catfish84
19-06-09, 22:22
Since around September, I've been waking up regularly with numbness in one arm. Initially I thought I'd just developed a strange new sleeping habit and was lying on my arms! Eventually I realised I wasn't. I was at wits end by the time I first went to the doctor, because I was waking up several times every night with one arm numb! The strange thing was that it was always either the radial nerve or the ulnar nerve that was affected. I've never had both of those nerves simultaneously affected, and I've only woken with both arms somehow numbed on a couple of occasions since it started. It seems to be positional. I can lie there and move the hand and feel the slow, strange sensation through my arm with no relief. However, if I sit up, it disappears quite quickly. Basically, I've connected it with pressure on my neck.
When I first went to the doctor, I had no idea what was causing it. Then after I was finally put on the 14-month waiting list for a neurologist (I don't live in a country with a decent healthcare system!), I kind of realised that the symptoms started AROUND the same time as a neck injury I gave myself (I was drunk and headbanging at a concert and woke up with a neck so sore for the next 2 days that I couldn't move it, I'm really embarrassed about this). So now I kinda suspect this is what happened.
I find that laying with a flat pillow helps prevent it happening. I also find that the frequency of waking up with numbness has decreased since it first started. I've gone patches of 10 nights without it! I also had a lot of headaches when it first started, and they've stopped. I think that was tension, as I got a lot of relief from headaches by wearing a heat patch on my neck.
Anyway, it all just sounds like a C-spine injury. I'm moving over to the UK in a few months for my job, so (as I can't afford private healthcare) I've kinda been putting off further assessments until then. The only thing that scares me is that on a few occasions, I've woken up with numbness in one leg. It hasn't happened in conjunction with arm numbness. It happened last night though, which has me a little worried. I was just lying in bed and realised that the arch of my foot felt numb. I sat up and felt the "nerve flush" as my GP calls it (that buzzing feeling as the nerve wakes up).
Positional foot numbness has only happened a few times since my symptoms started (I guess 4 times in the last 8 months or so). One time it happened while I was just lying on my side propped up on my elbow, during the daytime.
I was just under the impression that C-spine pressure couldn't cause foot numbness? This is what worries me.
I have never had any symptoms during the daytime. And like I said earlier, the symptoms have generally gotten less severe.
My GP sent me for bloods and a C-spine x-ray when I first went into her, and all was clear. I know an x-ray can't really diagnose disc damage in a lot of cases, especially when I had the x-ray done standing up and I never experience symptoms when standing up.
Am I okay leaving further assessment for a few months until I'm registered for the NHS? I mean, should I be worried? The only thing I'm worried about is a tumour, which I know might sound a little paranoid. I just can't afford the thousands I'd have to pay for further tests!
When I first went to the doctor, I had no idea what was causing it. Then after I was finally put on the 14-month waiting list for a neurologist (I don't live in a country with a decent healthcare system!), I kind of realised that the symptoms started AROUND the same time as a neck injury I gave myself (I was drunk and headbanging at a concert and woke up with a neck so sore for the next 2 days that I couldn't move it, I'm really embarrassed about this). So now I kinda suspect this is what happened.
I find that laying with a flat pillow helps prevent it happening. I also find that the frequency of waking up with numbness has decreased since it first started. I've gone patches of 10 nights without it! I also had a lot of headaches when it first started, and they've stopped. I think that was tension, as I got a lot of relief from headaches by wearing a heat patch on my neck.
Anyway, it all just sounds like a C-spine injury. I'm moving over to the UK in a few months for my job, so (as I can't afford private healthcare) I've kinda been putting off further assessments until then. The only thing that scares me is that on a few occasions, I've woken up with numbness in one leg. It hasn't happened in conjunction with arm numbness. It happened last night though, which has me a little worried. I was just lying in bed and realised that the arch of my foot felt numb. I sat up and felt the "nerve flush" as my GP calls it (that buzzing feeling as the nerve wakes up).
Positional foot numbness has only happened a few times since my symptoms started (I guess 4 times in the last 8 months or so). One time it happened while I was just lying on my side propped up on my elbow, during the daytime.
I was just under the impression that C-spine pressure couldn't cause foot numbness? This is what worries me.
I have never had any symptoms during the daytime. And like I said earlier, the symptoms have generally gotten less severe.
My GP sent me for bloods and a C-spine x-ray when I first went into her, and all was clear. I know an x-ray can't really diagnose disc damage in a lot of cases, especially when I had the x-ray done standing up and I never experience symptoms when standing up.
Am I okay leaving further assessment for a few months until I'm registered for the NHS? I mean, should I be worried? The only thing I'm worried about is a tumour, which I know might sound a little paranoid. I just can't afford the thousands I'd have to pay for further tests!