Pinched nerve in neck causing loss of grip strength

Hi there.  I have cervical osteoarthritis w/ stenosis in my C5,6,7 neck vertebrae.  (Super fun!)  I recently somehow pinched a nerve, causing pain behind my right shoulder and down my right arm.  The pain is one thing, but I’ve lost perhaps ~40% of the grip strength in my right arm.   I can’t even hang on a 20mm edge more than a few seconds.  :(   I have a doctors appointment scheduled, but in the meantime has anyone experienced this?  Will my grip strength return?

Get to a good bodyworker or pt who can help open up that space while the doctors are doing their evaluations. Any relief from pressure on the nerve will help.

And yes, as long as the nerve is not completely severed you can recover you strength once the pressure is off.

I am currently dealing with median nerve impingement for the second time.  for me it affects the strength in my tricep, bicep, and shoulder more than my grip strength. First time, pain went away in 2-3 weeks and strength recovered fully in about a month. This time, it’s been three months and I can still only do 2-3 push-ups (can do 40+ normally but couldn’t do a single one for the first month ).  I still climb a bunch but cannot really mantle or gaston with the left arm. When placing gear and hanging by the hurt arm, it starts to fatigue so fast I can only hang from it for about 10 seconds, even with weight on my feet. The pain was worse for me though. I didn’t sleep for the first five nights, and I had constant pain for 1.5 months. The pain is totally gone now at 3 months in, but obv I still have reduced strength, and I get tingling on the top of my hand and thumb pad. Every week that goes by I see slight improvement  

I agree with Isaac- get some work done by a physio. I went to a chiropractor who did a lot of tissue work around my neck, trap, and back. Strength should come back with time. 

Paul Robinson had something similar IIRC. He put up a video series about it on YouTube. Bernd Zangerl also had some nerve damage that curtailed his climbing for a few years.

I had something like this happen to me in December-January of this past year. The main symptom was weakness in my right arm, particularly in pushing/pressing exercises, I was probably about 60% strength. The strange thing was that there was no pain associated with this, which made it difficult to diagnose. I did go see and consult with a couple PTs, I got some body work done and used a cervical neck traction device. I'm not sure if they helped, but eventually the weakness went away and I was back to full strength in about 2-2.5 months from first symptoms.

One thing that a couple of the PTs recommended was if you suspect a nerve impingement, it is worth getting a cortisone shot or heavy anti-inflammatories to relieve the pressure. This was coming from people who are not normally into pharmaceutical solutions, but they said you do not want to mess with nerve damage that untreated could result in more serious issues down the road. I didn't do this because by the time I had an idea of what may have been wrong I was already starting to improve.

I had a similar experience, losing 90% of strength in one hand (I could barely pick up small items like a cell phone).  PT + time got me back to 100%.  It took about 6 weeks to recover in my case.

On top of some stenosis, I picked up a displaced disc and a protrusion into my c5 or c6 nerve root, I am just forgetting which one now. It rocked my world, I went several months thinking I had some crazy kink in my neck that would just not go away. Constant pain, down my right arm and in my right shoulder blade as well, along with weakness. It felt like something was stabbing me in my shoulder blade and it was nearly constant, no relief from OTCs, ice or heat. I finally got a diagnosis through MRI, my ortho sent me to a neck specialist the day he read the MRI with me. 

At the time, I was told, "you are a little young (40) to be seeing a neuro-surgeon" and I was recommend to receive some epidural injections in my neck and PT. The injections are quick but a bit of a process, you lay face down on a massage like table and the put two straps around your body, then put you in a twilight sedation with fentanyl and then inject some steroids into your neck through the aid of an X-ray machine. We were going to start with three treatments, but after two, we agreed I was good enough to stop there, along with PT.

I will say it brought me relief, however, the injury is constantly on my mind and every time I wake up with a stiff neck, its on my mind. I have had sports injuries before, but nerve pain seems to be a whole different animal. It made me grumpy, I was not as an effective as a teacher or coach during it and honestly it made me kind of depressed at times. 

I got my treatments in Feb and March and was feeling a little better over the summer. I got back to light lifting and I did do some scrambling and light climbing and even carried a rope on a small canyon excursion, but I felt a little off during it, so I have not tried much since.

I am starting to get the shoulder blade pain again and arm pain on my right side. In fact, I go in next month for a second opinion. This thread has actually brought me some hope that there could be some light at the end of the tunnel, but right now I am still not really climbing or doing any of the things I enjoyed to do outside to my fullest extent and its been a bit of a drag.

I did find the above linked video to be very interesting and it got me wondering, if I should ask about potential surgery options, or advocate some more about the level of fitness I want to return to.

I hope you get better soon and good luck.

Go see your doctor!

Lee… go see the Nurodoc. I have pain, weakness in my lower back, butt and quads and hamstrings. The doctors I saw were orthopedic people who kept insisting that my discs were not bulging enuf yet only (3-5mm) to cause my pain and there was nothing they could do except the back shots. The shots helped me loose some of the pain and kept my ability to climb. FF 4 years. I was FlyFishing and my foot slipped on a rock and went deep into the water- this set off the level 9 pain! (Screaming and passing out) All I could do was get out of the creek and squirm around on the bank in real pain. My fishing partner found me after a few hours and helped me get to my car. I tried to drive home but could barely get 3 miles before I couldn’t. So I ditched my car, in the Mountains, and my friend drove me home- wife took me to emergency room and they got the pain back under control via hard drugs. I went to doctor again and we had a talk. I was lucky because the brand new Physicians Assistant was present and see asked if I’d see a nuro-spine specialist. I had not and she got me an appointment with one.
Dr Gill took about 3min looking at my MRI collection (3) … and said “I know what’s wrong with you and I can fix you” - He proceeded to show me what a healthy blood vessel looked like and what a good nerve looked like… then he showed me my lower spine angle and explained that there should be good blood and nerves right there and there and there about 5 vertebrae in total. He said that the nerve keeps the muscles going and the blood keeps the nerves going and that I was experiencing muscle degeneration. And it was getting worse and I was heading towards a wheelchair if I did nothing except get the shots. I’m not a doctor- sorry and can’t use all the medical terminology. The blood blockage and nerve damage was caused because the holes in your spine- they run through them- were getting smaller and smaller (they have some seven syllable term for it) The fix is pretty simple and straightforward. They get down and disconnect the vertebrae, then drill bigger, smoother holes without damaging the nerves or blood vessels, reconnect the bones together. EZ! All I had to do was demonstrate that I was able to stay completely immobile in bed, for 3 weeks in my back brace thing and then for 4 more weeks with “no twisting, bending or lifting whatsoever” Being recently retired I could do that with the help from my wife.
The day of the surgery I walked into the operating room at 6am, I counted 15 or so people who were all there to work on me! I woke up at midnight. The fact that my right ball didn’t hurt (it hurt for 4 years!) was worth it. Now almost 3 years later I still go to PT 1 time each week. They treat my back like it is made out of porcelain. I was not allowed to do anything hard, exercise wise for the first year. 12 weeks post surgery I was able to walk about 3 miles, on level ground. That was a huge improvement for me because I was barely able to walk 200 yards before. My recovery has been really slow, I’m 70 years old now, and climbing is an issue that I’m dealing with. No bouldering above 5 feet up, I can TR face climb but anything that takes strength and power is out. I’m struggling with the fact that my climbing days are probably over but I still have hope. Right now I’ve got a 5.7 project I’m working on. But I can walk - I’m happy about that. Don’t let the doctors tell you a wheelchair is in your future.
Good luck with it. 

Guy Keesee wrote:

Lee…  Don’t let the doctors tell you a wheelchair is in your future.
Good luck with it. 

Thanks for some more perspective, its been one of the most frustrating things I have dealt with and its impacting the quality of my life at this point. Before seeing my ortho, my primary care doc, just gave me two consecutive doses of prednisone oral steroid packets and a month's worth of muscle relaxers and although it gave me some relief, I think that contributed to this things getting so bad for me. I even bought a new mattress last year, a new expensive pillow, and tried everything else under the sun, thinking I was sleeping wrong, it was posture related etc. 

I really thought these shots were going to be it and the solution, but I am nearly back to the same level of pain before I started getting them 4-5 months ago. And now school has started back up and I am a head wrestling coach with our season just around the corner, its just been such a frustrating process. I wasn't a crusher before this injury and I don't have any unrealistic expectations of recaptruing my early 30s, etc, but I would like to be able to start living pain free again and getting back into some fun casual climbing and an occasional backcountry summit. 

I am going to try to advocate for myself a bit more with this upcoming appointment and I appreciate it, thanks....  

I have a c6-7 fusion. I was in frequent pain running from between my shoulder blades down to my hand for several years. For a long time I assumed it was a shoulder problem, and eventually I made my way to a neurologist after trying PT, orthos, acupuncture, chiropractic,  new pillows/sleeping stuff, anti inflammatories and other meds. What changed it for me was when a neurologist told me once you start losing strength, there’s no guarantee you’ll get it back. He told me pain was one thing, but strength was in a different category and to take it very seriously. i had the sensation of a dimmer switch turning on anytime I held something above my head. It was pronounced when I climbed, I could feel the strength decreasing anytime I reached above me for a hold, but it wasn’t super pronounced for non climbing activities. We decided on surgery to fix what we thought was a bulging disc, but it turned out I had a bony growth cutting the nerve. We didn’t know that until my surgeon opened me up, and once I heard that I was so glad I had opted for surgery.

Hopefully you can find a good neurologist who can suss out what’s going on. I’ll never forget my doc telling me that strength equals nerve health, and loss of strength means your nerve is being damaged. Good luck Chris and Lee, that place of regular pain and not knowing why is really taxing.

Wendy Laakmann wrote:

I have a c6-7 fusion. I was in frequent pain running from between my shoulder blades down to my hand for several years. For a long time I assumed it was a shoulder problem, and eventually I made my way to a neurologist after trying PT, orthos, acupuncture, chiropractic,  new pillows/sleeping stuff, anti inflammatories and other meds. What changed it for me was when a neurologist told me once you start losing strength, there’s no guarantee you’ll get it back. He told me pain was one thing, but strength was in a different category and to take it very seriously. i had the sensation of a dimmer switch turning on anytime I held something above my head. It was pronounced when I climbed, I could feel the strength decreasing anytime I reached above me for a hold, but it wasn’t super pronounced for non climbing activities. We decided on surgery to fix what we thought was a bulging disc, but it turned out I had a bony growth cutting the nerve. We didn’t know that until my surgeon opened me up, and once I heard that I was so glad I had opted for surgery.

Hopefully you can find a good neurologist who can suss out what’s going on. I’ll never forget my doc telling me that strength equals nerve health, and loss of strength means your nerve is being damaged. Good luck Chris and Lee, that place of regular pain and not knowing why is really taxing.

Thanks Wendy.  Did your strength return after the surgery?  

For the most part. I manage by always wearing belay goggles when I can (the position of craning my neck will sometimes set me off and I’ll feel weak in my tricep), and being picky about doing climbs with shitty feet where I’m reaching high and cranking on my one arm without support from another limb. I’m a pretty average climber so it’s easy enough to stay away from the kinds of moves that trigger me, but when triggered I can feel the weakness for sure.

interestingly, the doc could only detect mild weakness on his ‘squeeze my fingers’ strength test. I’m not sure he would have suggested surgery if I wasn’t a climber and described the lightswitch dimmer feeling.

Wendy Laakmann wrote:

For the most part. I manage by always wearing belay goggles when I can (the position of craning my neck will sometimes set me off and I’ll feel weak in my tricep), and being picky about doing climbs with shitty feet where I’m reaching high and cranking on my one arm without support from another limb. I’m a pretty average climber so it’s easy enough to stay away from the kinds of moves that trigger me, but when triggered I can feel the weakness for sure.

interestingly, the doc could only detect mild weakness on his ‘squeeze my fingers’ strength test. I’m not sure he would have suggested surgery if I wasn’t a climber and described the lightswitch dimmer feeling.

Wendy! I met you on Squamish Buttress yesterday. I agree that always wearing belay goggles has been great in helping reduce my neck pain. 

Brooks! Small world, lol! Fun climb, I hope you enjoyed it too!