Marnie came to my Neuromuscular Therapy office near Boston with 35 years of “sciatica” type pain. Recently after kayaking, the pain had become really bad, bad enough that it was keeping her awake at night. Her symptoms were pain deep in her right side buttock with referral down her backside, into the side of her […]
Entrapment by the pectoralis minor muscle can block blood and nerve flow to the arms causing pain, tingling, numbness (dysesthesia) and unusual sensations (parasthesias). The pectoralis minor’s very strong tendon overlies the brachial plexus of nerves and the axillary artery that make up the neurovascular bundle that serves the arm. When the muscle is tight […]
When the thumb or finger locks up it is called a Trigger Thumb or Trigger Finger. They are slightly different in the mechanism that may be causing each. The cramping can be painful. For a trigger thumb, the tendon of the long flexor of the thumb seems to actually get caught between tight muscles, preventing […]
A new “diagnosis,” the pain caused by specific repetitive stress to the arm and hand muscles that bend the thumb is of increasing importance due to our hand-held texting devices like the Blackberry. To press the keys with the device in the palm of the hand requires flexing the tip of the thumb inward and […]
This is a series on arm and hand pain. If you missed the beginning, go back to the “Checklist of Causes.” Repetitive motions have long been a problem for musicians, people who do their jobs primarily with their hands like surgeons, electricians, massage therapists and assembly line workers and for those who work on computers. […]
This is a series on arm and hand pain. If you missed the beginning, go back to the “Checklist of Causes.” Golf elbow, medically known as medial epicondylitis, is pain at the inner elbow, usually from inflammation of the tendons that attach to it. The muscles that hurt are mostly local: 1) the tendons of […]
This is a series on arm and hand pain. If you missed the beginning, go back to the “Checklist of Causes.” In my Neuromuscular Therapy center near Boston, I treat arm and hand pain caused by sports injuries. Tennis elbow, medically known as lateral epicondylitis is characterized by pain at the outer elbow and/or inflammation […]
Cubital tunnel symptoms include inner elbow pain, and pain, tingling, numbness, burning, and weakness down the ulnar forearm and hand to the pinkie and ring fingers. The cubital tunnel is at the inner elbow (medial epicondyle) formed by the dog bone knob of the upper arm bone (humerus). The ulnar nerve goes around it like […]
Of all the arm and hand pain conditions and syndromes that can be treated, carpal tunnel syndrome is the one that is most often misdiagnosed and the one for which unnecessary surgeries are most often performed. See other conditions and causes in the post on Arm and hand pain: A Checklist of Causes. I was […]
This is a series on arm and hand pain. If you missed the beginning, go back to the “Checklist of Causes.” In my Neuromuscular Therapy center near Boston, I treat arm and hand pain caused by texting and computer use. In the last post, the opponens muscles were discussed that work together to cup the […]