05-17-2014, 11:15 AM
Hey everyone:) Thanks for the support and interest and also I'll again apologize for not responding to your posts with more than a "like of acknowledgment".
Arm update - basically, I haven't responded to therapies, so now they are washing their hands off of me lol. My condition is more or less the same ("more or less" because it varies on a relatively long and random basis, 1-10 days, so I can't really tell without a six months graph or something like that). It has been three and a half months.
During the therapy I got worse (which they told me at first it's normal and now they're telling me "well, if you don't respond well to the therapy from the very start, it's not good") and now I am at the point zero, more or less - like before I went to the doctor - only several hundreds of euros lighter lol:)
Essentially, the neurologist swears there's nothing neurologically wrong, he stands by the emg tests which showed quite mild cervical radiculopathy, which shouldn't "behave like this after therapies". Also, he did some manual tests and concluded that I have no nerve problems whatsoever. He says he could send me to mr, but there's no need to. Which I might actually believe, as it means more money in their pocket if I go to scan.
Considering the tingling, pins and needles, numbness, burning etc. I might VERY shyly say that it might be slightly less present, intensity-wise (it's still present non stop). Which I guess it's a good thing - then again, I might be wrong, as I don't know anymore what is like to have normal feeling and no pain, so I might be just confused and without reference after these hundred-ish days...
The pain though, is the same as always and it goes down the ulnar side of my forearm and also down the medial(?) side as well. Physician also tested me and she insists there is no symptomatic nerve damage (my grip/strength/tonus/whatever is non-lacking - although it doesn't FEEL that way to me - in other words, I could squeeze something with full or almost full power, but my subjective feeling is that I squeezed it like a 7 year old kid with a temperature). About the pain, she tested me some more, palpated some trigger points etc. and said that the symptoms resemble golfer's elbow and tennis elbow, but that they are very mild (apparently, I should cry out and jump in the air when she finds the spots, which I don't do, but just say "yes, there's the pain" instead. I don't know what to think about it, I might simply have high tolerance or whatever. It doesn't seem like a convincing method to me, but as far as I've seen on the net, it's pretty much like that).
Both neurologist and physician insist that the tingling and stuff could only be from nerves, but at the same time they are insisting that there's nothing wrong with me neurologically. However, the neurologist says that I am very anxious and have very jumpy nerves, which could lead to psychosomatic "leakage" eventually. So, ok, I guess I need to work on my zen, which I've started to do. Nevertheless, while it can make sense, I don't feel that's it. Mainly because my pain is "too mechanical and specific" - as far as I know, anxiety related psychosomatic stuff usually travels across the body on a more or less daily basis. Even the neurologists told me that the pattern would be different if that was the case. So, their final conclusion is, nerves are fine. Ok, if I'm right about tingling and stuff getting less intense, it could make sense. So, I am left with the pain and tenderness and overall sense of weakness and super quick tiring of forearm flexors and extensors. Then again, I don't cry and jump when I'm supposed to, so that should be as mild as it gets.
I have asked the neurologist "wat do ololo" and he was like "I don't know, take supplements and stuff and go do whatever you do lol". I asked should I try to strengthen or stretch my arm and such and he was like "I don't know, try and see lol, your nerves are fine, it's probably bone/muscular". So, not much info there.
Physician, on the other side, was more busy being puzzled at my non-recovery than anything. Eventually, she sent me back to neurologist, who sent me back to her, as there's nothing wrong with nerves. I'll see them one more time each and then I'll go seek another opinion and/or undertake self therapy and education. Partially because I don't have bunch of money to just go to dozens of doctors until someone gets it. However, what I can do at this point is to employ home treatment plus some generally advised items/supplements (kinesio tapes, biofreeze, simple stretches, lifestyle, braces, gloves, posture etc).
And, while I am on that, I googled A LOT about my condition, similar conditions, symptoms etc. and it seems that the standard development is pretty much similar to mine. People go to doctors, they run round in circles with no progress and in the end, SOMETHING does it for them and that something is pretty much individual. Some swear by stretching, some by kt tapes, some by acupuncture, some by massage etc. Which is fine, because all of those are affordable more or less. The only downside comes from the fact that nerves should be treated differently from tendons/muscles. For example, nerve shouldn't be "angried" by massage, but muscle should. So I must go wtih trial and error and extreme caution. But, what can you do. I'll try this and that and when I have some money again, I'll go to some other experts and see if they can dig it out. Maybe I even heal in the meantime olol:)
Both doctors said that it should be pretty safe if I was behaving normal. For example, when I asked could I draw and for how long, they were like, well, don't overdo it, but don't be too shy, if you draw for eight hours regularly, make it five, for example. Which is lovely, only that drawing starts to bother me slightly after like ten seconds and after ten minutes it's pretty much "let's stop lol". And I can repeat that after another ten minutes or so. Eventually, I was drawing 1-1.5 hours a day (in 10 minute sittings) in the last 3-4 days and I haven't died or had my arm shrivel and die, so I hope that I could maintain that tempo for the time being.
This typing adventure is also sort of a test, as I'm typing this with both hands, through moderate pain. If I still have my right arm when I wake up tomorrow, then that would be magnificent:)
I guess I just have to cautiously experiment and be extremely, extremely patient, because of general slowness of potential progress/regress. So if I try, for example, kinesio tapes, light stretching, biofreeze and moderate activity, it could very well pass like a month or three before I could say "well, this works" or "look, my hand fell off, this sucks".
On the bright side, It does seem (although without substantial amount of consistent time researched) that I don't die if I draw for ten minutes 5-10 times a day (although it's not exactly pleasant, but also very bearable), which is, from this perspective, a lifesaver and a large bonus to sanity. Also, I generally do some doodles and stuff with weak pressure and low precision:)
Now, the update. I won't comment on it, as I already spent my arm mana on the wall of text above:) I'll just say that at the moment, I mainly do doodling and croquis type drawing and stuff like that, more from reference than not. The "prettier" and tighter things were done a bit earlier, while I was under impression I was getting better and when the doctors where encouraging me to "not overdo it and do six hours" - which led me to regressing and taught me a lesson lol.
Once again, sorry if I don't reply specifically to your potential comments or disappear from active "foruming" for days or weeks, it only means I can't really afford to type (actually, typing bothers me a solid amount, it screws up my forearm extensors, so basically, I'm very gratefull I'm an illustrator and not a pianist, for example lol, I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to play the piano more than five secs).
So, that's it for the update (both drawing based and non drawing based), thanks for the support and comments, guys! I hope this heals, even if it heals in like a year, it would be great, as long as it's "repairable" and/or doesn't get worse. Though, to be honest, it's really a test of psychological stability and perseverance more than anything else lol:)
Arm update - basically, I haven't responded to therapies, so now they are washing their hands off of me lol. My condition is more or less the same ("more or less" because it varies on a relatively long and random basis, 1-10 days, so I can't really tell without a six months graph or something like that). It has been three and a half months.
During the therapy I got worse (which they told me at first it's normal and now they're telling me "well, if you don't respond well to the therapy from the very start, it's not good") and now I am at the point zero, more or less - like before I went to the doctor - only several hundreds of euros lighter lol:)
Essentially, the neurologist swears there's nothing neurologically wrong, he stands by the emg tests which showed quite mild cervical radiculopathy, which shouldn't "behave like this after therapies". Also, he did some manual tests and concluded that I have no nerve problems whatsoever. He says he could send me to mr, but there's no need to. Which I might actually believe, as it means more money in their pocket if I go to scan.
Considering the tingling, pins and needles, numbness, burning etc. I might VERY shyly say that it might be slightly less present, intensity-wise (it's still present non stop). Which I guess it's a good thing - then again, I might be wrong, as I don't know anymore what is like to have normal feeling and no pain, so I might be just confused and without reference after these hundred-ish days...
The pain though, is the same as always and it goes down the ulnar side of my forearm and also down the medial(?) side as well. Physician also tested me and she insists there is no symptomatic nerve damage (my grip/strength/tonus/whatever is non-lacking - although it doesn't FEEL that way to me - in other words, I could squeeze something with full or almost full power, but my subjective feeling is that I squeezed it like a 7 year old kid with a temperature). About the pain, she tested me some more, palpated some trigger points etc. and said that the symptoms resemble golfer's elbow and tennis elbow, but that they are very mild (apparently, I should cry out and jump in the air when she finds the spots, which I don't do, but just say "yes, there's the pain" instead. I don't know what to think about it, I might simply have high tolerance or whatever. It doesn't seem like a convincing method to me, but as far as I've seen on the net, it's pretty much like that).
Both neurologist and physician insist that the tingling and stuff could only be from nerves, but at the same time they are insisting that there's nothing wrong with me neurologically. However, the neurologist says that I am very anxious and have very jumpy nerves, which could lead to psychosomatic "leakage" eventually. So, ok, I guess I need to work on my zen, which I've started to do. Nevertheless, while it can make sense, I don't feel that's it. Mainly because my pain is "too mechanical and specific" - as far as I know, anxiety related psychosomatic stuff usually travels across the body on a more or less daily basis. Even the neurologists told me that the pattern would be different if that was the case. So, their final conclusion is, nerves are fine. Ok, if I'm right about tingling and stuff getting less intense, it could make sense. So, I am left with the pain and tenderness and overall sense of weakness and super quick tiring of forearm flexors and extensors. Then again, I don't cry and jump when I'm supposed to, so that should be as mild as it gets.
I have asked the neurologist "wat do ololo" and he was like "I don't know, take supplements and stuff and go do whatever you do lol". I asked should I try to strengthen or stretch my arm and such and he was like "I don't know, try and see lol, your nerves are fine, it's probably bone/muscular". So, not much info there.
Physician, on the other side, was more busy being puzzled at my non-recovery than anything. Eventually, she sent me back to neurologist, who sent me back to her, as there's nothing wrong with nerves. I'll see them one more time each and then I'll go seek another opinion and/or undertake self therapy and education. Partially because I don't have bunch of money to just go to dozens of doctors until someone gets it. However, what I can do at this point is to employ home treatment plus some generally advised items/supplements (kinesio tapes, biofreeze, simple stretches, lifestyle, braces, gloves, posture etc).
And, while I am on that, I googled A LOT about my condition, similar conditions, symptoms etc. and it seems that the standard development is pretty much similar to mine. People go to doctors, they run round in circles with no progress and in the end, SOMETHING does it for them and that something is pretty much individual. Some swear by stretching, some by kt tapes, some by acupuncture, some by massage etc. Which is fine, because all of those are affordable more or less. The only downside comes from the fact that nerves should be treated differently from tendons/muscles. For example, nerve shouldn't be "angried" by massage, but muscle should. So I must go wtih trial and error and extreme caution. But, what can you do. I'll try this and that and when I have some money again, I'll go to some other experts and see if they can dig it out. Maybe I even heal in the meantime olol:)
Both doctors said that it should be pretty safe if I was behaving normal. For example, when I asked could I draw and for how long, they were like, well, don't overdo it, but don't be too shy, if you draw for eight hours regularly, make it five, for example. Which is lovely, only that drawing starts to bother me slightly after like ten seconds and after ten minutes it's pretty much "let's stop lol". And I can repeat that after another ten minutes or so. Eventually, I was drawing 1-1.5 hours a day (in 10 minute sittings) in the last 3-4 days and I haven't died or had my arm shrivel and die, so I hope that I could maintain that tempo for the time being.
This typing adventure is also sort of a test, as I'm typing this with both hands, through moderate pain. If I still have my right arm when I wake up tomorrow, then that would be magnificent:)
I guess I just have to cautiously experiment and be extremely, extremely patient, because of general slowness of potential progress/regress. So if I try, for example, kinesio tapes, light stretching, biofreeze and moderate activity, it could very well pass like a month or three before I could say "well, this works" or "look, my hand fell off, this sucks".
On the bright side, It does seem (although without substantial amount of consistent time researched) that I don't die if I draw for ten minutes 5-10 times a day (although it's not exactly pleasant, but also very bearable), which is, from this perspective, a lifesaver and a large bonus to sanity. Also, I generally do some doodles and stuff with weak pressure and low precision:)
Now, the update. I won't comment on it, as I already spent my arm mana on the wall of text above:) I'll just say that at the moment, I mainly do doodling and croquis type drawing and stuff like that, more from reference than not. The "prettier" and tighter things were done a bit earlier, while I was under impression I was getting better and when the doctors where encouraging me to "not overdo it and do six hours" - which led me to regressing and taught me a lesson lol.
Once again, sorry if I don't reply specifically to your potential comments or disappear from active "foruming" for days or weeks, it only means I can't really afford to type (actually, typing bothers me a solid amount, it screws up my forearm extensors, so basically, I'm very gratefull I'm an illustrator and not a pianist, for example lol, I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to play the piano more than five secs).
So, that's it for the update (both drawing based and non drawing based), thanks for the support and comments, guys! I hope this heals, even if it heals in like a year, it would be great, as long as it's "repairable" and/or doesn't get worse. Though, to be honest, it's really a test of psychological stability and perseverance more than anything else lol:)