Re: OT: anybody dealt with tendinitis?

["Jim Goodin" <jimgoodinmusic@gmail.com>]

Forgive this somewhat blast to each of you who replied (Per I'm 52 as well, you didn't look it when I met you in Oct at Y2K).  All helpful and appreciated and things that I've done or thought about.  These conditions using come and go but have never really stayed resident like the current.  I was very anxious about it 2 weeks back as the problem in my finger was somewhat intense and I had a gig in California in 3 days.  In that case I didn't play for 2, iced and stretched and by showtime Saturday evening was in really good shape with mobility.  Along that note and Kristen's observations about ergonomics I've rethought how i'm using that first fretting/stopping finger and too I know John well and the angle he plays. He's never shared that it was related to physical issues but I've known guitarists who approach almost as an upright bass.  With my fretless I'm doing that whereas my fretting is more parallel and maybe that's part of it actually as I think about it.  I know a bit about Alexander Technique and many thoughts you've communicated Per are down that road.

Additionally like some of you I do tech support/graphics production/lit support in my day gig and I'm constantly rotate mice and keyboard fingers or as much as I can.

Beyond that bout 2 weeks ago it's not painful and in a sense I can play fretless for an hour without discomfort  however I'm pretty obsessive compulsive and generally "panic to void the rush" so  I worry about these things.

I've entertained acupuncture many times Per, what's your experience with that or did you tell me and I missed?  Not because of unprofessional though I don't do music all the time for income I do earn some from it so I feel a professional  but it's more ego saying that so forgive but I do juggle other instruments though needing to stay consistent with the guitar.  A sidebar of the juggling I'm about to buy and Oud as an extension of my unfretted work on guitar and hacking violin of which I also wonder if the latter which I approached intensely for several months attrib'ed to some of this.

I do appreciate all thoughts here guys and sounds like I'm paying attn to the shared areas.

jim

On 2/2/08, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:

On Feb 2, 2008 9:25 PM, Jim Goodin <jimgoodinmusic@gmail.com> wrote:
>  getting occasional bouts with tendinitis or
> related.

Go and let a professional physiotherapist have a check on you! Such
symptoms with nerve pain can physically emanate from quite a different
part of the body than you feel it in. There's no chance to guess
correctly by yourself.

A friend of mine had a carpel tunnel syndrome surgery last year and it
went very well, he got rid of all his problems. He is a carpenter at
his daytime job and a gigging blues player at weekends plus often one
night in the week. Both occupations typically associated with the
carpel tunnel bug.

Some years ago I woke up one night with a horrible pain in my left
shoulder, beaming down into my hand and focusing in the ring finger. I
had no idea what might have caused this sudden blow. No doctor could
tell either. They "guessed" that it was a quite "Pinched Nerve" issue
common among people that do body building - but I definitely don't do
that! Not until I visited a physiotherapist also experienced in
acupuncture the mystery was solved. She only had to look at my back
for a couple of seconds to understand the issue. It appeared the pain
in the left arm was caused by tiny muscles at the lower back which had
deteriorated. The absence of these muscles made the spine bow sideways
and then the body automatically compensates for that by bowing to the
other side a bit higher up along the spine. This works fine for a
couple of years until "the bow" approaches the highest part of the
spine where all the ribs are mounted. Up there there is no room for
sideways bending and then big nerves may get squeezed badly. Which is
what had happened to me. Of course the guitar playing made it worse -
especially standing on one leg with bent torso to play with a bow and
at the same time tap dancing a floor board with the other foot - but
the real cause was my stupid experiment to stop exercising five years
earlier. I have always paracticed yoga to focus balance and then
started thinking that "what the heck is this good for, I'm in perfect
shape and never get ill anyway so I'll do this experiment to quit all
exercising just to see if it really is needed. If Milarepa could sit
for years in a cave I should be able to sit ten hours a day in a chair
and work with typing". Bottom line is that exercise IS needed. The
physiotherapist told me I was lucky to bring those tiny muscles back
to life again. She glued electrodes to my back and twice a week for
one month I received small electric shocks to "massage" the muscles.
After only two such treatments they got strong enough to react to
nerve impulses so I could take over the exercising by will. For a year
I could still feel that there had been a problem inside but then I was
fine again.

I'm not so sure it's the aging in itself that causes problems but
rather the quite unfriendly way we usually treat our bodies as
musicians. As long as you are not a professional you may also benefit
from the luxury of switching premiere instrument for a while.

--
Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
(celebrating 52 years on the planet)

--
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