Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Wrist pain


J. Dan

Recommended Posts

Is it possible to have pain from NOT playing?

 

My wrist started having a little pain a little over a month ago, not from playing....just something I noticed if I'd lift something a certain way or move it a certain way. Playing didn't bother me. Over time, it started hurting more and more, to the point where I was afraid it was going to start affecting my playing, but it never hurt to play. I was talking to a group of people and showed them where it hurt and the all said it was carpal tunnel, probably from typing (none of them were doctors). Yesterday I had a gig as a sub and Sweet a Home Alabama was on the list, and I had not successfully played that solo yet. So besides learning some other songs for the gig, I probably drilled that solo for about 90 min over and over until it was time to go to the gig, then played the gig.

 

Today I can't feel any pain AT ALL where it had been hurting all along. None, for the first time in over a month. And I also rehearsed on my acoustic bass for a few hours today. Weird.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 13
  • Created
  • Last Reply
It's not Carpal Tunnel. But if you want to put your mind at ease, google up "Phalen's Test" and do it.

Hammond: L111, M100, M3, BC, CV, Franken CV, A100, D152, C3, B3

Leslie: 710, 760, 51C, 147, 145, 122, 22H, 31H

Yamaha: CP4, DGX-620, DX7II-FD-E!, PF85, DX9

Roland: VR-09, RD-800

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am guessing not playing made things stiffen up a bit.. playing got it loose and the blood flowing. I don't know. What I DO know is these things are your bodies way of saying "something ain't right". I would get it looked at by a sports medicine doctor or osteopath. It could be nothing, but it could also be everything.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps it is a matter of a difference of ergonomics? Maybe while keying at work there is tension in the shoulders and while practicing music you consciously relax? I have made some adjustments of posture and practices at work due to some pain in my left elbow. I do a lot of stretching now, too.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just FYI - I'll try to describe where the pain was. If you look at your right hand, palm up, the meat on the thumb side sort of forms an arc where it meets your wrist. Between that and my wrist, I can feel a bone that makes kind of a bump. I'd say from the absolute middle of where my hand meets my wrist joint, it's slightly to the right (thumb side). The pain sort of surrounded that but mostly ran into my hand and wrist. It would hurt most lifting something palm up - like carrying a heavy plate full of food. I also noticed signing my name on a low table while standing caused pain.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just anecdotal, but I was having wrist pain, and pain in the top of my right hand. In mid-July I had a slow-speed head on collision (well, at least I was going slow) and my insurance company has been paying for chiropractic. Long story short, the regular adjustments to my neck and hip, along with the simple things I'm doing to correct a lifetime of bad posture from leaning over keyboards and computers has not only helped my neck, it's made my wrist and hand pain go away completely. In fact, I'm playing better than I have in 6-8 years. But I'm still ugly. Whatcha gonna do? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v707/HandsomeTramp/smilies/shrug.gif

 

If you are, say, sitting in your car and put your head all the way back to the head rest, yet straight, do you experience any pain under your armpit, like you are stretching a muscle the wrong way? This works standing against a wall, also.

The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers

 

People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been doing physio for years to correct stuff similar to Synthaholic...it all started when my hands stopped working. Synth, sounds like you caught your early!

 

Hammond: L111, M100, M3, BC, CV, Franken CV, A100, D152, C3, B3

Leslie: 710, 760, 51C, 147, 145, 122, 22H, 31H

Yamaha: CP4, DGX-620, DX7II-FD-E!, PF85, DX9

Roland: VR-09, RD-800

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been doing physio for years to correct stuff similar to Synthaholic...it all started when my hands stopped working. Synth, sounds like you caught your early!

 

Well, early in the sense that my hands didn't get to the point where I couldn't play, but it hurt, and worse than that they got fatigued to the point where moving my fingers felt like they were encased in Jell-O.

 

I learned recently that for every inch you hold your head in front of you, it's an additional 10 lbs. of weight on your neck. My head was generally 2 inches ahead. Kind of like this:

 

http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/posture.jpg

 

A great exercise to get right is that car technique: when sitting at a red light, bring your head back to the headrest, hold for a few seconds, then release. Do it over and over.

 

Also, stay conscious of where your shoulders are. If, with elbows in, you put your hands forward with your palms up (like in that hand-slapping game of nerves), then rotate them out to the sides of your body, that's where your shoulders should be all the time.

The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers

 

People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All of this is true. I just came from my chriopractor this morning because I get neck issues and headaches from time to time. It boils down to too much time sitting at my desk, slouched in my couch watching TV, general poor posture, not enough stretching etc, etc.

 

Dan, as for your specific situation I agree you should see a doc. You never know, its probably nothing but get it checked anyway.

 

One time about 7 years ago I was in Mexico on vacation and a poolside plastic lounge chair decided to collapse with the ring finger on my left hand stuck between the upper and lower frame next to the hinge. It broke the bone by the first knuckle behind the nail. Could have sheared it off but there was enough of a gap to just crack the bone. Really no big deal, it would heal with a regular splint but since I'm a pianist I went to a ortho surgeon when I got home. He was probably overkill for something like this but I wanted a real expert monitoring that finger just in case something weird started happening. Nothing did but I saw him three times I think. My primary doc would never refer me to a surgeon for something like that so I paid the office visits for peace of mind. It's all healed up now but it has a little kink in the end of the finger that doesn't affect my playing at all.

 

I know, does that make me a typical Hollywood prima donna? Maybe but as serious keyboard players, we shouldn't take chances with our hands is my take on this.

 

Bob

Hammond SK1, Mojo 61, Kurzweil PC3, Korg Pa3x, Roland FA06, Band in a Box, Real Band, Studio One, too much stuff...
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been 3 full days with no pain whatsoever. It's just odd that after about a month, it went away after an afternoon of intense practice. If it comes back, I'll get it checked out.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just something I noticed if I'd lift something a certain way or move it a certain way.

If you look at your right hand, palm up, the meat on the thumb side sort of forms an arc where it meets your wrist. Between that and my wrist, I can feel a bone that makes kind of a bump.

 

Your description sounds familiar to pain I have on occasion.

 

http://users.rowan.edu/~gomola19/bones_hand.jpg

 

I broke one of those small bones in the wrist once, maybe the Trapezium (I don't remember what the doctor said). Whichever it was, I remember he said that was the one you didn't want to break because it had a tendency to not heal correctly if you're not careful. Something about the way blood flows through the area. In the years since, it does occasionally hurt if I put pressure on it at certain angles, such as carrying something heavy with my hand and wrist turned a particular way.

 

Most recently, I was on vacation and tried a little surfing. I'm not sure exactly how, but it left my wrist hurting for a week afterward.

 

In my case it's in no way related to the carpal tunnel. It's a bone thing. Maybe you hurt one of those bones at some point in the past?

"And then you have these thoughts in the back of your mind like 'Why am I doing this? Or is this a figment of my imagination?'"

http://www.veracohr.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't ever remember injuring that hand. I dislocated my thumb on the other hand. Tore all the stuff around it so my thumb and all the bones that connect to it through my hand all snapped out of place and wouldn't stay where they belonged unless I held them there. They had to pin the bones to the bones in my hand going to the index finger to hold it in place until everything grew back. That sucked. But that was the other hand.

 

From your diagram I'd call this the scaphoid.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...