cramps, no jokes!

[Ahhh Moneypenny]

No piss taking please lol, but this is starting to worry me, for the last few months I have woken up with the most horrendous cramp in both of my hands, so bad that I can't open my hands and they are sort of stuck in a claw like position, I have to rub my hands on the back of each other and slowly I get movement but the pins and needles are agony. Any thoughts? Stress? Bad dreams am unware of? I started smoking again so I wondered if that was affecting my circulation?

My brother is disbaled with rheumatoid arthritus am hoping this is not the start of something like this.

[Smashed]

Maybe you sleep with your hand in and odd position? A friend of mine did this and she now has to wear like a wrist splint to bed.

[Ahhh Moneypenny]

Smashed said:

Maybe you sleep with your hand in and odd position? A friend of mine did this and she now has to wear like a wrist splint to bed.

it is both hands

[Matt Harper]

Cramp, being muscular spasm, would suggest a circulatory issue, rather than a rheumatoid one. Does it feel like muscle pain, or more like inflamation of your joints? Is it just youtr hands, or wrists aswell?
When you wake, are the tips of your fingers cold or palid. Cramp usually generates cold sensations (lack of circulatory efficiency), inflamation usually generates heat.

[Ahhh Moneypenny]

Matt Harper said:

Cramp, being muscular spasm, would suggest a circulatory issue, rather than a rheumatoid one. Does it feel like muscle pain, or more like inflamation of your joints? Is it just youtr hands, or wrists aswell?
When you wake, are the tips of your fingers cold or palid. Cramp usually generates cold sensations (lack of circulatory efficiency), inflamation usually generates heat.

my fingers are ice cold and the ends feel completely dead with no sensation in them, it feels awful and then when the circua;tion gets going again it tingles and burns and then they are ok

[Matt Harper]

Assuming that you can safely rule-out diabetes, hypertension and high cholersterol, all of which can lead to peripheral artery disease, it could be something as simple as your sleeping posture that is restricting arterial flow to your hands (sleeping on your stomach, with your hands under your pillow, as an example).
I'm not a physician, but I work extensively in pharmaceutical matters and circulatory disease is a subject I have some familiarity with. Established PAD is often accompanied by dry, cracked skin on the fingers, 'blotchiness', cyanosis (a blueish tinge to the skin) and numbness. Are your finger nails in good nick? Do you generally have cold hands and feet, or is this just a recent thing that affects your hands only?

Any issues with your wrists? Tendonitis? Repetitive strain injury? No compromise in your dexterity, once you are up and moving about? Just 'thinking aloud' now - and a very, very remote consideration - any history of MS in your (particularly maternal)family?

[LordGrover]

Ahhh Moneypenny said:

I started smoking again so I wondered if that was affecting my circulation?

Stop that regardless. It's silly and expensive.
I'm trying to stop. Again.

[E21_Ross]

Matt Harper said:

Assuming that you can safely rule-out diabetes, hypertension and high cholersterol, all of which can lead to peripheral artery disease, it could be something as simple as your sleeping posture that is restricting arterial flow to your hands (sleeping on your stomach, with your hands under your pillow, as an example).
I'm not a physician, but I work extensively in pharmaceutical matters and circulatory disease is a subject I have some familiarity with. Established PAD is often accompanied by dry, cracked skin on the fingers, 'blotchiness', cyanosis (a blueish tinge to the skin) and numbness. Are your finger nails in good nick? Do you generally have cold hands and feet, or is this just a recent thing that affects your hands only?

Any issues with your wrists? Tendonitis? Repetitive strain injury? No compromise in your dexterity, once you are up and moving about? Just 'thinking aloud' now - and a very, very remote consideration - any history of MS in your (particularly maternal)family?

good advice.

also - how strong are your pulses in your hands? what about feet? is it every single morning, and only ever in the mornings? what is your blood pressure like? if you have it taken by GP - ask them to do it both sides too as this is important in ruling out certain conditions.

is the tingling/burning the whole of your hand, or only part of it? that is vital to know....if only part of the hand, it's important to know which part, as it could be a central cervical disc herniation, though odd you'd only ever get symptoms after sleeping, and never anywhere else.

have you noticed any loss of sensation to temperature, touch, pain and vibration in either of your hands (or feet) lately?

[Ahhh Moneypenny]

E21_Ross said:

Matt Harper said:

Assuming that you can safely rule-out diabetes, hypertension and high cholersterol, all of which can lead to peripheral artery disease, it could be something as simple as your sleeping posture that is restricting arterial flow to your hands (sleeping on your stomach, with your hands under your pillow, as an example).
I'm not a physician, but I work extensively in pharmaceutical matters and circulatory disease is a subject I have some familiarity with. Established PAD is often accompanied by dry, cracked skin on the fingers, 'blotchiness', cyanosis (a blueish tinge to the skin) and numbness. Are your finger nails in good nick? Do you generally have cold hands and feet, or is this just a recent thing that affects your hands only?

Any issues with your wrists? Tendonitis? Repetitive strain injury? No compromise in your dexterity, once you are up and moving about? Just 'thinking aloud' now - and a very, very remote consideration - any history of MS in your (particularly maternal)family?

good advice.

also - how strong are your pulses in your hands? what about feet? is it every single morning, and only ever in the mornings? what is your blood pressure like? if you have it taken by GP - ask them to do it both sides too as this is important in ruling out certain conditions.

is the tingling/burning the whole of your hand, or only part of it? that is vital to know....if only part of the hand, it's important to know which part, as it could be a central cervical disc herniation, though odd you'd only ever get symptoms after sleeping, and never anywhere else.

have you noticed any loss of sensation to temperature, touch, pain and vibration in either of your hands (or feet) lately?

my hands are freezing and the cramps is in all my fingers I can't move them and then when I try rubbing my hands together, slowly and painfully they start feeling like they are burning I get really abd pins and needles in my fingers (mianly my fingers not my whole hands). Yes it is only in the mornings and I do how low blood pressure sometimes

[MacGee]

go to bed wearing boxing gloves.....keeps fingers in position and stops you from fiddling.