Air impact wrench - vibration damage to hands!

[remmington]

Went to doctors Friday.

Turns out the nerves in my right hand between the knuckle on my index finger and the middle joint on my thumb, are dead forever.

There are names for this syndrome "white finger". VWF or HAVS.

Doctor told me I maybe able to have a claim on my employer (this I found really funny!)


Been reading up on it (google).

Gloves and cold hands.

Gripping air tools too hard.

Old air tools.

Too much exposure for too long to vibration.

Smoking and blood flow.


I think this subject is worth a debate on here, as we all use air tools.


Now the funny bit, my right hand is getting so dead, I am taking to wiping my own ar*e after a pooh with my left hand!

No sympathy required I am fifty and had a good life!

[spannermonkey]

Had a job once fitting cavity ties to old houses,you need to drill hundreds of holes all over the place all day long,some of the guys been doing it for years and couldn't feel anything in their fingers and had knackered elbow/shoulder joints,needless to say i chucked it.

[Joepublic]

Are your feet like blocks of ice even an hour after climbing into bed? If so google Reynards disease

[rpm]

Nov 27, 2016 9:50:21 GMT 1 remmington said:

Went to doctors Friday.

Turns out the nerves in my right hand between the knuckle on my index finger and the middle joint on my thumb, are dead forever.

There are names for this syndrome "white finger". VWF or HAVS.

Doctor told me I maybe able to have a claim on my employer (this I found really funny!)


Been reading up on it (google).

Gloves and cold hands.

Gripping air tools too hard.

Old air tools.

Too much exposure for too long to vibration.

Smoking and blood flow.


I think this subject is worth a debate on here, as we all use air tools.


Now the funny bit, my right hand is getting so dead, I am taking to wiping my own ar*e after a pooh with my left hand!

No sympathy required I am fifty and had a good life!

Serious subject, i havent used power tools as much as some, being mobile i use hand tools a lot more, but am beginning to notice joints and my back deciding when I have had enough.

Also means a bit of a warning to you as an employer, if your workers begin to suffer etc. Needs some looking into to ensure safe systems of work and tools etc, and limits of use. Preventative measures where possible?

As for using the left hand. I had to recently after hurting my hand. It has to ge classed as unusual and an experience, doesnt feel natural etc

[remmington]

Nov 27, 2016 16:55:05 GMT 1 Joepublic said:

Are your feet like blocks of ice even an hour after climbing into bed? If so google Reynards disease

Feet as warm as toast...

Right thumb so dead I cant even push down on an electronic clipper lighter with my right thumb to light a fag.

If I get my hand cold, the pain is like "pins and needles".

[Joepublic]

Nov 27, 2016 18:45:13 GMT 1 remmington said:

Nov 27, 2016 16:55:05 GMT 1 Joepublic said:

Are your feet like blocks of ice even an hour after climbing into bed? If so google Reynards disease

Feet as warm as toast...

Right thumb so dead I cant even push down on an electronic clipper lighter with my right thumb to light a fag.

If I get my hand cold, the pain is like "pins and needles".

To check for VWF put your hand in Luke warm water for a minute. Coal face workers were paid out for VWF but my father who worked in the blacksmiths / welding shop got nothing as the case was unproven at the time, he held steel in a huge pneumatic sledge hammer (a "Busy Bob") for years with bare hands

[Joepublic]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDKse4IvX8U

[Karl]

It's something I do think about in later life , and do worry that this sort of thing can lead to early retirement
but who can afford that !
dermatitis can be a real problem as well
Some jobs involve you bent over for hours. I'm only youngish still
And sometimes get up in the morning with back pain
Or neck pain from a difficult job the following day

[studabear]

I damaged my rotator cuff last year and still have some issues with it, I've re injured it at work and upto now have spent over £500 on private physio.

I find my neck goes tight through working on cars which has a knock on effect on my shoulders, my physio said on my last visits that its the job thats causing it.

Once I'm training properly at the gym again I will have to do twice as much back work to what I do for chest and shoulders.

My knees are not great either, when I was a apprentice I was constantly bollocked if caught kneeling on the floor without a mat. I used to shrug it off, that old b*gger was right, now I'm the old b*gger if I catch anyone doing it at work I tell them to get something to put down on the floor.

I wear work pants with knee pads permanently at work.


This job is no good for the body, that said sitting on ones backside all day is probably as bad in other ways.

[remmington]

Nov 27, 2016 20:53:41 GMT 1 studabear said:

I damaged my rotator cuff last year and still have some issues with it, I've re injured it at work and upto now have spent over £500 on private physio.

I find my neck goes tight through working on cars which has a knock on effect on my shoulders, my physio said on my last visits that its the job thats causing it.

Once I'm training properly at the gym again I will have to do twice as much back work to what I do for chest and shoulders.

My knees are not great either, when I was a apprentice I was constantly bollocked if caught kneeling on the floor without a mat. I used to shrug it off, that old b*gger was right, now I'm the old b*gger if I catch anyone doing it at work I tell them to get something to put down on the floor.

I wear work pants with knee pads permanently at work.


This job is no good for the body, that said sitting on ones backside all day is probably as bad in other ways.

[/b]

I agree with the above.

[Noberator]

Remmington has your Doctor mentioned Nerve Conduction Velocity (NCV) testing on your hand?



I had them a couple of years ago to find out why my little finger and the left side of my wedding ring finger on my left hand was either numb or tingling.

Turns out I have a badly trapped median nerve in the elbow joined which was operated on under local anaesthetic. Felt the surgeon scrapping and tugging but no pain. Weird feeling you can feel it but no pain and I couldn't see what he was doing either.

This nerve is very close to what is known as the funny bone in your elbow the one when you bang it feels like a little electric shock.


Still the same sometimes aware of it sometimes I am not. I am aware now because I am on about it.

If it get annoying I find putting my hand in warm water (as hot as I can stand)but not boiling water helps.


Try it Peter it might help circulation and try hand exercises with moving your fingers around.

[Deleted]

Nov 27, 2016 9:50:21 GMT 1 remmington said:

I am taking to wiping my own ar*e after a pooh with my left hand!

You really should try using paper instead, it's less messy

[valhalla]

This is the reason I invested in a hydraulic vertical splitter machine for my wood; conversely to most of the problems posted above, it was the "home-life" that I found was killing my limbs, and making it hard to use them in work.

I used to split wood with a splitting axe, but these often stick, so you end-up walloping the whole lot with a sledgehammer to get it going again. I found I was getting numbness and tingling in my right fore-arm from the shock of doing all this, and decided there and then that I had to change what I was doing. The machine is more controlled, and the problems I experienced with delicate electrical work just went away after a couple of weeks, and that was three years ago now.

[givusaclue]

I can sympathise with the hand wiping, i'm the same age, had carpol tunnel fixed in both hands in the last 3 years, not being a brave person with blood & giblets etc. it wasn't a pleasurable experience watching & feeling the sensations while they did them.
i now don't grip air tools tightly, never bang anything with my palms to shift it (spanners etc), i cringe when i see anyone else do it & tell them to stop.
right one is 100% success
left one is about 75%
but at least i can ride my motorbike with some confidence, no pins & needles & can sense how much hard i'm pulling the levers

early retirement about 55 & sell up is the answer, divorce cocked that up for me, but maybe 60 

[remmington]

Dec 1, 2016 17:01:37 GMT 1 givusaclue said:

I can sympathise with the hand wiping, i'm the same age, had carpol tunnel fixed in both hands in the last 3 years, not being a brave person with blood & giblets etc. it wasn't a pleasurable experience watching & feeling the sensations while they did them.
i now don't grip air tools tightly, never bang anything with my palms to shift it (spanners etc), i cringe when i see anyone else do it & tell them to stop.
right one is 100% success
left one is about 75%
but at least i can ride my motorbike with some confidence, no pins & needles & can sense how much hard i'm pulling the levers

early retirement about 55 & sell up is the answer, divorce cocked that up for me, but maybe 60 

So you are in the market for a new wife?

You can have mine!

If I got shot of her now, I could afford to retire!