Paralyzed arm from sleeping on it? Does it ever recover? Experiences?

[moonyham]

Hey there,

Someone close to me woke up one day to find their arm no longer functioned properly. Maybe 50% of the muscles no longer can be activated and/or are permanently cramping. I know that this person used opiates/heroin at the time(unsure about that night though) but was a very casual user.

They have gone to a lot of doctors and had a lot of tests but nothing seems to be able to be diagnosed and no treatments/medications have improved it particularly. It has been months.

So I'm just reaching out for any experience people have here with this kind of thing. I remember vaguely watching some documentary/interview.. can't remember waht it was about but remember a guitarist mentioning how his arm had a similar thing happen to it after leaning it over the back of a chair during a session/hangout(unknown if drugs involved but seemed like it when I was watching). It took a 6 months from memory before that guy could start to play guitar again. I don't know if thats the same thing or not but its the only other story/information I have on this.

Please if you know anything about this kind of situation I would love to hear anything you know. He is in a bad way, this has really fucked his life up and its exacerbating his suicidal and depressed thoughts.

 

[Deru]

Sounds like compartment sydrome. I'd be surprised if doctors would miss that, though.

 

[moonyham]

Sounds like compartment sydrome. I'd be surprised if doctors would miss that, though.

The doctors in my country are terrible and will miss the most obvious of things. I am trying to find out anything like this you have mentioned so we can specifically get tested for that as doctors here are more likely to throw pills at you than even look at what they are trying to treat with their own two eyes.

Really appreciate the input. Thank you!

 

[Shady's Fox]

During the ''REM'' phase of sleep, things like this can happen. It's nothing to worry about, it will go away it's all temporary.

 

[moonyham]

During the ''REM'' phase of sleep, things like this can happen. It's nothing to worry about, it will go away it's all temporary.

It has been 3 months with little to no improvement though?

I should note that this arm isn't just mostly paralyzed but also has high levels of pain. The arm itself naturally cramps into a 'clucking' type position as if you are doing the chicken dance with his wrist bent inwards at a very awkward angle. He can still partially use it but not for many things as certain movements are not possible due to the muscles no longer working.

 

[Branggen]

I would think the best thing is probably to try and use it as often as possible, try to do exercises moving and stretching it.

Ive heard of things like this happening during an opiate nod and I would think just sleeping on it you would wake up from the pain before any real damage occured

 

[Deru]

The doctors in my country are terrible and will miss the most obvious of things. I am trying to find out anything like this you have mentioned so we can specifically get tested for that as doctors here are more likely to throw pills at you than even look at what they are trying to treat with their own two eyes.

Really appreciate the input. Thank you!

It's a known issue with opioid addicts, especially intravenous users or one's who fall asleep or have severe muscular compression from incorrect posture while "high.". The blood flow during those periods of time is dirsupted and leads to loss of movement, gangrene, amputation or peripheral neuropathy. My guess, if you didn't tell the doctor about the opioid use, it wouldn't be something they would immediately suspect without severe pain or lack of neruon reflexes - any maybe they did and tested for it. And honestly, without those symptoms regardless, it's probably not bad enough to require medical care (probably the reason no tests found anything.)

It could be an endless amount of other possibilities, of course, that's just what comes to my mind first with the limited information provided in your post.

What were the possibilities mentioned by the doctors?

 

[moonyham]

It's a known issue with opioid addicts, especially intravenous users or one's who fall asleep or have severe muscular compression from incorrect posture while "high.". The blood flow during those periods of time is dirsupted and leads to loss of movement, gangrene, amputation or peripheral neuropathy. My guess, if you didn't tell the doctor about the opioid use, it wouldn't be something they would immediately suspect without severe pain or lack of neruon reflexes - any maybe they did and tested for it. And honestly, without those symptoms regardless, it's probably not bad enough to require medical care (probably the reason no tests found anything.)

It could be an endless amount of other possibilities, of course, that's just what comes to my mind first with the limited information provided in your post.

What were the possibilities mentioned by the doctors?

I think the part that is strange to me is that there was no gangrene/death of tissue from this experience. His arm is otherwise 'healthy' besides the atrophy of how this arm is quite obviously a lot smaller in mass now due to those muscles no longer working. Some muscles that have 'taken up the slack' are now bigger/bulging out though. What little I could find on this topic was all about people entirely losing their arms from lack of blood flow - I don't know if thats what happened here because.. no loss of arm? I'm no doctor though obviously.

I honestly don't know if he has admitted to being an opiate user when he has gone to the doctors about this. I get the feeling he hasn't but its possible. They definitely know about the pain and lack of neuron reflexes though, there is no doubt there.

I will get back to you on what they have guessed it to be so far as I'm not sure but they gave him steroid creams at first, I know that much.

Don't know if its relevent but he isn't an IV user. Just smoked a bit of black tar when visiting a friend now and then.

 

[moonyham]

I would think the best thing is probably to try and use it as often as possible, try to do exercises moving and stretching it.

Ive heard of things like this happening during an opiate nod and I would think just sleeping on it you would wake up from the pain before any real damage occured

Yup he is moving it(still working his physical job, in a lot of pain) and does stretches in the morning/evening as that was my advice to him too. He said its worst in the morning, like getting it out of the 'lock' of cramps is quite the struggle.

 

[Shady's Fox]

It has been 3 months with little to no improvement though?

I should note that this arm isn't just mostly paralyzed but also has high levels of pain. The arm itself naturally cramps into a 'clucking' type position as if you are doing the chicken dance with his wrist bent inwards at a very awkward angle. He can still partially use it but not for many things as certain movements are not possible due to the muscles no longer working.

If that's the case, then you should've known not to post and visit a doctor instead. Time is valuable. Anyway, there could be some damage to your nerves due to compression. Stay safe

 

[moonyham]

If that's the case, then you should've known not to post and visit a doctor instead. Time is valuable. Anyway, there could be some damage to your nerves due to compression. Stay safe

Sorry, you think he didn't go to a doctor for 3 months? What part of what you just quoted even implied such nonsense. He's been going to doctors weekly since this happened. I'm asking for help as it seems all the treatments and different diagnoses are not able to help and am reaching out here in hopes people who have experience with this can chime in.


You obviously haven't even been reading what has been said. Why are you even commenting?

 

[plumbus-nine]

I got a lighter form of this after some incidents, one night sleeping on alcohol in the wrong position, and similar occurrences on dissociatives. This is now 3 years past. While the acute paralysis lifted after a few days and recovered over the following weeks, I will now get pins and needles type sensation and after a while slightly paralyzed hand when eg sitting in an armchair or sleeping on my back. While it doesn't interfere much with my life its somewhat annoying and I wonder what's going on.

 

[RC-Lover123]

I knew a guy who drank way too much booze and fell asleep next to the toilet, somehow resting/lying on his arm for hours. The arm was permanently damaged as his nerves died due to lack of blood flow/oxygen over many hours. Normally, the pain would easily wake you up before real damage occurs but with enough booze (or Heroin) that mechanism may not work any more. I would assume that your friend has similar nerve damage. That should be easy for a neurology specialist to diagnose, though, they can measure nerve conductivity/reactivity quite easily.