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Left partial hand and lower arm near wrist/cheek went numb
Yesterday was sitting at the table when out of no where my lower left arm by my wrist became numb as well as my cheek. I immediately panicked thinking it was a stroke. I have anxiety and panic disorder. I was able to move my arm and get up and walk fast as I ran upstairs, checked myself in the mirror (face was fine), heart was racing, felt a little woozy and scared. Whole thing lasted a minute, maybe 2 and I started to take deep breaths and call myself down.
I decided last night to take myself to the emergency room where they took a CBC, CT Scan & ECG which all came back normal. I asked the doctor who was seeing me about a possible Stroke or Tran Iscemic Attack as I googled my symptoms and he didn't think so. He's referred me to a neurologist I guess to er on the side of caution and see if anything is going on.
Has anyone experienced this? Was very scary when it happened. I didn't lose mobility, I could walk very fine, didn't feel like the room was spinning, my face wasn't drooping, I didn't talk really so I'm not sure if my speech was garbled but I was able to think clearly but felt so scared and especially wth the panic attack brought on by this new feeling. I still have some tingling today a little bit but not sure if it's psychosomatic and my left arm has had tingling for quite some time and sore from time to time and cheek is still tingly off an on or psychosomatic. Also, when I took my Ativan and it kicked in was much better.
I decided last night to take myself to the emergency room where they took a CBC, CT Scan & ECG which all came back normal. I asked the doctor who was seeing me about a possible Stroke or Tran Iscemic Attack as I googled my symptoms and he didn't think so. He's referred me to a neurologist I guess to er on the side of caution and see if anything is going on.
Has anyone experienced this? Was very scary when it happened. I didn't lose mobility, I could walk very fine, didn't feel like the room was spinning, my face wasn't drooping, I didn't talk really so I'm not sure if my speech was garbled but I was able to think clearly but felt so scared and especially wth the panic attack brought on by this new feeling. I still have some tingling today a little bit but not sure if it's psychosomatic and my left arm has had tingling for quite some time and sore from time to time and cheek is still tingly off an on or psychosomatic. Also, when I took my Ativan and it kicked in was much better.
Hi Vanessa,
You've posted this same question in quite a few different types of medical communities, most of which i don't know how what you've described could even be connect to these types of medical conditions....please be wary of leading your self way off track googling your symptoms, googling and researching medical conditions is a well known behaviour that feeds anxiety and escalates medical related fears!
What you are describing imho would be suggestive-consistent with a situation specific posture related temporary nerve compression-entrapment, the specific areas of numbness you experienced suggests you were possibly sitting with your left arm bent at the elbow and wrist, your neck also slightly bent with the left side of your face leaning on or being held in your left hand.....as in you were likely unconsciously sitting in the same position leaning on the table for too long temporarily trapping the nerves. The same type of numb pattern you might experience if you were laying down, leaning on your elbow and propping your head up with your hand for too long...
" Ulnar nerve compression (see Figure 1) at the wrist causes numbness and tingling of the little finger, part of the ring finger, and the little finger side (ulnar side) of the palm. Ulnar nerve compression at the elbow causes not only the numbness noted above, but also numbness on the back of the ulnar side of the hand. Pressure on the radial nerve (see Figure 1) in the forearm or above the wrist can cause numbness over the back of the thumb, the index finger, and the web between these two digits. If the median nerve (see Figure 1) is compressed at or just below the elbow, numbness is felt not only in the same area as in CTS but also over the palm at the base of the thumb."
https://www.massgeneral.org/ortho-hand/conditions-treatments/pdfs/Numbness.pdf
The ulnar nerve is one of the three main nerves in your arm, it travels from your neck all the way down into your hand, and it can be constricted in several different places along the way, the most common place for compression of the nerve is behind the inside part of your elbow, Ulnar nerve compression at the elbow is called cubital tunnel syndrome.
Your anxiety and panic disorder unfortunately would of had to of kicked in within a few seconds of you becoming aware of the numbness ie no sensation, etc or becoming aware of returning sensations ie pins and needles, tingling, burning, throbbing etc if you were able to get all the way upstairs to a mirror and the entire event only lasted 1 or 2 minutes.......the likelihood of what you experienced for only a couple of minutes being anything clinically abnormal is highly unlikely!
Honestly it's much more likely to of been a temporary nerve entrapment from the way you were leaning on the table or the way you were sitting whilst at the table or what you were doing whilst sitting at the table for a prolonged period of time, consider what you were actually doing whilst sitting at the table eg holding a phone to your ear, head bent forward elbow bent whilst looking at your mobile or tablet, reading a book, typing on the computer, slumped leaning on your elbow watching tv etc etc to be a factor in what happened.
Any and all of those postural behaviours would be a perfectly normal cause and effect situation for what you've described happened and as you will probably already understand, your mental health situation has your fight or flight response on a hair trigger and anything that sets off your fear response can and will typically escalate your anxiety, your anxiety of something being wrong driving you to focus on worse case outcomes, driving you to seek answers, reassurance, make you hyper focus on normal sensations, experience what you perceive to be the same or similar symptoms to the medical condition your reading about etc etc etc IF your anxiety and fears are escalating, it's in your best interest to seek additional help and support specifically for your mental health issues so you are proactively focused on shutting it down before it spins out of control!
I hope that helps.......JJ
ps i wrote this in response to this question coming up in the MS community, which was removed before i had a chance to post my reply to you...
You've posted this same question in quite a few different types of medical communities, most of which i don't know how what you've described could even be connect to these types of medical conditions....please be wary of leading your self way off track googling your symptoms, googling and researching medical conditions is a well known behaviour that feeds anxiety and escalates medical related fears!
What you are describing imho would be suggestive-consistent with a situation specific posture related temporary nerve compression-entrapment, the specific areas of numbness you experienced suggests you were possibly sitting with your left arm bent at the elbow and wrist, your neck also slightly bent with the left side of your face leaning on or being held in your left hand.....as in you were likely unconsciously sitting in the same position leaning on the table for too long temporarily trapping the nerves. The same type of numb pattern you might experience if you were laying down, leaning on your elbow and propping your head up with your hand for too long...
" Ulnar nerve compression (see Figure 1) at the wrist causes numbness and tingling of the little finger, part of the ring finger, and the little finger side (ulnar side) of the palm. Ulnar nerve compression at the elbow causes not only the numbness noted above, but also numbness on the back of the ulnar side of the hand. Pressure on the radial nerve (see Figure 1) in the forearm or above the wrist can cause numbness over the back of the thumb, the index finger, and the web between these two digits. If the median nerve (see Figure 1) is compressed at or just below the elbow, numbness is felt not only in the same area as in CTS but also over the palm at the base of the thumb."
https://www.massgeneral.org/ortho-hand/conditions-treatments/pdfs/Numbness.pdf
The ulnar nerve is one of the three main nerves in your arm, it travels from your neck all the way down into your hand, and it can be constricted in several different places along the way, the most common place for compression of the nerve is behind the inside part of your elbow, Ulnar nerve compression at the elbow is called cubital tunnel syndrome.
Your anxiety and panic disorder unfortunately would of had to of kicked in within a few seconds of you becoming aware of the numbness ie no sensation, etc or becoming aware of returning sensations ie pins and needles, tingling, burning, throbbing etc if you were able to get all the way upstairs to a mirror and the entire event only lasted 1 or 2 minutes.......the likelihood of what you experienced for only a couple of minutes being anything clinically abnormal is highly unlikely!
Honestly it's much more likely to of been a temporary nerve entrapment from the way you were leaning on the table or the way you were sitting whilst at the table or what you were doing whilst sitting at the table for a prolonged period of time, consider what you were actually doing whilst sitting at the table eg holding a phone to your ear, head bent forward elbow bent whilst looking at your mobile or tablet, reading a book, typing on the computer, slumped leaning on your elbow watching tv etc etc to be a factor in what happened.
Any and all of those postural behaviours would be a perfectly normal cause and effect situation for what you've described happened and as you will probably already understand, your mental health situation has your fight or flight response on a hair trigger and anything that sets off your fear response can and will typically escalate your anxiety, your anxiety of something being wrong driving you to focus on worse case outcomes, driving you to seek answers, reassurance, make you hyper focus on normal sensations, experience what you perceive to be the same or similar symptoms to the medical condition your reading about etc etc etc IF your anxiety and fears are escalating, it's in your best interest to seek additional help and support specifically for your mental health issues so you are proactively focused on shutting it down before it spins out of control!
I hope that helps.......JJ
ps i wrote this in response to this question coming up in the MS community, which was removed before i had a chance to post my reply to you...
4 Comments
Thank you very much!! What w great detailed response ❤️. But what about my cheek going numb as I was leaning on it? It was part lower arm like wrist and a few inches up from there and cheeks by jaw and up to cheek bone. And yes, my panic kicked in omg. I ran upstairs breathing heavy, checking in the mirror, I had dialated pupils, no drooping in face, felt dizzy, panicked and queezy in my stomach for a minute. I took deep breaths to calm myself down and was so scared I went to emergency a few hours later. I'm 35 years old, non smoker (quit 4 years ago) and non drinker but things can still happen. Doctor has made appointment just to rule anything out at neurologist. I did google it and TIA stroke came up and sent me into a panic even more, hence the reason to go right to emerg.
Correction: I wasn't leaning on my cheek. Was at the table on my phone and had some stressful things on my mind and extremely tired.
Yes i saw that you'd posted that you were on the phone but lower in my post i also gave you some examples of other common postural behaviours to consider, i didn't mention them all but numbness in the face IF it wasn't from something like sitting with your head or neck bent to the side or tilted forward ie chin down and temporary entrapping the nerves, it's likely to be from the way you were breathing.
When your feeling stressed, distressed, anxious, afraid, upset etc its not uncommon to loose track of the way your breathing, unaware your breathing rate is speeding up and becoming too shallow and when your not getting enough oxygen circulating throughout your body your face and peripheral limbs can start to loose sensations, your basically unconsciously beginning to hyperventilate and your brain switches into survival mode....
Dialated pupils, dizzy, panicked, queezy, heavy breathing are all the typical signs of a panic attack, you did the right thing by focusing on your breathing and calming your self but googling symptoms and matching medical conditions shortly after experiencing this is whats kept your anxiety and medical fears still running high. To come up with TIA or Stroke for a woman in her 30's would of had you skipping over the more common causes of your pre panic attack symptoms eg temporary nerve entrapment, mental health etc etc googling symptoms only fed your fears and escalated your anxiety about your health!
and like i said before....it's in your best interest to seek additional help and support specifically for your mental health issues so you are proactively focused on shutting it down before it spins out of control!
Hope it helps.......JJ
When your feeling stressed, distressed, anxious, afraid, upset etc its not uncommon to loose track of the way your breathing, unaware your breathing rate is speeding up and becoming too shallow and when your not getting enough oxygen circulating throughout your body your face and peripheral limbs can start to loose sensations, your basically unconsciously beginning to hyperventilate and your brain switches into survival mode....
Dialated pupils, dizzy, panicked, queezy, heavy breathing are all the typical signs of a panic attack, you did the right thing by focusing on your breathing and calming your self but googling symptoms and matching medical conditions shortly after experiencing this is whats kept your anxiety and medical fears still running high. To come up with TIA or Stroke for a woman in her 30's would of had you skipping over the more common causes of your pre panic attack symptoms eg temporary nerve entrapment, mental health etc etc googling symptoms only fed your fears and escalated your anxiety about your health!
and like i said before....it's in your best interest to seek additional help and support specifically for your mental health issues so you are proactively focused on shutting it down before it spins out of control!
Hope it helps.......JJ
❤️ Thank you very much again. And I'm going to look into the help for my anxiety because there are days where it's very debilitating. Some days I'm scared to leave my home, or drive alone, I need exits in the malls.
I don't want to sound simple here, but were you leaning on it while sitting at the desk? Because if you were, that's the cause. Pretty common thing. Can even happen if your posture at the desk was such that pressure from your neck temporarily pinched a nerve. I've experienced this a lot in my life, as has a lot of people, from leaning on it. You might not have been either leaning on it or were in a posture that put pressure on it, but it sounds like that side just went to sleep like when you sleep on your arm wrong. Hope it's nothing but that.
2 Comments
Thank you for your comment. I wasn't leaning on it. I was on my phone at the table. Felt a bit dizzy but I'm
Not sure if that's from the panic it sent me in to and I raced upstairs and was pacing and then it went away. I've read about TIA's (trans ishcemic attacks) and was concerned about that.
Thank you
Not sure if that's from the panic it sent me in to and I raced upstairs and was pacing and then it went away. I've read about TIA's (trans ishcemic attacks) and was concerned about that.
Thank you
Also concerned about my cheek going numb and also I've had terrible sleep over the past week.
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