Ulnar nerve pain after hitting funny bone against chair 4 months ago

[thepersonpeople]

I was in a Barnes and Nobles in December and I was just minding my own business. Me and a friend sit down and there are these stupid chairs with really wide arm rests where you can easily whack your arms. I sit down and move my arms back (not very quickly or anything) and I hit my funny bone against it. But it wasn’t the kind of funny bone hit where itÂ’s brief and goes away. It almost felt sore and aching afterwards. Weeks later I try to play guitar with my ring and pinky fingers and my ulnar side of my arm starts to hurt and I feel it through my arm. It ached a lot during Christmas time but I did some stretches on YouTube for a few days and it calmed down after that. Not sure if that was because of the stretches or just time passing by allowing it to heal. IÂ’ve tried playing guitar occasionally but every time it just aggregates the nerves. In February I saw a doctor and told me to see a physical therapist that only gave me a sleeping cast and told me to do flexbar exercises, but when I would do it I could feel my ulnar nerve buzz and zap and wasnÂ’t sure if that was good for it. My physical therapist also said not to do any of those kinds of stretches where you bend and straighten your arms back and forth and only to do a general neutral arm stretch, but IÂ’m so bad at keeping a routine that I havenÂ’t done them because IÂ’ve gotten sick and distracted.

I then stopped playing for a month from February to March, but wasnÂ’t doing any exercises for it in that time. I try playing again to see if it was any better but it wasnÂ’t. While I was doing physical therapy for my knee, I also told this new physical therapist about my ulnar nerve pain, and told me to do some weightlifting with dumbbells to strengthen the muscles around the ulnar nerve. On top of that Im doing YouTube stretches for ulnar nerve entrapment.. But before I wacked my elbow I had zero ulnar nerve pain, so I donÂ’t know if these exercises are for compression/entrapment or for direct injuries to it like in my case. Either way IÂ’d assume itÂ’ll help.


I have been playing guitar somewhat often now for about a month but every time I do my ulnar nerve hurts and I worry IÂ’m damaging my nerve and making it worse so IÂ’m gonna completely stop once again for a while and do all these exercises and rest, etc.. The only reason why IÂ’ve continued to play despite knowing that my nerve is injured is that for years IÂ’ve been dealing with other hand injuries that have prevented me from playing on and off for months to years and there were very long periods of time where I got extremely depressed that I couldnÂ’t play. I became so unbearably impatient of waiting for months and months on end for things to heal that my patience has run dry and I couldnÂ’t wait any longer and it was driving me nuts. But I know that if I keep playing now itÂ’ll make things worse later on, so I have to stop again and just do other things. Any other advice or exercises I should do? Thanks.

[jim1960]

You should see a doctor. Asking for medical advice in a guitar forum is a great recipe for being poorly diagnosed, given bad advice, and making your problem worse.

[CharlieBman]

Don't mean to sound condescending, but it doesn't sound like your getting much good medical advice. I would suggest seeing a surgeon, someone who specializes in bone/nerve issues. I'd see a neurologist first then maybe follow up with an orthopedic surgeon. For the pain to persist this long is not good. Something is damaged and I don't think stretching or weight lifting is the answer. Good luck!

[Forest Dweller]

Sounds like you've trapped your Ulnar nerve- I have the same, I have what is called Cubital tunnel, though I am lucky in that playing fingerstyle guitar doesn't exacerbate it (using a plectrum on the other hand is another matter).

As others have said, you should seek proper medical advice, not on a forum,

Robbie

[egordon99]

Same advice in your previous thread. Please see a doctor.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=677834