Bloody Ulnar

I have written before about bloody Ulnar, the viking-nerve that got irritated and consequently caused my fingers to go numb.

I tried to get rid of him by eating anti-inflammatory drugs, wearing a splint, invoking the old Norse gods - nothing helped. So I went again to my friend, the orthopedist (who really likes to take my money) to complain. He hemmed and hawed, prodded me here and there, and then in a flash of insight asked me whether I was practicing martial arts intensively?

Damn straight I am - 4 times a week at least Sir, and no mistake!

Well, it seems that he once had a Karateka as a patient who had the same problem: We are too strong!

Apparently if you have shallow nerve-channels, the muscles can press on the nerve and irritate it. Martial Arts lend themselves especially to this kind of problem. I am too strong for Ulnar, ha!

So I have basically three possibilities:

*) If I am lucky, it will go away on it's own after a while

*) If it doesn't get worse, I can just live with it

*) If it does get worse, the will stick needles in my nerve, zap it with electricity to check where it is pinched, cut me open and widen the nerve-channel with a Dremel-tool

Since the last possibility sounds vaguely unpleasant, I think I will stick with number two, and hope for number one...