Ulnar nerve impingement (entrapment) or as we say in Europe "cubital tunnel syndrome".

Richard, it seems to be a typical sailors injury.
I have it already for some years; first at the right arm and now since short it begins also at the left arm.

At first I thought it was a well known tennis-arm (golfplayers-arm), but later I detected it was much more nerve-triggered, with pain on the inside of the arm.
It effects very much the little finger and the ring finger movement. They can therefore diagnose it by measuring the time delay at these fingers when giving a pulse at the elbow.

If you are lucky, you can be repaired by a rather simple surgery, when they only have to divert the nerve round the elbowbone.
When you are in bad luck, they have to cut one of your arm muscles to make place for this diversion!

So, it can be no piece of cake when you are unlucky to catch this injury as a sailor. The warning is: pay attention to pain in the little fingers when you bend them.

P.S. I've accepted this injury of my body as one of the many I already have. Sometimes it flames up, sometimes it disappers for a while. Knock wood!

And Richard, don't listen to much to all these horror stories about not healing at all, keeping pain forever.
When you let your self help in a specialized hand-clinic, they will heal you!
I happen to know an old man who was a windowcleaner all his professionel life and who had this injury on both arms.
He was operated twice with a very good result!


Bon Courage.