I don't know if this is good or bad news. A neurologist did a test and found no nerve damage or pinched nerves, no carpal tunnel syndrome. So it's probably tendonitis I guess. No real way to confirm it 100% as far as I know.

Play piano
Strangle my wife!!!

I strongly recommend acupuncture before anything drastic and permanent like surgery. It worked for us very well and could work for you. Our story...

My wife doesn't play the piano but after holding babies she developed De Quervain's tenosynovitis.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/de-quervains-tenosynovitis/ds00692

After 9 months of on-and-off pain, it suddenly flared one night and we went to the ER. She had to hold her thumb a particular way to avoid super intense pain. At the ER, they put on a soft bandage cast so she could relax, go home, and sleep.

We then went to an orthopedist who put a fiberglass cast on to let it rest and heal. 2 weeks later she went back to get it off. They checked it, not much improvement, and put on a new cast. During this time, muscles atrophy. The plan was, if nothing improves on its own, then 2 rounds of steroids shots to attempt to reduce the inflammation. After that, if needed, surgery to cut the inflammation so that pressure is reduced. Surgery usually is effective, with a chance of losing feelings on the top of the hand. Prognosis was not good!

Of course, during this time, she could not change diapers or hold babies. We called in my mother to help. It was serious.

We then heard from friends about acupuncture, and a particular practitioner in the area was providing very good results for pains and injury. We rushed to get the cast off and went to see the acupuncturist the next day. After that very first visit, my wife's hand was immediately relieved. It took just 2 more visits to completely cure it. Simply amazing. The treatments included needle pricks at various places, but also massages by hand and by hard massage tools (ouchie). A lot of surface bruising resulted, but the effect was phenomenal.

After that, I went to see the acupuncturist for myself. I was having problems with my left hand. When I played piano my left wrist would hurt when I stretched left. My index finger's last joint was in pain. My thumb was sore and weak (probably developing De Quervain's myself). I only went in once and everything got fixed. Immediately after the treatment I still felt some pains, but the next day, my problems were all gone.

Try acupuncture! You can always get surgery later, but you can never get back to pre-surgery state.

I had CPS/tendonitis/tennis elbow when I was about 22 years old too.

I switched to using the computer mouse to my left hand several years ago. The way most 102 keys PC keyboards are laid out, having the mouse to the right of it makes for very bad posture. Add piano that also generally work the right hand more, the right hand is just over worked compared to the left. Using the mouse with my left hand means my right hand gets a lot more rest time during the day.

If anyone has tennis elbow (either due to playing tennis or piano) that is affecting their piano playing (or tennis playing), I would recommend this device called the Theraband FlexBar and an exercise on it called the Tyler Twist.

No, no x-rays but only because the doc believes it is the tendons and muscles that are sore from overuse. He says I am an enigma for him, and that my hands just need rest.

So your entire hand got stiff and had pain because of a single finger problem?

Can't give me anything right now since I stopped lessons until my hands are good again, I haven't played for 22 days but now it looks like I have to stop using the PC as well for a month. Will be a boring month indeed, all I got left is singing maybe and some reading, if I can manage to put a book comfortably enough so that I don't have to hold it in my hands.

If it was caused by piano shouldn't it get better now? I haven't played for over a month now.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7-dgO4wQI

In this video your wrists are quite stiff. Can you see how the RH little finger hovers tensely all the time? I hate to say so but your playing mechanism from finger tip to elbow is very rigid.

Maybe you have a pinched nerve in the neck?

It seems to me that you are sitting too high.

That suggests to me that you may be sitting too low, not too high

...but you really need a good teacher to show you this.

Any improvements so far? I've been following your plight as I am in a similar but much less severe situation.

I think I will try physio as well.

I had Carpal Tunnel surgery in my right hand. Before surgery I had a list of can't do's.....

Feel the button on my shirt when I want to button it
Write for long period
Use the mouse on my PC
Hold a cup of tea without changing hands
Hold a toothbrush firmly
Carry a newspaper or book
Ride a bike
Play piano
Sleep through the night
Strangle my wife!!!

Honestly, after years of wear and tear the surgeon said it was the worst case he ever operated on. The op took 18 minutes which he recorded as the longest he had done.

Now I am totally cured.

Do yourself a favour.
See your doctor, insist on the surgery and get on with it!

I found an exercise on the WEB where by you stretch out your arms in front of you, palms down then bend your hands upwards to 90degrees, hold for 5 seconds then relax, ....

Still not healed

and lost all desire to study piano

Thanks but I'd rather wait till the irritation and mild aches are gone from everyday activities before I return to piano. I will of course follow your advice and work on technique with a better teacher once I can play again. I hope that by Christmas I'll be fine. I see improvement, it's just not very noticeable day to day but compared to two months ago I am much better.

Thank you for all the kind words! About concerts and other things... I just don't like being a spectator, I like doing things actively. Also there is nothing else in music I want to do other then piano.

No swelling, no redness. The pain is not major, it's not something you'd need pain killers for, it's not even real pain, more like being tired all the time and some light burning sensation as if I need to scratch my hand and something is making it itchy from inside... No aches, no problems at night, once I fall asleep it all goes away, if I wake at night my hands feel as if there is nothing wrong with them.

Can't describe them good enough, every day some different part of my hands hurts when I use them. Last two days it's been the knuckles on the middle and ring finger on the right hand, left hand doesn't bother me at all these two days. (well now that I typed the whole thing below, the top of my wrist feels slightly tired it's a weird sensation I never had before)

Normally, after some clicking with the mouse or playing piano my hands feel very tired and I feel a burning sensation that starts on a small area and then if I keep using my hands spreads around fingers, palm, sometimes the wrist. Sometimes it starts at the wrist, sometimes it starts at the fingers, most of the time it's the index finger on the right hand because I use it for clicking with the mouse, sometimes it doesn't hurt.

Rest helps only till I start using my hands again. Holding a book and after a few minutes my hands get random aches (fingers, palm, wrist, random every time).

I'd say I see improvement now that it's been a few months but I can no longer rest because it's driving me nuts. Instead I will do everything as normal, just with more breaks in between stuff. I started playing some computer games again, the first 30 mins are alright, after that I don't feel much like playing since it begins to slightly hurt and it's annoying.

Every time I think about sitting at the piano I associate it with pain now and I bet it will be hard to shake that off even after I have recovered.

Hi Teodor,

Do yourself a favor - go see a NEUROLOGIST.

You are describing some form of parasthesia/nerve root irritation that might indicate a lesion in the cervical spine region.

You might need an MRI of the cervical spine region. This is not a hand/upper limb problem per se.

Good luck!

Already saw one and he did tests with the nerves on my hands and around the neck and said everything is fine. Also MRI costs as much as my monthly income.

I think if your technique were appropriate it would just stay annoying. As soon as you attack the keyboard it's going to do damage, stroke it gently! Basia, I would never countenance someone playing through pain. Up to that point is fine.