the nerve pathway.

As to how to reduce it? The aforementioned anti-inflamatories. As the son of a physical therapist I'd recommend PT over going to a chiropractor. Too many stories that end bad when you let someone manipulate you spine the way they do.

With a similar issue in the past, I got some relief from a hot pad and LARGE doses of ibuprofen. I did follow up with my doctor, who said it was a result of a bone abnormality in my neck which, when the muscles in my shoulders were tense or inflamed (like say from shoveling snow), was pinching the nerves running into my arms between the muscle and bone at the base of my neck. The heat and ibuprofen relaxes the muscles, the nerve is no longer pinched and eventually (it was at least a week as I recall) it goes away.

That said, I believe this sort of arm pain/numbness can also be a sign of a heart attack, which is also a concern when you've been shoveling snow for 12 hours a day. If you can, I'd go to a doctor. And stay away from politics, it makes the muscles in your shoulders tense . . .

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, never have been, didn't stay in a Holiday Inn last night.

The ibuprofen anti inflammatory effect has to do with constant blood levels of it achieved with a relatively low dose (400 mg to start and 200 every 4 hours after) larger doses don't give more anti inflammation but can be hard on other parts of the body.

It doesn't sound classically cardiac event related, and unfortunately some of the blood tests for a heart attack would show a false positive due to the over exertion of all the shoveling. Barring any other symptoms I would be inclined to think musculoskeletal rather than cardiac.

Disclaimer: not a doctor. Army medic with many years in an ER but not a MD.

Numbness caused by circulatory issues will be accompanied by a drop in temperature of the affected areas.

Inflammation will be indicated by a local hot spot.

Appleseed wrote: I'm a diabetic and I'm on an experimental basal insulin. I when to my endocrinologist. He said its not from the insulin. Both Thumb. middle and pointer fingers are dead, with the right ones totally numb. What could it be, and what do I do? Need to try home remedies before I go to the doctor. No insurance.

Seriously! This is not a GRM repair. Go to a doctor and get an evaluation. It may be something that needs to be treated now. Do you have an urgent care around? Visit's are under $100. If you have a symptom that is not going away....get checked out..

Appleseed wrote: I...shoveled/plowed snow for 12 hours Sunday/Monday. Woke up...this morning and my arm were aching beyond belief.

Just connecting the dots as I see them. Same with the carpel tunnel symptoms you've got with your fingers.

Not pretending to be a doctor, just that it sounds like you over worked the heck out of yourself, and now you're paying the price for it.

A few years ago (at age 25) I had hernia repair surgery. A few days later I woke up in the middle of the night with some pretty severe pain in my side. I thought I had slept funny and was just sore. I ignored the pain and shortness of breath for a few days hoping it would just go away. On the third day or so I started hacking up blood. The ER trip turned into a 3 day hospital stay for multiple pulmonary embolisms.

Don't eff around, go see a doctor. I've spent most of my life without insurance and doctor dodging too but sometimes you need checked out.

KyAllroad wrote: As the son of a physical therapist I'd recommend PT over going to a chiropractor.

I wont get into the bad stories, I think some chiros do some people good. But I will agree with PT over chiro especially in a case like this.

I have the same symptoms as the OP. Lingering effects from disk damage in my neck from a car accident many years ago. For years a saw a chiro hoping for some relief, never really got there. A few years ago I finally got sent to a PT, within 3 weeks of strength training the effected area to "shore up" the weak spots the pain and numbness were gone. As long as I don't slack off and keep up with the exercises it doesn't come back.

Clarification: I did see a doc. Nothing to do with the diabetes, not a heart attack.

Update: left arm is back to normal. Right arm is better. Only the thumb, middle, and pointer finger tip are numb. I was able to sleep fine last night. I'm sure this is a pinched nerve. If it doesn't keep improving I will go see doc in a box in a few days.

gamby wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: Both hands? Go to a doctor. With obamacare, you can sign up now and get treated, I hear.

How in the hell do you make EVERYTHING political?! You're a doctor and you're injecting politics into a berkeleying medical question?! Unreal.

How the hell do you get "political" out of that? UN berkeleyING REAL. He said he had no insurance. I said he needs to see a doctor. I said he can get obamacare now and they will cover it. Where is "political"? I'm calling BULL E36 M3 on your calling "political." Removing the pre-existing conditions bullE36 M3 that the insurance companies have been screwing us over with is probably the only good thing in obamacare. There, that was political. Now you can bitch.

And I suggest him GETTING SOME berkeleyING INSURANCE NOW because what he has is potentially a hundred thousand dollar problem. I didn't want to tell him more. I ain't his doctor. GET REAL.

Dr. Hess wrote:

gamby wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: Both hands? Go to a doctor. With obamacare, you can sign up now and get treated, I hear.

How in the hell do you make EVERYTHING political?! You're a doctor and you're injecting politics into a berkeleying medical question?! Unreal.

How the hell do you get "political" out of that? UN berkeleyING REAL. He said he had no insurance. I said he needs to see a doctor. I said he can get obamacare now and they will cover it. Where is "political"? I'm calling BULL E36 M3 on your calling "political." Removing the pre-existing conditions bullE36 M3 that the insurance companies have been screwing us over with is probably the only good thing in obamacare. There, that was political. Now you can bitch. And I suggest him GETTING SOME berkeleyING INSURANCE NOW because what he has is potentially a hundred thousand dollar problem. I didn't want to tell him more. I ain't his doctor. GET REAL.

Oh NO ONE read ANY snark in your initial comment. Please...

I didn't think Hess' first post contained any flounder, just good advice. I can see how it could be interpreted that way but I like to give the benefit of the doubt.

And this is how a politicized name for the Affordable Care Act leads to politicized arguments on a topic that is otherwise not political.

Dr Hess, I can read your intent as you state it. Gamby is also being a bit of a knee jerk reactor.

That being said, I do wonder when we can all leave the name obamacare behind and call it what it is, rather than what the talking heads decided to call it in their arguments against it.

I struggle with a muscle in my shoulder that regularly goes into spasm (think permanently taught, not twitching) and pinches on a nerve, Leaves me fighting pins and needles in the pinky and ring finger of my left hand. IBprufen, muscle relaxants, heat, and physical therapy are what brings mine around when it gets truly hateful. Do your best to find if you have a muscle in spasm and work on stretching it. Figure out a stretch and do it in sets, several times a day. If that is overly painful or produces weird results, get professional advice from a doctor and not internet advice

Support x 11ty billion that you should get some insurance if at all possible. Diabetes can bankrupt you quickly even without these new problems.

Apexcarver wrote: That being said, I do wonder when we can all leave the name obamacare behind and call it what it is,

Romneycare?