Orbital sander dilemma!
 

I have been using an orbital sander (is that what you call them in other countries?) for about half an hour for a home handywoman job :) . Now that I have stopped, my hands feel like they have thousands of totally painless electric currents running through them. I have used orbital sanders many times in my life, the last time being almost two years ago before any PN symptoms started and although I used to get a minute or two of post vibration feeling in the hands afterwards......this is totally different and feels so weird.

The funny thing is that even though I have had some symptoms in my hands the past three months they have not been as pronounced as elsewhere in the body. What is this showing by this happening?

This is the first time in about eight weeks that I have felt well enough and had any energy or motivation to do something and now this happens.....and I still haven't quite finished the sanding part of the job!

Do it for shorter 'bits' of time...
 

for shorter times...?

I got Carpal in one hand/arm from trying to put a 'spline' for a screen door into the frame...Got it w/in three hours...Direct Cause/effect...direct diagnosis after 2 months of 'rest' then test... The carpal didn't help 'clarify' the PN issue other than the fact that the PN was worse on the other side?

I DO know that total 'strangeness'...but other than Do NOT do that? I really cannot offer any sound advice other than to do it in very short 'bits', stopping before any potential buzz-nervewise or other can happen...that for me is about less than 5 minutes every 2 hours...doing anything really worthwhile [aka: showing work] is a bit frustrating?

I USED to sand by machine and hand for HOURS...those days are definitely shortened...I'd like continued use of what I've left thanks? - j

Megan hi...
 

I have a hard time mowing the grass due to vibration.I can't stand it, so I found a gardner to do the mowing. My hands would vibrate afterwards for a long time too.

Sounds familiar...
 

......within the first few months of my PN onset ,using power tools , weed eaters etc , would really drive my hands crazy. Once I started feeling better I wanted to get going again. The nerves in your fingers are quite sensitive giving us the feelings for delicate touch and discrimination. If you are like me ,it will take a while for them to get back to normal . I have found that in my case at least , not everything resolves in sync...Tom

I had to laugh at your title "orbital sander". I said to myself "what on earth is an orbital sander??" Then I read your post and I said 'Aha!!! she doesn't like anything that vibrates.

Me too. I wouldn't go near a vibrator, a massager, a vacuum cleaner, ANYTHING THAT VIBRATES!!!!

It just makes the pins and needles act up. So I simply stopped using these things. I don't have carpeting in my home. I have ceramic tile.

And If I did have carpeting, Alan would do the vacuuming. He doesn't have PN in his hands, only in his feet.

I hate anything that vibrates. If I had to do sanding, I would go to the hardware department and buy sanding strips. But that's me.


Hope you are feeling better.

Melody

Sander woes!
 

It's a glorious day here today, so I'm going to give the sander a try again but in very short bursts - like five minutes at a time as Dahlek suggests and see if I have a lesser negative effect.

I would still really like a better understanding from the physiological point of view as to why this type of thing happens. Obviously points to an underlying problem like PN, but why?

Megan, I truly hope it works?
 

I do know that after I'd gotten the carpal thing...typing or writing or even scrubbing countertops 'enthusiatically' could cause that 'limb part' to go dead...for a while. The longer I did it, the longer the 'deadness' would last. Think of it as a practical analogy to an emg? STOP before you are aware of things getting bad... Yeah it's being a chicken, but better a functioning chicken than a non-one. Yes it takes longer, but you get there?

Let us know how things work or not out....please - j

Hi Megan, whilst using the sander your nerve's are under a lot more pressure to perform properly but are damaged of course, so they are sending huge amounts of more confused signals than they would normally be sending, please don't over do it.
Brian :)

It is well documented that workers who use heavy vibratory equipment can develope a syndrome of nerve damage. This is often seen, for example, in men who use jack- hammers in thier jobs. The mechanical trauma of the vibration damages the fragile nerve fibers. It makes sense to me that if a person is predisposed to nerve damage, has PN, or has some underlying condition that weakens the nerves to begin with, they will be unable to tolerate the mechanical trauma of vibration. The nerves will succomb to much milder stimuli than a jackhammer because they are already weakened.

Setting the timer...
 

...to four minutes prevented the full blown needle/electric current sensations re-occurring. Just a hint of it happening at the end of each four minutes, so I went and did another task in between - probably for half an hour, then went back to the sanding. Not far off finishing the project now.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone! :)