Hey! Read This If Your Hands Go Numb When You Look At Your Phone

We're a tech-heavy crowd here - by which I mean we're on our phones and computers a lot - so I bet some of you have your hands go numb while you're typing or looking down. Am I right?

My fingers started going numb probably 4-5 years ago, usually while I slept. I'd wake up and shake my hands around wildly to get the feeling back, not realizing the problem wasn't in my wrists, but my neck. Eventually I learned that a few neck twists looking over my shoulders would bring the feeling back, but even then I blamed it on tight shoulder muscles, and didn't think much of it.

Over the years the numbness got worse, though, so I finally did some Googling and found a name: Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Even better, I found a diagram showing exactly where the problem is:

via Johns Hopkins

The culprits are the scalene muscles, which connect the neck to the clavicle. Things like "tech neck" and poor posture cause the muscles to tighten over time, pulling in the clavicle and constricting the nerves underneath against the top rib. The result is hand and arm numbness, tinging, pain, etc. (I'm not a doctor, of course, so hit that link to Johns Hopkins to learn more.)

The diagram was a revelation. Now when parts of my hand went numb I stopped simply twisting my neck - which was working less and less - and instead banged on my neck with my knuckles, all over the scalene area. This worked like a charm, but never lasted long. As soon as I lifted my arms or looked down at my phone again, the numbness would come back. It shifted around, too; sometimes my thumb and forefinger were out, other times the entire pinky side of my hand. My fingers would also ache from time to time, deep down.

I mentioned the numbness to our chiropractor many times, but nothing he did ever helped. So save your dollars if you're considering chiropractic; TOS is a muscle issue.

Over the years the numbness went from an occasional nuisance in the morning to an almost constant impediment. I was stopping over a dozen times a day to bang on my neck, and when we volunteered as painters a few months back my hands were so numb I couldn't hold the brush without stopping every few feet, for fear of dropping it. I knew that TOS doesn't cause permanent damage, so I wasn't worried, but it was so. dang. frustrating.

Now here's where we turn to the good news. Yayyyy.

If you've researched Thoracic Outlet Syndrome then you know the recommended treatment option of "physical therapy" is annoyingly vague. I couldn't find any recommended stretches or exercises, just repeated recommendations of "physical therapy." Harrumph. I'd been doing yoga almost every night since before Christmas, but that wasn't helping, no matter how many neck and shoulder stretches I did. So with the only other options being surgery or nerve blocks, I finally caved and asked John to find a physical therapist.

We were directed to an osteopath, which is a doctor who uses "physical manipulation" in addition to conventional medicine. Osteopaths aren't as common here in the U.S. as they are in Europe, but I'd heard good things. (It was an osteopath in the Netherlands who helped my mom recover full range of motion in her arm decades after a car accident, something no other doctor or chiropractor had been able to do.)

As soon as I sat on the table the osteopath and his assistant raised my arm, tilted my head back and to the side, and took my pulse. How's this for fascinating, y'all: because TOS constricts blood flow as well as nerves, they can diagnose TOS by a diminished pulse. They could even tell that my left arm was worse than my right, just by my pulse! So within two minutes I had an official diagnosis of "severe" TOS. Not the worst he'd ever seen, but definitely bad.

This is getting kinda long, so as the TikTokkers say, let me skip to the good part.

I've had one 15-minute treatment a week for 6 weeks, and while I'm not fixed yet, I'm happy to report my hands only go numb a few times a day now. Considering it took most of my adult life to develop TOS, this much improvement in a month and half is incredible, and honestly more than I hoped for.  It's actually more frustrating now when my fingers go numb, because I'm not used to them being numb all the time anymore - and that's a wonderful feeling.

I also won't keep you in suspense; I'm going to tell you what the treatment is. Mostly because it is absolutely fascinating, and something I couldn't find online. Hopefully this will help if you're considering physical therapy yourself.

It's, uh, also quite painful. The description may bother you a bit if you're squeamish.

As the doc explained it to me, the scalene muscles are too tight and need to be stretched, but there's no way we can stretch them ourselves. Instead we need a doctor to stretch the muscles for us.

To do this, the doc pulls my arm out at a right angle, applying constant pressure, and uses his other hand to dig his fingers in above my collar bone. He gets a grip around the collar bone with hooked fingers, and yanks. He uses all his strength, bracing his foot on the table below me and leaning back with his body weight. Then he stays like that, for several, excruciating minutes.

It hurts, y'all. And apparently it looks like this:

Heck yes I asked if we could take a picture, this is for posterity. I'm smiling under the mask, but only because he's stretching my less-severe right side. When he switches to the left I mostly keep my eyes closed and focus on breathing and not blubbering, because owieowieowie.  (Still not sure why my left side is worse, but I suspect it has to do with sleeping on that side.)

Over those few minutes both the osteopath and I can feel when the muscles start to loosen. I don't know how he can tell, but for me it starts to hurt less. However long it takes is how long he pulls, so sometimes it's only a minute, and others it feels like an eternity.

As much as this hurts, I can tell you the treatment has never triggered my panic. It's not a scary pain, just a muscle-pulling pain. I leave branded with angry red finger marks on my neck, but those fade in a few hours. I also leave feeling, as the doctor describes it, "like someone beat you with a baseball bat." Ha! It's not that bad, but definitely sore. I go home and apply a heat pack, then through the week I do my usual yoga stretches.

The yoga definitely helps the treatments work faster and "stick"; when I skipped several nights the numbness was noticeably worse, and my osteo treatment was surprisingly more painful, the only time I've fought tears on the table. That's motivation enough to keep up the yoga, but I'm also convinced it's speeding up the process. (Treatment can apparently take months and months, but at this rate I'm hoping to be done in under three.)

Again, I've been doing 45 minutes of yoga nightly since before Christmas, and none of it helped the numbness before the osteopath. So unfortunately you really do need professional intervention for Thoracic Outlet, or at least with severe cases like mine. Stretching at home on your own just won't cut it.

That said, after a month the doctor said my muscles had lengthened enough to add at least one specific stretch: a modified corner lean. I can't find the exact move online, but it's like this, only with your elbows higher and your fingers pointing into the corner:

So basically stick your elbows out high like you're about to do the Chicken Dance, open your palms facing the wall, and lean into a corner. Careful, though; even with my progress this stretch was too much for me the first week, and I gave myself some unpleasant muscle spasms in the boobage area that lasted for days. So, as the Dread Pirate Roberts would say, "gently!!"

Again, I am in no way a medical professional, so please get a diagnosis and do your own research before trying anything radical like Chicken Dance Leans or banging your knuckles into your neck, k? Y'all be smart out there.


I hope you found this as fascinating as I have, and take mine as a cautionary tale: if you're experiencing hand numbness, don't wait! Watch your posture, and start doing neck and shoulder stretches now to combat "tech neck" - aka forward head position - which can lead to TOS. Even with decent insurance these treatments are $60 each, so I'm looking at paying over $700 for my negligence in waiting this long. Don't be me. Save your neck and your bank account.


Right. Your turn! Do any of you have Thoracic Outlet Syndrome? If you've been treated, how long did it take? What do you find helps the most? Or if you're just learning about all this, do your hands go numb, too? And of course, let's talk ergonomics, baybeee. What's your favorite posture helper/tip/trick? I love my foot stool and Aeron chair, but I'll admit I'm still guilty of crossing my legs while I work. ::guilty grin::

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