Lack of success stories for cubital tunnel syndrome

Hi guys,

It's been a while since I was on this forum after I was able to fix my carpal tunnel syndrome from TMS but my cubital tunnel syndrome has been flaring up rather seriously at times when I work out or at night. I tried to look at some success stories to help myself with reassurance that this was TMS and not structural as this issue came out of nowhere a few years ago and did subside. I did a lot of googlging and it seems there are a lot of TMS success stories for the other RSI related issues such as tendonitis and Carpal tunnel but very little for this specific issue. I was looking to see if I could find some solace with regard to this.

 

not the same ...but quite similar.
In my case radial tunnel syndrome: supposedly entrapment of the radial nerve along the arcade of Frohse.
Failed surgery, absolutely. Beware with that fake «pinched nerves» !!!

 

Indications that it is likely TMS: came out of nowhere, flares up at night. Did it start after carpal tunnel syndrome went away?

 

I used to have both but both went away. Now cubital is back with a vengeance. It was during a period of heavier bicep curls that my elbows started flaring up and they would flare up at night too. I can breakdance fine as long as I do movements with my hands straight but whenever I do any upper body exercises like pushups or weightlifting that involves bending of the arms I eventually get to a point where it gets a bit painful and numb at my pinkies and ring finger. I am trying my best to believe it’s tms but some of the posts I’ve read on this forum with cubital tunnel have been pretty helpless. There are no other success stories and many on this forum question if it is really structural which has made it much harder to solve than the carpal tunnel issues.

 

Any update? I have had TMS in the past but it's been 5 months for me now- constant numbness in pinky and ring finger. Haven't found any success stories either. Hand doc recommends surgery, but my TMS doc thinks it's still possible it's TMS.

 

I am the success story you are looking for. I had severe neuropathic pain, swelling, numbness in my entire hand, including ring finger. I had EMG test bad enough to have surgery recommended. In addition to pain, swelling and numbness, my fingers curled in and lost dexterity. I could not write, cook, turn door knobs and many other things. With symptoms I had my expected recovery rate was less than 20%.

I went full TMS, did not take any prescription drugs, and refused steroid injections and surgery. I am 99% recovered, with some minor residual numbness slowly fading away from my middle fingers, but it does not bother me since I am confident it will eventually disappear completely.

 

That's fantastic, but I'm not sure it directly applies. I had a direct compression of the elbow on a desk for two days on the ulnar nerve, and my symptoms are specifically ulnar not the entire hand. This is just numbness and weakness not pain, and there is noticeable muscle atrophy. This does not come and go like TMS. It is 100% constant numbness and weakness of very specific areas.

 

I read your older post on the other thread, looks like you had other areas impacted. Had the outside of your palm healed? Had the size of the numb area decreased over time? How exactly do you know that there is a muscle atrophy? Also, just to let you know, TMS symptoms are not necessarily intermittent, and, yes, a hand surgeon showed me how my hand had a clear muscle weakness. Also ulnar and median nerves are very similar in there location and functions, so I would not distinguish between ulnar and medial nerve symptoms.

 

Did you have symptoms in your pinky finger as well? Would love to talk to you more about your recovery

 

I had symptoms in ring finger, middle finger, index finger and thumb, but not in pinky finger. However, it does not mean that pinky finger would not respond to the same TMS approach. To learn more, you can search for my posts in the Success Stories subforum and on this site.

 

You might want to get the muscle atrophy looked at. I'm not sure that falls under TMS.

 

Thanks, I'm pretty sure the first three digits and half of the ring finger our median nerve innervated, while half of the ring finger and the pinky are ulnar nerve innervated. Looking for some ulnar nerve success stories

 

How are you doing now?

 

I had ulnar nerve decompression surgery in February 2021 and immediately felt about 85% relief that increased to 90-95% over the subsequent months. I still have some minor issues. This includes a tiny bit of residual numbness that I don’t notice unless I focus on it, occasional hand cramps, and most importantly slight weakness and decreased dexterity compared to my right hand. I am a righty so that is natural, but this feels like nerve weakness not muscle weakness if that makes sense-like I can’t push all the power I’m trying to into it. This is only at the margin around 90-100% exertion though.

I still rock climb and play guitar, and though I’m probably not as good as I would be if this never happened, I feel like surgery gave me my life back. It was honestly miraculous, and the surgeon was clear he sees the same results for ulnar nerve decompression all the time. I still have TMS issues but I’m confident the root cause of this particular problem was at least 90% purely physical/mechanical.

my only regret is not getting surgery sooner, which would have improved my recovery.

 

That's great to hear. You never had pain right? Cause I have som ulnar elbow issues but it's mostly painful and very sensitive. It's so hard to know if it's tms, it doesn't really make sense but then people like you require surgery just for sitting wrong at a desk.

 

Never had a lick of pain. This was a situation with very specific symptoms and a direct link to an activity that caused them which helped me determine it was not TMS. I can't give any advice beyond my own experience, but that doesn't sound like what I had.

 

Yes! While not pain free I feel that I am essentially cured. The ulnar nerve pain was my second severe battle with TMS and since then I've had some pretty serious TMS issues such as acid reflux, rotator cuff pain, and the like. It all turned out to be TMS pain for me. Feel free to ask any additional questions but I am back in the gym doing my lifts again, able to continue with breakdancing, and I don't need to splint at night anymore. While I still have some tingling and numbness here and there I don't pay it any mind as it has not bothered me as seriously as when it first occurred. When it first occurred I would notice elbow pain and then numbness in the pinky and ring finger. It would wake me up at night and I would be in severe pain. I would be hesitant to bend my elbow and the like. Now I just avoid holding the cell phone to my ear for a long period of time and typing with a good desk setup but even when I do have a bad desk setup it doesn't bother me too much. I know for me that thinking about it or hyper focusing on it will make the symptoms flare up.

The really defining moment for me was when Dr. Sarno had pointed out how people for generations have been doing much more painful things then we have with much worse ergonomics and these had not been widely documented issues for them. I am sure if you have extreme repetitive movements like an athlete or someone that works an extreme labor intensive job then you may be at risk but for someone like me who just sits at his desk most days and does moderate physical activity outside of work, it doesn't make sense for me to be getting such severe symptoms. Obviously I am not a doctor at the end of the day but I have had so much success with his treatment due to my personality type. I tend to be a perfectionist and an anxious person so it all contributed to my symptoms.

The question to ask yourself is if you have any personality traits that predispose you to TMS or if there is some trauma or personal issues lying beneath the surface that you are dealing with? Happy to share more about my personal experience with TMS if it can provide support or guidance.