Ulnar Nerve Entrapment

I'm pretty sure I'm developing a repetitive stress injury in my elbow that is affecting a nerve in my hand.

This summer, I started developing some numbness in my right pinky finger and ring finger. I could tell it was from bicycling (I was doing between 50 and 60 km a day on good days), so I tried to watch the way I was leaning on the handlebars, and made sure to take pressure off regularly and rest often. It would wax an wane, but I usually had some numbness in those fingers.

My first time on the group bike ride out here, I met a woman who was recovering from surgery on her elbow. She was a video game tester, and her symptoms sounded exactly like what I had been experiencing during the summer (but since I had not done much biking at that point since moving here, I was feeling OK again.).

It's called ulnar nerve entrapment, and it's similar to carpal tunnel, but a different nerve, and affecting the 4.5 and 5th fingers instead of the 1-4.5th fingers (the ring finger is shared by both nerves.). On one webpage they listed computer use and "avid cycling" (oops) as causes.

I'm much better here in L.A., and never really numb any more, but only because I have not been biking as much. This week I went for 3 bike rides (although two were only medium-length) and I am feeling it just start to act up again, so I will have to be careful. Computer use also affects it, so I'm being careful with positioning and not doing too much at once there too. There are also some exercises I found that I will start doing, and sleeping position matters too, have to be careful not to sleep with the arm bent.

It should get better with time through rest, proper exercises and sleep positioning. I'll just have to go for more walks (and of course lots of swims) instead of too much biking for a while. I'll still do at least the weekly ride with the club though.