Macd123...

I don't really know anything ulnar nerve surgery. But, several years ago, I started having intense pain in my hands... to the point where it hurt to hold up a glass of water or steer my car.

After being misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel and bouncing around a bit between medical providers, I found an amazing chiropractor and a massage therapist that worked out of her office.

It took a good amount of time, and I took a month off work (no typing for a month!) - but between the chiro, the massage (weekly, covered by insurance since it was prescribed to deal with a specific issue), stretching, resting, and self-massage (to work on the fascia) - it eventually got better. I'm fine now - I play piano (I had to stop in the middle of all this) and continue working at a job that requires typing every day.

The massage therapist said that she saw people frequently that were misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel and were about to get a surgery that often left people worse off, without fixing the pain. It doesn't seem uncommon.

As I said, I literally know NOTHING about the ulnar nerve or what kind of problems you might be having... but if you're worried and you have other, less invasive options to try first - why not try them?

A book that I found incredibly helpful was, "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" (by Clair Davies and Amber Davies).

The idea is that when your fascia (the sticky webbing that holds everything in place inside you) gets knots or trigger points or "stuck" (hardens sometimes from injury or stress, so that it can't stretch the way it's supposed to) - it can refer pain. You might feel it in your arm, but it might be coming from your neck, for example. The book lets you look up where you're having pain, then tells you where it might be referred from - i.e. where to do self massage.

I don't think I would have gotten better without the self massage. When I started, literally every place on my arm that I tried to massage hurt very badly...

Anyway, it's worth looking at if you're worried about the surgery. I'd recommend trying to find a really good massage therapist that understands "medical massage" and fascia/trigger points (I've had better luck looking for massage therapists that work out of chiro offices, since they're usually working with the chiro to try to fix something).

There's also a ton of info online if you look up trigger points, and probably fascia massage. You can also just start by working on your arms, and focus on places that hurt (my rule was that if it hurts, it needs massage). Don't torture yourself, but work on those spots. It's better to do a little (but deeply) - like ~10 deep strokes on a sore spot - but to come back to it several times a day (rather than spending a lot of time on one spot, then not touching it again for 24 hours).

Like I said, I'm not sure if this is relevant to the stuff going on with you, but it sounded similar. It did take a LONG time to get "back to normal" - it was slow progress, but there was progress along the way.

Hope this gives you some ideas. If you do decide to do the surgery, I hope it works out and that you're back on your feet, feeling better, quickly. Good luck!