Some of you know, and some of you may not, that among other medical peculiarities I have had nerve pain in my arms and hands on and off for ten years.  It is not carpal tunnel.  It is not arthritis.  It is not fibromyalgia.  It is not disc pressure on the nerve trunks as they come off my spine.  I don’t have any extra ribs.  Electrical conduction tests confirm that the nerves work just fine.  Oh boy, do they work.

I’ve been seeing my current doctor for quite a few years now.  We’ve been around Robin Hood’s barn with this thing.

I’ve been through a parade of doctors prior to this one, physical therapists, neurologists, and chiropractors.  I have tried exercises, electrical treatments, nerve flossing, stretches, vitamins, and painkillers that made my brain not work.  My desk setup is extremely ergonomically specific.  Monitor height, negative incline keyboard arrangement, good chair.  The only thing I haven’t tried acupuncture.  Needles make me pass out.  No, they don’t hurt.  After ten years of nerve pain believe me they do NOT make the bar of ‘what hurts’.  I still pass out.

The thing that seems to reliably keep me pain-free sounds very simple.  Avoiding or carefully limiting certain motions and activities.  The trick is that the actions that are known irritants are anything that requires me to reach forward or over my head for even short periods of time, or fine motor actions over prolonged periods.  So… changing a lightbulb in an overhead fixture.  Putting away dishes.  Washing my hair.  (And if another PT tells me ‘just don’t raise your hands above your shoulders’  I may scream.  I challenge anyone to wash their own hair without putting their hands above their shoulders.) Typing.  Driving.  Knitting.  Vacuuming.  Sewing.  How much of any or all of those things I can do depends on the day and my symptom level on that given day.

What does a really good doctor repeat to me after years of beating his head on this wall?  “We’re going to keep trying until we figure out what causes this.  This is about the quality of your life.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.