More talking, more problems: 'Cell phone elbow' damages nerves

CNN as reported on June 3, 2009 by Madison Park(CNN) --
If your pinkie and ring fingers tingle or feel numb, you might not want to pick up that cell phone to call the doctor.Orthopedic specialists are reporting cases of "cell phone elbow," in which patients damage an essential nerve in their arm by bending their elbows too tightly for too long. When cell phone users hold the phone to their ears, they stretch a nerve that extends underneath the funny bone and controls the smallest fingers. When talkers chat for a long time in that position, it "chokes the blood supply to the nerves. It makes the nerves short-circuit. The next thing you know, there's tingling in the ring and small finger," said Dr. Peter J. Evans, the director of the Hand and Upper Extremity Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Editor Rozek’s Note: If you are talking on the phone so much that you get cell phone elbow, it may be time to consider what you could possibly need to be talking about for that amount of time?? Everyone I know says that they “hate the phone”…and yet, everywhere I go, I almost get driven off the road by someone holding their phone, or get pushed out of an aisle at the grocery store by someone who is having trouble steering their cart while they are balancing a conversation with their shopping list. One day, I even ran into a girl who was going out with my ex, who instantly picked up the phone when she saw me and started pretending to talk to him! I’m not sure what that was about…probably just insecure I guess. Who knows?? People do use their cell phone as a security blanket. Have you ever watched someone sitting in a restaurant all alone talking on the phone or texting the entire time? I view this as one of two things: either the person is a cardiac surgeon, or he/she is having a self-image issue with sitting there alone. I can’t think of anything that is important enough to say before I get somewhere out of the public eye. Why don’t we take a hint from teenagers (who, by the way can’t have a conversation without using only the first letter of each word they mean to say… or even better- keep texting someone else while they are talking to you- That’s my favorite!). They don’t ever “talk” on the phone anymore… but I bet they are going to have a whole knew thumb ailment from texting. It will be called “C.R.A.P" (Communication Rendered Aggravatingly Passé).