Occupational Hazard
Sitting at my desk playing Sid Meier's Civilization yesterday, I realized two things. First, Sitting Bull will continue to be warlike and ruin my fun at building my cities no matter how many trades I place with him. He may even cost me the game. Second, my right arm and hand tingle and feel dead way too often for it to be healthy when I am at my desk. I told Christopher about it, and he said my symptoms were like Carpal Tunnel. Yikes.
So, knowing me - as you do - you know that I must do more research on the topic to find out if I indeed have Carpal Tunnel (because I'm not likely to believe the snake will injure me unless it bites me square on the nose). I found this information from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. It states that Carpal Tunnel sufferers have pain often radiating from the palm and going down to the elbow in addition to tingling in the thumb, index, and middle fingers. They may feel like they cannot squeeze or grip objects and/or feel a need to "shake it out." This information, Christopher had shared with me already.
Since I work at a computer all day every day, Monday through Friday, I do feel like it is not unreasonable to expect I may develop this one day. But now? Also, my symptoms do not match exactly. For example, there is no pain associated with my tingling. It feels like my arm went to sleep, but I could still hold a cup of coffee if I needed to. Second, my arm and fingers are ridiculously cold when this happens. This leads me to think that it may have more to do with poor circulation or with keeping my arm up too high in comparison with my heart, or something to that effect. Finally, it seems to affect my pinkie, ring, and middle fingers far more than my thumb and index fingers. In fact, my thumb never feels numb when this happens. I am not ready to go to the doctor just yet. Last I checked, the most common remedy for this injury was surgery. Eek. I don't think I'm there yet. In the meantime, if you see someone looking like a hobo at their desk wearing gloves with the fingers cut off, that would be me.
