Abstract

Having retired from general practice 4 years ago I am writing an account of an unusual disease responding to an unusual treatment. Inexplicable bouts of evening fever occurred through 1998 when I was 57-years-old. At first I did not associate these with the onset of bilateral ulnar nerve paraesthesiae in early 1999. My partners had kindly purchased a lap top computer for me so that I could also work as practice manager. I had spent hours learning to use it, sitting in an awkward position, so I assumed I had a compression neuropathy of the ulnar nerves. I continued life as normal, working hard, riding my horse on my half day off, and running a watch repair business in the evenings (I had qualified as a watchmaker 25 years earlier). I ignored the numbness that developed on the lateral borders of both feet because I had a previous history of