Pain, numb stiff feeling in the hands and fingers.

Does anyone else get this? I'm having a flare up of this to more uncomfortable levels at the moment.

Even the veins in my hands and fingers felt taut as if they were going to bust yesterday. I will see a doctor about it but just wondering if others experience similar symptoms.

 

I don't get the numbness, but I'm having real problems with the muscles in my hands below my thumb joint. The area goes slightly hardened and swollen, and the small vein there bulges. It started 18 months ago when I was working - probably triggered by typing and repetitive actions, but no doubt persisting because of M.E.

 

Here is a picture of my hand when the area below the thumb is swollen and the vein is bulging.

 

@InitialConditions yes, I feel pretty certain it is triggered by typing and repetitive actions too. I first started to experience this about a year or two before my severe M.E onset while playing a game with a hand held device.

It feels like the veins are affected as well. At my severe ME onset I was getting a lot of veins bursting in my hands. Like what you see on an older persons hands and I was only 36 years old.

 

I get this also, Rosie. If I spend too much time on the computer, or do something like weeding a garden, I wake up with very stiff hands and fingers. I'll also wake up during the night because my hand has gone numb, sometimes to the point of being painful. I miss my estrogen. I never had problems like this before meno.

 

@Rosie I get 'trigger thumb' on my left hand from time to time. It's stiff and likes a hook/claw and sore. I'm also having an issue with my TMJ on my left side, it clicks when I eat. Very annoying. I think it's from having my head propped up when I'm on my laptop?

 

I have "game thumb" right now. Playing a word game on my phone and then I went and slept on it. Been wearing a brace for a few days.

Some ME/CFS patients have Raynaud's.

 

I had mine operated on when I was a child. I wonder if that's something they still do? You do have my sympathies.

 

It eventually de-stiffens so I'm not sure surgery is necessary? It can last from 2 weeks to one month. I'm not sure why it only happens on my left hand when I'm right handed.

 

I have a nighttime hand brace that my doctor recommended that I wear. It really does make a big difference on the nights that my hand is bad.

 

@Mij regarding the TMJ, I also came to the same conclusion. It is the way I am lying down on my bed looking at the laptop. I really need to put a pillow under the laptop but this then causes problems with having my hands raised up too much. I should try adding another pillow under my head but then I will probably get more neck problems.

I've been having a bout of TMJ the last few weeks and I find putting my tongue up to the roof of my mouth before I go to sleep and pushing it for a few seconds a number of times helps. I can't remember where I read this.

 

@Rosie haha it's tricky, isn't it? I place a bolster pillow under my knees to relieve pressure on my hips, and then lay my laptop on top of my legs so that it's at eye level. I then need 2 pillows behind my neck, a hard one and a softer one for under my neck. Then I roll a tee-shirt and place it at the end of my laptop so it doesn't slide around on my blanket. Then I take 2 pillows to rest my arms/elbows on both sides to take pressure off my arms.

My head is pushed forward so that my jaw is not in a natural position. I will try pushing my tongue on the roof of my mouth.

 

I got one of these following a recommendation by Jodi Bassett on hfme.org:
https://www.simply-ergonomic.co.uk/office/laidback-adjustable-laptop-stand/

 

This was my primary disabling symptom, but over far more of my body than just my hands, for nearly twenty years. I found repetitive muscle use was a problem, but static muscle stress was actually far worse. I found pacing those activities was the only thing that really worked over the long term, but it took a long time to get real benefit, and about fifteen years before the pain started subsiding. Mind you this major improvement was after I became properly aware of pacing and did it more carefully, prior to that I drifted into pacing as it was the best solution, and I kept pushing till I needed to pace. No wonder I never had major improvement ... but proper pacing changed that for me.

During the early years I was mostly a mild patient, so the energy and fatigue issues were dwarfed by my pain. Later I got worse and energy and fatigue became much more important.

I suspect this is because of putting constant energy demands on those few muscles, overwhelming them, but not so much as to cause major general PEM. PEM requires the use of more muscle groups than that for me.

 

@Annamaria Thanks, I like that one. It would be good for when I am watching something on you tube or TV on Demand. Not good for lots of typing though. I can't have my hands raised for too long. Still it would help part of the time while I have the laptop on, which is a lot of the time!

 

@alex3619 I was looking up lactic acidosis symptoms yesterday and felt really worried that I might be experiencing it at times with severe bouts that I go through. I am thinking of doing a thread on it today or in the next few days. I have a few questions about it but will ask on that thread - maybe no one will know any answers but I just felt really worried and should find out if there is anything I could take when I experience it in case it is acidosis.

 

You should talk about it with your doctor, but I am not aware of any ME patient who was in acidosis. I think the biochemistry of ME can induce all the same symptoms. Newton in the UK showed that in her patient group we are actually alkaline except when exerting ourselves and for a fair while after that, but not long enough for it to degrade oxygen capacity. That is in our resting state we compensate for the acid and go alkaline. Lactic acidosis arises only when the acidity is constantly high for a prolonged period. Most of us are not in that situation. However I am aware of the possibility, and I think it might easily be overlooked in an ME patient.

 

Thanks @alex3619 for explaining what you know about it. Next time it happens I will try and go to A&E. I feel so sick and weak though when it happens, I don't want go anywhere but I really need to find out what is happening because I dread going through those bouts.

 

Three weeks ago I started getting pain and stiffness in my left thumb and now it’s spreading and I’m going out of my mind with worry that it’s rheumatoid athritis. I’ve booked an appointment with the doc to get it investigated but I’m so worried about it. 47 years old, musician to the core. I’m
hoping its just another ME symptom that’ll come and go but the accompanying numbness is telling me it’s not neurological

 

I had this in my hands in the mid-80s through early 2000s. I do think its ME related. For what I had the only solution is pacing. You might have something different but if its the same then resting the affected areas more, pacing their use, is important.