Quote:
Originally Posted by Embraer
My middle finger on my right hand contracts when I sleep....wakes me up from the pain. When I go to manually extend it, it's super painful. I've been wrapping my finger in tape before I go to bed in order to keep it from contracting in my sleep. Seems to work. I'd say it's a side-effect of having carpal tunnel surgery 2 years ago in that hand.
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That sounds like trigger finger. Swelling of the flexor tendons in the fingers. It's indirectly related to carpal tunnel; both conditions arise from swelling from the flexor tendons. In the wrist, when the tendons swell, that compresses the median nerve, and you wind up with carpal tunnel syndrome. When those same tendons swell in the fingers, they get trapped and start triggering. So one doesn't cause the other, but both can share a common etiology in tendon swelling. The exact underpinnings are little more complicated, but that's kind of a simple explanation for the conditions.
If your triggering persists, then consider a cortisone injection. Hurts like heck for about 5-10 seconds, but then about 70% effective in curing the triggering. If injections don't work, there's a simple surgery (release part of the constricting sheath around the tendon) that will fix the problem with about 98% effectiveness.