Cubital Tunnel Syndrome

Off and on for the last 2 1/2 years at least I have suffered from nerve pain in my left elbow. Usually it would flare up for a few weeks, Joseph would tell me to baby my arm and it would get better for a few months and then the process would repeat. We discovered muscle weakness in my left arm about a month ago, June, on a Monday. Joseph did some muscle strength tests on me and and told me I could no longer put off a nerve study and most likely I would have surgery. Two things I really wanted to avoid. The next day we discovered that our insurance is supposed to on August 1st so we had to decide if we would try to get the ball rolling before August or just wait. We wanted to avoid paying two deductibles and possibly have a pre-exisiting. After thinking about it we decided to go ahead and start treatment. On Wednesday, two days after we discovered the weakness, Joseph had the office staff set up a nerve study. The doctor I wanted to see didn't have any Russellville openings for a few weeks, but would be willing to see me that Friday if I would go to Little Rock. This doctor usually doesn't see patients on Friday but had one to see so he was willing to fit me in too. This doctor knew Joseph because he used to do nerve studies at Joseph's work. It helps being married to medicine, but I also view this as a little miracle that we were able to have a nerve study so soon since we were in a time crunch. Friday was nerve study day. I wasn't looking forward to it since I knew it involved needles. The nerve study was about an hour and it involved another muscle weakness test, about 30 minutes of electrode shocks on my arms and about 10 minutes of needle sticks to various muscles to check for nerve damage. The shocks were uncomfortable, but didn't really bother me. The needle sticks hurt, especially the two in my neck so I was glad it was only about 10 minutes. The nerve study results were "severe cubital tunnel syndrome (ulnar nerve entrapment) with axon loss and demyelination". That was much more serious than we were expecting. Most people seek treatment when they are mild to moderate and my case was severe. Most people have numbness in their 4th and 5th fingers and I only had burning pain in my elbow. On the way home from the nerve study Joseph set up surgery for July 26. That was moved up two weeks when Dr. Allison had a cancellation. I had an anterior transposition of the ulnar nerve procedure performed on July 12th. Basically, my nerve was removed from the cubital tunnel and buried in the muscle by my elbow. I was nervous about surgery. Two of my biggest fears were the IV and a serious complication like the severing of my nerve. The ulnar nerve controls the motor and sensory functions of the last two fingers and part of the palm. The IV was much better than expected. I didn't even bruise. The other concern didn't happen, but almost did. Stay tuned for the next post about my recovery. Here is a picture of my splint.