The tip of my middle finger on my right hand feels like it is asleep. Its felt like this since last night. What caused it? I’ll tell you.
Edited on June 27th 2007: So if you are reading this it’s probably because the tip of your finger has been numb for a long period of time. Quite possibly caused by carrying numerous bags of groceries. So, let me cut to the chase…you’ll be fine. My finger got better after a couple of weeks and most people recover even faster.
Now you can read the rest of my story or read the comments for other people who have had similar problems.
I was in my nearby grocery store around 10pm last night when the lady in front of me was begging the cashier to find someone to deliver her 4 bags of groceries to her door. They explained that their delivery service is only until 9, and they couldn’t find anyone to send. I stood there listening and thought about helping her. Then I thought about how I failed to get a pretty good job today and that I could use the karma.
I wish I had just wanted to do it right off the bat, and didn’t need to bribe myself into doing it, but I’ve been told that it doesn’t matter as long as I am doing the right thing. So let’s hope that is right.
So I offer to help her carry her groceries. She says they are really heavy. I tell her I can handle them. (It doesn’t look like much). The she glances at my groceries and says I already have such heavy stuff to carry. My groceries are very light. Bread. Cheese. Meat. And one bottle of soda. That is it. Oh, and some Ritz crackers. I tell her its less then I usually carry. So she agrees to let me help. And then she immediately realizes that she can’t find her child and goes to look for him. I grab her bags and follow.
The kid has gone outside and is a block away as she calls him to come back. He finally does and runs right past us in the other direction. This is the direction of her place so she doesn’t seem as concerned. So we start walking. Its only a 4-5 block walk, but she walks so slow it took us over 15 minutes. Plus she had to keep stopping to call her child back with exclamations like “Stay near me or you are going to get grabbed!”
As we neared her place she got a phone call from her husband. I couldn’t understand what she said to him, but it was brief and the phrase “American” was uttered. Then she hung up and said to me that she has seen me before – doing laundry. And she pointed at the laundromat we were passing. This was not my laundromat and I never do laundry (I use the drop off service). So I told her that it wasn’t me. We then talked about living in Astoria until her husband called a second time.
Anyway, we finally reach her place…she has me set the groceries on the stoop. And I head home. This is when I notice my finger is numb. I expected it to go away (assuming some circulation got cut from holding numerous bags of groceries. But here I am 16 hours later and it is still bothering me.
Stupid Karma.
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112 Comments
It’s great that such an old blog post can quell my worries, but thanks to all the commenters for sharing their stories! All I did was carry several plastic bags across the street and up my apartment building. I lost feeling in my middle finger from the middle knuckle up. After a half hour the numbness had receded only to the tip, where I guess it will stay until my nerve regenerates? Either way, I’m a 19yo college student and I’m just happy this won’t stay with me for life! This is my macbook trackpad finger we’re talking about here!
Thanks for this post Kevin. I was really freaking out until I googled your blog. My middle finger is still numb at the tip since yesterday, after I carried a lofty amount of plastic shopping bags on that hand. Let’s hope it heals quickly. We should make a petition to try and get “Shopping Bag Syndrome” medically recognized!
Cheers mate.
Thanks for this story, ive got a numb middle finget tip too from carrying those damn plastic bags! Hopefuly it will go away soon too though, this has stopped me worrying quite so much
good blog. i carried groceries several hours ago and was thinking that my finger would have to get amputated. hope these nerves repair themselves soon. i don’t like this feeling. i’ll be careful next time i carry groceries.
I had this happen a while ago, and it was rather annoying. Turns out that a nerve pinches in your shoulder, and makes your finger go numb.
Just pop your shoulder, and instead of weeks, it’ll be days.
Thanks to everyone who shared their numb finger stories. Mine happened a week ago today. The only thing I didn’t think of was the fact that I too, carried heavy bags the night I noticed it. Paper or plastic? Paper, please.
And mine happened just today! I’ve been freaking out thinking that I should go to urgent care. Hahaha. Now I know that I can relax.
The culprit of the tip of my numb middle finger was a pair of crafting scissors. I had been cutting on some intense stuff for a long period of time and when I stopped, I realized that the tip of my middle finger had gone numb.
Sure does feel weird though, I hope it goes away sooner than later.
Thanks for all of the reassurance guys & gals!
Jamie
oh hmm, yea i just did the same although was with a gallon of paint of was holding for about idk 30 minutes to an hour while painting my parents house. i felt the numbness immediately afterwards and now this morning its still exactly the same basically. sure is making it a little strange and minutely difficult to type with this finger, lol. well thanks for the site did answer some questions for me. good thing i didn’t get too anxious over it and cut my finger off, lol, getting on my nerves, haha hope it goes away for everyone including me, God Bless
I had this happen to me when I grabbed a railing and it has been numb for to days now but only on my middle finger on the left side. It tightens up every time a grab some thing and I feel like I’m just making to worse. It doesn’t hurt has much has it is feels weird. I’m so happy I found this blog because I know this happens a lot and it gets better.
OMG! I hope I recover soon. I almost went to Urgent Care today but my husband stopped me. He said it would return to normal soon. I am so glad this blog was posted. Here is my story….
My middle finger was also pinched with a grocery bag two days ago. The sad part is I wasn’t even walking home. I brought all of my groceries into the house from my car. Then, I went back to the car to get the last two bags. One of the bags contained 2 bottles of Perrier and a half gallon of grapefruit juice. The other bag was a bit lighter. As I was walking back in, my neighbor starts to talk with me. We spoke for about ten minutes and I didn’t even notice the bag was pinching me.
Well, two days later, my finger is numb and tingles when pressed. The tip itself looks the same but the vein on the finger is a lot darker.
I guess my husband wasn’t too concerned…his mother is a neurologist.
Everyone…thanks for sharing!
I got a numb tip of middle finger today for the first time in life. I was ignoring it for some time but then realized that the numbness is not going away.
I also carried shopping bags for half a day while shopping in Thailand. It was hot and humid there and I was carrying shopping bags.
Can any doctor post a comment on this site and explain the phenomena.
Thanks to all commentors for sharing their experience. It helped me to feel a part of human race.
This happened to me earlier today while carrying about 10 pounds of groceries. My right middle finger has been numb for about 3 hours. It has regained feeling somewhat but still doesn’t feel completely normal. The same finger went numb a few months ago when I cut off the circulation while flossing. It took 3 weeks for the numbness to go away completely then.