Elbow problems?

[greybeard]

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?

[martin007]

SMA?

[Burgerman]

Nope!

[greybeard]

SMA?

Don't think so. Not the usual symptoms for someone my age. Seeing Neurological Consultant again at the end of the month. He might have some better ideas now. He has more or less ruled out Motor Neurone Disease but can't eliminate it entirely.

[Burgerman]

Aftr goin from a big bloke that was very active with lots of heavy work, tons of strength big hands, fat fingers etc I am now nothing like that. Still fat. Maybe half the strength and endurance and hands and muscles like a woman. Thats what 23 years in a chair does.

[Arima]

At this stage of life I need to do a few warm ups before I reach for anything. When I got my sunrise chair the armrest were to high and it gave me both elbow and shoulder pain. Probably not the same issue you are having Grey but it's an easy thing to try.

[Burgerman]

Also I do recommend the lovely wide soft Jay "comfort" P shaped arm tops. As used on my Salsa chair. Not sure how hard it would be to retro fit those. But likely not easy. But soft like a gel and wide.

https://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/ ... &mode=view

[greybeard]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys.

[Burgerman]

I just looked on the sunparts site. They dont offer those gel jay P shaped arm tops for any of the Q chairs. I was looking to see if I could easily fit some to my Q700R. They offer a rail kit. So presumable with a little DIY work, maybe half hour? I could order the salsa ones and make them fit.

They would definitely help with arms and elbows. The Q700 ones are hard and leave your arms sore after a long day/trip.

[rover220]

gelovation arm pads would be my go to.

https://gelovationseurope.com/product-c ... cessories/

[Burgerman]

Do they do a straight fit to the rather strange Q700 arm tops?

[rover220]

Do they do a straight fit to the rather strange Q700 arm tops?

Not to my knowledge. You'd need the rail version I guess.

[greybeard]

gelovation arm pads would be my go to.

https://gelovationseurope.com/product-c ... cessories/

Think I'll be talking to the WCS about these after I've seen the neurologist next week and got his backing.
Thanks for the suggestion, Rover.

[rover220]

gelovation arm pads would be my go to.

https://gelovationseurope.com/product-c ... cessories/

Think I'll be talking to the WCS about these after I've seen the neurologist next week and got his backing.
Thanks for the suggestion, Rover.

No problem, they work very well in my experience.