My brother crashed in the yard, of all places, last Sunday. His hand was hurt and he said the pain was pretty bad. About a 5 with 0 being drinking lemon aid on a hot summer day and 10 being boiled alive like a blue crab.

The way it was described to me he hit the ground with his weight on the pinky side of his hand. Kung fu chop style.

By Monday afternoon most of the pain had subsided but his five fingers were "asleep".

Here it is almost Thursday and he has only regained feeling in his two outside fingers. His thumb index and middle fingers are still numb, "asleep".

He says it has taken away all the emotion of giving someone the bird.

X-rays show a possible but difficult to read break to the bone directly behind the little finger close to his wrist. to be certain he would need some better x-rays than the free ones we get from our wonderful aunt who knows now that when we call her at work it wasn't a good race.

We are just wondering if anyone has experience with prolonged numbness in the fingers after a hand injury and if so is it anything to be concerned about?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I was mistaken about his numb fingers. It is the thumb and then his two middle fingers. One doctor has told him that was strange because there are two seperate nerves and he has feeling and numbness on both. He is geting a little freaked out now it has been almost a week and doesnt show any signs of getting better.

Nerves can take a long time to settle down. I had my ulnar nerve give me tingling in my two outside fingers for around 6 months. It came around for some unknown reason directly after surgery on my opposite shoulder.

Is there any wierd sensations at his elbow too? I'm no medical expert but I'd bet a doctor would say to ride it out for a while to see what happens...if everything else appears to be somewhat normal.

It's pretty annoying and will take a while to settle down.

The doctor is right that there are two separate nerves that go to the thumb, index, and middle fingers (there's a third nerve too that goes to the outside of the ring finger and all of the pinky), but the nerves don't go to separate fingers; the Radial nerve "connects" to the back side of the thumb, index, middle and ring finger, and the Median nerve goes to the palm-side of the thumb, index, middle, and thumb-side half of the ring finger. (The Ulnar Nerve, the third one, serves the pinky and part of the ring finger that isn't handled by the other two nerves). So, it seems reasonable to have numbness in his thumb and first two fingers. Knowing which side of the hand is numb can tell you which nerve is impacted, or both. :prof:

What's common to the nerves is that they go through the wrist. It makes sense that if your brother landed on the pinky-side of his hand, that he could have irritated or injured the nerves where they pass through the wrist because of excessive movement of the wrist bones during the crash (median and ulnar through "tunnels" and the radial wraps around the Radius). If the wrist is anatomically correct after his crash and there was no real damage to the nerves, then the nerves in his hand should calm down after a while.

If you suspect a break in the metacarpal (the finger bone that's in the hand behind the "finger"), I'd check with a doctor if it were me. Those are a bit harder to imobilize than a finger (you can't exactly use a finger splint), and you wouldn't want it to fuse at a funny angle if it's actually broken.

Fwiw, I don't know what meds he's taking for pain and swelling control. Some studies suggest that NSAIDS like Ibuprofen are not the best thing to take when there's also a soft tissue injury that's healing as they may impede the healing process in humans. Might be something to discuss with his doctor.

Lastly, giving the bird to the wrong person can result in plenty of "emotion". Useful locations would be a bar or in the opposing football team's bleachers after a big loss... :smirk:

BTW, call your aunt when you win, too. She'll appreciate that!

We had a race his weekend and my brother really wanted to give it a go. So he went and saw an ortho doc last week. The doctor said something along the lines of carpel tunnell, stretched nerve, no fracture, go ride.

Anyone know what the doctor was saying since the only part my brother remembers was GO RIDE?

Thanks

That when your brother crashed, he stretched the median nerve (like a sprain...) that goes through the carpal tunnel in his wrist (because his wrist moved too much when he crashed and landed on his hand). Since nothing's broken and his wrist and hand are "anatomically correct", he's good to go racing. :thumbsup:

I think "go ride" said enough. :smirk:
Call your aunt and let her know how he did...

Thanks man, I wanted to tell the guy to "speak english doc we aint rocket scientist".