I’m not gonna say I’m strapped for space in my apartment, but I have enough stuff to the point where my 5×6 closet is utilized for much more than just clothes. Stuff, meaning things like my tent, camping backpack etc, is stashed below my hanging clothes, and some of it protrudes out in a manner which prevents the closet door from opening inward all the way. That itself prevents my reaching to the far corner where I had (until this point) kept my belts and ties.
A few months ago I was putting a belt back, reaching around the door with my right arm like I always had. When I pulled away I slammed my funny bone into the corner of the door. And I don’t mean slammed like ow that hurt and it’s annoying for a few minutes, I mean slammed like it shot writhing pain through my forearm into my pinky and a vertical half of my ring finger–followed by numbness. I’ve never really felt the truly numb sensation like this before. Sure we’ve all had an arm or leg fall asleep, and I’ve had my fair share of dental surgeries, but to have a very specific part of your body instantly go numb in pain was new to me.
Through some shoddy online research I learned that the Ulnar Nerve–which provides feeling to the pinky and adjacent half of the ring finger–can easily be damaged by hitting the not-so-humorous humerus.
One method of injuring the nerve is to strike the medial epicondyle of the humerus from posteriorly, or inferiorly with the elbow flexed. The ulnar nerve is trapped between the bone and the overlying skin at this point. This is commonly referred to as hitting one’s “funny bone.” This name is thought to be a pun, based on the sound resemblance between the words “humerus” and “humorous“.
I started to freak out after about 10 minutes of absolutely no feeling in that part of my hand. Naturally, during those 10 minutes I had moved on from Wikipedia to WikiAnswers, where people with varying degrees of this injury were asking for advice (cheaper/faster than a copay and a doctor). Some were complaining of weeks of numbness, others of minutes or hours. The consensus was however, it always remained a sensitive spot afterwords.
Within the next few minutes feeling slowly crept back into my hand–some Aleve and an ice pack helped the general soreness, but I could still feel it, and keeping my elbow bent for any decent length of time became painful. It felt better the next day, and on rare occasions after that I would notice it was a little sore (normally after propping myself up on my desk with my elbow for a while).
Yesterday I actually hit my funny bone again. I was loading my bike on the back of my car and as I took a step backwards my arm hit the end of the bar that is twisted up to prevent a bike from flying off the rack. I didn’t hit it nearly as hard as the closet door, but every bit of pain and numbness came back with a vengeance. I continued to strap the bike down, and by the time I was ready to drive I was beginning to get feeling back in my fingers. But it was majorly sore last night, and I’m supposed to play racquetball this evening.
Bullshit injuries like this piss me off way more than something like the ITB issues I suffered from after the 15k race last November. That was the result of overuse, and other sports related injuries I’ve suffered have come from pushing my body to its limits. But a closet door causing a lasting issue in my elbow? That’s just dumb, a pain in the ass, and one of many reasons I’m suffering from a case of the Monday’s today.
