Musing on my infirmities

I've been doing a lot of thinking/reading about what's been going on with my hands. Although I've got some of the "classic" symptoms of ulnar nerve compression there's more to it than that. Here's a relatively complete list of the symptoms/sensations:

1. Tingling in ring/pinkie fingers. This is symptomatic of carpal tunnel/ulnar nerve compression.
2. Both of my hands hurt, all over, wrists to fingertips. If it were possible to cause the sensation of pain to generate light both of my hands would glow.
3. No symptoms of arthritis (swelling, pain localized to joints, redness).
4. When it's bad like it was immediately post PBP the sensation is that my hands have been crushed. I mean literally like they were put in a vise and smashed. This was especially bad on ring and pinkie fingers but applied to my whole hand.
5. Right hand marginally worse than left but only a very small amount.
6. Simultaneous and very similar onset with both hands and very similar sensation/level of pain with both hands.

While pondering all this the things that stood out:

1. As I said, it doesn't fully fit the standard "cyclist palsy" ulnar nerve compression symptomology. That's part of it but there's more.
2. The simultaneous onset in both hands seems significant as does the similarity in symptoms and their magnitude in both hands.

So my non-medical conclusion is that although I do likely have some degree of ulnar nerve compression the real culprit is higher up and at an intersection.

I broke my neck (c2/c3) years ago (bike crash). Without going through the details of the crash, imagine taking your head and bending it backward as far (or farther) than it will go, that's what happened. Spent several of the longest months of my life in a halo. 

I didn't use aerobars at PBP, instead I rode long distances with my forearms rested on the top of the bars (how pro is that!) so had to crane my neck to see where I was going.

Like a lot of cyclists, I tend to "hunch" my shoulders (imagine trying to touch your shoulders to your ears - not that bad but that's the idea) at times creating a fair amount of tension. I focus on staying relaxed but it's like telling a teenager to sit up straight. They do it for a little bit then go back to slouching. I'm relaxed when I think about it, I try to think about it a lot (I mean seriously, what the hell else is there to focus on when you're riding?) but I still catch myself doing it.

So my diagnosis: I've got some nerve impingement in my neck that's affecting both hands.

Assuming I'm right, it has some interesting implications wrt cycling, especially long distances:

1. Aerobars is likely the worst thing I could do. Although I do think my position on the aerobars is pretty good and I try to keep my head/neck aligned with my torso, you do have to look up to see.
2. I'm going for comfort rather than aero on the aerobar setup so the bars are up higher than e.g., a world class triathlete or time trialist would have them so I don't have to bend my neck quite so much to see but still my neck is bent when I look up.

So for the moment, my plan is unchanged. I'm doing a 600K in a few weeks, I'll put aerobars on the bike and will see whether it's better or worse.

This could force the "all in" on the recumbent or at least swing the pendulum strongly in that direction.

We'll see.