It tends to start small with things like your fingers tingling when on your phone for a while. Then it starts waking you up at night. By the time people come in, many of them have been sleeping with their arm hanging off the bed for weeks because it’s the only way the tingling stops.

Where You Feel It Matters

Your hand gets its feeling from three nerves, and each one covers a different area. So when you tell us which fingers go numb, you’re giving us a pretty big clue.

• If it’s your thumb and first two fingers, we think carpal tunnel first
• If it’s your ring finger and pinky, the nerve at your elbow is a likely suspect
• If it’s the back of your hand, a nerve near the wrist may be getting pressed on

Not every case starts in the arm. A pinched nerve in the neck can cause tingling in the hand too, so we always check your neck before we decide.

What Squeezes the Nerve

Carpal tunnel is the one we see most. Picture a tight little passage on the palm side of your wrist. The nerve runs through it, and so do nine tendons that bend your fingers. It’s crowded in there to begin with. If those tendons swell up, or you keep your wrist bent for hours at a stretch, the nerve ends up pinched. Office work can do this. So can a day of gripping a drill or a weed trimmer. Plenty of people make it worse in their sleep without knowing, because they curl their wrists up under the pillow. Diabetes and thyroid problems raise the odds, and so does pregnancy.

The nerve at the elbow has its own triggers. It doesn’t like long phone calls with your arm bent, and it really doesn’t like you leaning on that elbow at your desk.

What Physical Therapy Does About It

Nerves are supposed to slide a little when you move your arm. When they’re squeezed or swollen, they get stuck, and that’s part of why they hurt. Much of therapy is about getting them moving again.

You’ll learn a few nerve glides. These are slow, gentle motions with your wrist, fingers, and elbow that help the nerve slide back and forth. We’ll also stretch the forearm muscles and work on strength in your hands and shoulders, so your arms aren’t stuck in bad positions all day.

Then we look at the little habits. Is your keyboard too high? Do you grip your phone hard with a bent wrist? Small changes like that can take a lot of pressure off. Many people also do well with a wrist brace at night. It keeps the wrist straight while you sleep, and that’s often when carpal tunnel flares the most.

Most mild and moderate cases get better without surgery. If your thumb is getting weak or the numbness never goes away, don’t wait on it. Nerves that stay squeezed for too long can get damaged.

Let’s Find Out What’s Pinching That Nerve

If your hands keep going numb, come see our team at Modern Medicine of Mesa, AZ. We’ll figure out which nerve is involved and help you get some sleep again.