I had another EMG yesterday to try and discover exactly why, amongst other things, I have progressively lost strength, muscle mass and dexterity in my forearms and hands over the past two years.
After a couple of hours of electrodes and multiple needle punctures into various muscles, the consultant expressed the opinion that my hand problems probably stemmed from nerve compression in both elbows causing muscles to atrophy. In his opinion the main cause of this was likely to be constant pressure on the nerves in both elbows from the powerchair's armrests.
Although I had no cause to doubt the guy (he was very thorough and professional) this struck me as odd, because I could not recall any of you guys commenting on hand weakness etc being caused by armrest pressure on the elbows. Admittedly I often tend to do weight bearing pressure relief by using my elbows and forearms, simply because my hands are too weak but that seems like a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Which came first? The elbow pressure, or the muscle weakness?
Does this ring any bells with any of you guys? Anyone with similar deteriorating hand dexterity? If so what, if anything, did you do about it?