I should probably not have a list of orthopedic issues at the age of 36.

When my elbow cracked yesterday, I got a pain in my arm.  I thought it would go away, but it has only gotten worse. 

We are blessed to have a woman on staff that is actually a licensed massage therapist.  If we get some sort of weird muscular lurch going on, Sherri does her best to fix it.  I went to Sherri to discuss my pain. 

What is my pain, you ask?  Well, I have a burning surface (skin) pain from the inside of my upper arm down to the tip of my pinkie and ring fingers.  What is it?  Sherri suspects that it is something called Guyon's Canal Syndrome.  What I can tell you is it is something this side of extremely unpleasant. 

Guyon's Canal Syndrome is the opposite side of Carpal Tunnel.  Lucky me, people generally don't get that one.  They usually get the Carpal Tunnel end of things. 

So what am I supposed to do with this extremely unpleasant pain?  Well, it hurts to touch that part of my arm.  Writing is not terribly pleasant at times and a pain shoots from time to time.  It is suggested (online, but makes sense) that I wear a wrist brace at least at night to keep from folding my wrist (which I can do) and causing more irritation.  I know that the thumb brace I bought a year and a half ago for the tendinitis in my thumb is supposed to fit either hand.  I did put it up and praise God, found it in the linen closet.  I can wear it at night to deter the bending, but since it is a thumb brace, it can only do so much.

I can also take Advil.  I have been doing that.  One seems to be helping to decrease the pain.  I took two last night before bed and actually slept. 

I'm not usually a baby about pain.  Actually, I have a pretty high tolerance to pain and am surprised with how much this is bothering me.  Hopefully it is a temporary thing.  I tried a patch on my arm that is supposed to help rid the pain and it didn't work at all.  I kept it on for an hour, up until the point I couldn't take the cold from the patch anymore.  It was actually causing more pain.

Any suggestions?  Feel free to leave them.  I'm going to ride this out for a few weeks to see if it gets better.  If not, off to the doctor I'll go to get his evaluation of it. 

Smiles in my day:
-  K-'s cough seems to be getting better.
-  Hubs was able to mow the lawn this AM.  It was a case of he fought the lawn and the lawn nearly won, but it is done.  It had been a little over two weeks, but we were probably close to near drought conditions, so it was only brown and crunchy.  When it started to rain, it shot up like no tomorrow.  Wow.
-  Plans to day trip on to Amish Country.  We'll be able to stop in at my favorite Amish produce stand, the bulk food store and the chocolate factory.  :)

Have a great day!