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Numb lower half of arm, can't open hand or lift hand

My husband fell asleep in such a position that his arm lost circulation for an unknown amount of time . Now, 2 days later, he says it is numb on the lower half and when he raises his arm, his hand just falls limp. Hand won't open more than halfway on its own. Any ideas on what happened or what he can do? We are planning a trip or the Dr or telemed.
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1081992 tn?1389903637
"Any ideas on what happened"
Well, some guesses:

If you're hoping it will go away on it's own, you'd want this cause to be it, especially if alcohol was involved and there was sustained pressure on the **nerve**:
https://chiropractorchandler.com/conditions/shoulder-pain/saturday-night-palsy-treatment-not-what-you-think/
That's prbly the most common.



Or a worse situation: lack of blood flow from compression of the **artery** can cause "ischemic neuropathy". That is, a nerve can be damaged in a few hours from lack of oxygen.

"...or what he can do?"
or if the problem is persisting because a **clot** has formed in an artery, then aspirin is a possibility. But merely doing self treatment is taking a chance, as you must have figured. Why would he be susceptible to clots? Overweight, diabetes, vax booster are possibilities.

I wouldn't raise the arm any more, for sure. Mabe a little blood flow is getting through, but that reduces when the arm is raised. So you don't want further episodes of that ischemia.

A rare possibility is "thoracic outlet syndrome" in which a person has an extra rib (high up) that compresses the artery to one arm - that's prbly more likely if he slept with his arm up near his head.

A big question: are the fingers white or worse yet getting black?

Good luck.
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