Pain on the outside, or baby finger side, of the hand can have different causes. Sometimes it’s a side effect of medication. Here is a letter I received from a reader who has numbness in her baby fingers.
“This all started last Monday and has occurred every day since then. My arms under my shoulders have that same “nerve-y” pain near my armpit. My shoulder blades are sore, my chest hurts dead center, I am going to the bathroom a lot – and I take medicine (Vesicare) to alleviate it. My neck is sore in the back, and today my right leg hurt right by the knee for no reason. I have had 2 recent bouts of horrendous leg cramping. After a walk, my hands feel “heavy”, and my fingers swell and get red. I was starting to think about fibromyalgia…”
Good! You gave me more information. One of the things I wonder is whether you are taking any medications that might be causing some of your symptoms.
Here is part of my response:
“…I see Vesicare is for bladder issues and can cause tightness in the chest and back pain and pain below the ribs and pain while urinating and inability to empty the bladder.
All medications have a paragraph of symptoms and side effects they cause. Get the side effects list from your pharmacist or online and review the list for your symptoms, then talk to your doctor if any match up.
A medicine is considered effective if it works as desired in just over half of the people it is prescribed for.
If a medicine is causing you to be depleted of minerals or vitamins, that might cause the cramping. Your doctor should be able to determine whether this might be the case. Of course, a really good high potency multi-vitamin & mineral supplement from a health food store will not hurt and could make a world of difference to you (after a few months.)
When you take a walk, if you
pump your arms (up to your shoulder height) and also clench and unclench your hands, it will help move the fluid from your hands so they won’t get that swollen feeling.
If your muscle issues aren’t side effects of medicine, here’s my next thought:
It sounds like your chest muscles are tight. They attach to your breastbone–dead center of your chest. Tight chest and rib muscles can pull on the breastbone and cause pain. If you press your finger tips into the muscles at the edge of your breastbone, and on your breastbone, and it’s quite tender, you have just diagnosed your tight muscles. The massage treatment to help them relax is the same. Start at the top of your breastbone and just work your way down, rib by rib, through all the tender areas. Hold each point for about 12 seconds. You want it to be uncomfortable so the muscle gets the idea that it should relax. Check out the Massage Category at Simple Pain Relief and here at Carpal Tunnel Pain Relief, please, for more massage info.
And, there are muscles in your armpit, too. And they can be tight also. And they can also be relaxed with pressure.
The muscles under your arms and on the outsides of your back near your arms are called the ‘lats’ (for short.) They can get shortened and tight or overstretched and taut (different from tight) if they are either used in contracted (tight) or overstretched positions too much. You can stretch them, but therapeutic massage can really grab them and loosen them. Also, the muscle between your shoulder blades and ribs could be tight and many massage therapists can loosen that muscle too.
And, when you scroll through the Categories here, under the Massage Category you will find an article about how to interview a massage therapist so you get one who can help you and you don’t waste your money.
Fibromyalgia is a collection of symptoms. When someone gets that diagnosis your doctor is saying: “I understand that you hurt, but I don’t know why. You will not die from it.” So, it really doesn’t say anything. But…I have never seen a client with ‘fibro’ who had good posture. I’m sure it has a combination of causes (because everything happens for a reason!) And, those causes are diet, posture, exercise, processed foods, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and maybe stress, trauma or accident, possibly an infection or germ, and some other things also add in.”
I also told her that I’m sure this is a temporary thing. Bodies want to be well and she just needs to do a bit of thinking and checking to come up with the solution. Everything happens for a reason and, when she figures out why she is having symptoms, she will be able to get rid of the pain and numbness on the outside of her hand.