Just a quick update.

I know I've only been doing the exercises for a few days but already my fingers feel much better, they a still a little numb, but the tingling has gone, well it has today, it usually returns over night for some reason but today my fingers feel much better.

It must be the exercises cus I'm not doing anything else any different.

I'll keep doing them and keep you posted.

Teodor, you should give them a go, you've nothing to lose after all. It certainly seems to be doing something for me, I hope it's not just a fluke.

Cheers

Martin.

I am so late to this, but will add a quick two cents, since I have Carpal Tunnel and gave up piano and other things for 15 years.

I wore the braces. At first all the time, and then reduced to nightly wearing.

At first they seemed combersome and weird.

Then they became my friends which were hard to give up.

Syptoms and medical diagnosis - 20 yrs ago. Moderately Severe CTS and nerve damage (ulner?) below elbow.

What the braces taught me was to keep my wrists straight. No curling under my head at night. No hands on my hips. No riding bicycles and leaning into the wrists. No bent wrists while driving. No leaning on the desk while at the computer.

Everything had to be learned to keep my wrists straight.

I am now playing again (3 yrs plus). My bench is high so that the wrists can be straighter in a down position to the keyboard.

I am always aware how my wrists are positioned while doing ANYTHING

Just some thoughts that might help you on your awareness and recovery.

CTS affects the 1 2 3 fingers more than the 45. They go numb. The numbness then arises up the forearm.

Best wishes for your recovery or learning to live with this, if this is your problem.

BTW, it took YEARS, not days, and not months.

I have no numbness and no nerve damage, no loss of control, no loss of strength, no serious pain, medically proven it's not CTS (paid for tests), so I hoped I can recover faster since there is no nerve damage to heal. The frustration comes from thinking I cannot use the computer anymore if I want to recover but if it will take more than a few months then I will lose my job, and soon my life because I cannot afford to study in college if I do not work. So now I've been extremely nervous and angry with everything, I've become like a grumpy old person and I hate it.

I have wrist support that I purchased online, it claimed to help with tendonitis but I have not tried it, I thought the pressure on my wrists might actually be hurting them.

Martin, I will try yours but additionally since PC aggravates it I will need to buy an ergonomic keyboard and a gel mousepad to at least lessen the aggravation.

It is important to play the piano with the less tension as possible in the hands and the forearms. And also look for if you have bad positions when you do other activities.

I have bad position at the pc, what can I do if the chair can't be adjusted? I am too low if I put books I can't rest my back on the chair

Pillows, books, anything - and then check how your feet rest on the floor because they are part of what support you in addition to the chair. They will affect what happens in your hips, and then your back, shoulders, head. There's a lot of info out there if you google posture + sitting.

I got a new desk two weeks ago. It has a keyboard at the right height for the arms. However it also has a second desk as a wing meant for writing on. I had my laptop on it since it's the one that is connected to the Net (main computer has some kind of virus). It was a bad height and I have the beginning of carpal. My right hand became partly numb and tight on the little finger side and stayed that way for a week.

20 days later (since the start of the physio therapy) it's still the same. Going to see more doctors next week and spend more money on something they can't fix or even determine what's wrong...

I played piano today for the first time in 2 months, there was almost no joy since I knew my hands would hurt after I practice...

Teodor, I feel for you -- it's particularly hard having your body fail you when you're still young, and should be enjoying your peak of physical health. I started having mysterious body dysfunctions when I was in my early 20's, and it was very frustrating and isolating.

Now I'm pushing fifty, my friends all bond over the strange but inevitable process of physical decline, but back when I was younger, I felt like no-one had the slightest idea what I was going through. I felt like my friends thought I was just being lazy or not trying hard enough or something. So I tended to push myself past my limits, and be in pain all the time. It sucked.

Is there a short enough amount of time you can spend at the piano such that it doesn't give you any pain?

Just another update.

I've been doing the exercises I mentioned for around a week now, I do them once a day. The pins and needles in my three fingers has gone, there is still numbness in all three but the third finger is much better than the others, the swelling sensation I was getting in my wrist has gone although there are still signs of tension but no pain.

I can't say this is going to cure me but it does seem to give relief, especially the pins and needles they were getting really annoying, I think a lot of the problem is the strength of the wrist, so perhaps that's why this exercise seems to help.

Anyway, I'm gonna keep doing the exercises and hope they just keep it at bay, at least that way I can still play without suffering any pain, I'm glad to say I think I caught it early which has helped prevent it getting any worse, well so far that is.

Teodor, I hope you manage to get sorted soon.

Cheers

Martin

I tried doing those exercises but they just aggravate my hands more.

Teodor, this stinks! I'm so sorry you aren't seeing any improvement. I really hope you get some good results from seeing the doctors next week. Let us know.

Hi Teodor,
The problem might not be your hands/wrists. Your shoulders or neck could be tight even if you might not notice it. Sadly, I had a similar problem years ago and went back and forth to Dr.'s and physical therapy. Nothing helped and in fact the PT made it worse because my neck and shoulder muscles were so tight. Now I get myofascial release work done. Its a type of therapeutic massage. It was like a miracle the first time I went. I had no idea how tight my muscles where. It was painful at times but OMG! I felt like a new person afterward.

I will consider this for next time I get my paycheck, the place where I did PT had all kinds of massages, I can ask for that and see if it helps.

Hi Teodor, IANAD but it sounds very odd that a combination of icing, rest, light physio therapy and massage is not helping you a young person after several weeks. I have had hand joint injuries that take months to heal, a year was the longest, because it's so difficult to rest the hands since you use them for everything. It sounds like you are already avoiding doing things which you notice makes things worse, such as typing, piano, and so on?

I don't want to send you off on a path of what some may consider is fake or quackery, but I have to ask - how is your diet? People swear by different things and supplements, fish oil, glucosamine and so on, but I don't know if there is any research to support any of this. I myself swear by cyder vinegar and honey, but it's anecdotal. The question is how's your diet?

Lots of home cooked food (a lot of meat, mostly chicken but not like the one you get from fast food, chicken meat in soup is what I meant but also often in other dishes but not grilled, made in the oven or boiled), tons of sweets, some fruits, some veggies. I was taking food supplements prescribed my my physio therapist for the past 20 days which didn't help.

I now put some gel on my hands that has all kinds of herbs and it temporarily softens the symptoms even during activity but does not cure the problem

Have your doctors considered the possibility of conditions that may be more systemic in nature but just happen to be causing symptoms only in your hands and wrists right now? If none of what should be working is taking care of the problem maybe there is something else wrong that needs to be taken care of before the tendonitis can improve. Just something to keep in mind if you continue to see no improvement.

It's possible, could be a pinched nerve somewhere in the back, who knows... Just in case I will have a complete blood panel in a few weeks if things don't improve. It might reveal an underlying condition that's causing the tendinitis like you said.

No improvement at all, Teodor? I'm so sorry--- I would have thought the rest and treatment might have helped at least a little. I wonder what they're looking for with the blood panel? Whatever it is, it's clearly time for the docs to look a little further, and that has to be good for you.

Maybe acupuncture would help? Just an idea. Take care.

Teodor

I'm sorry to hear the exercise didn't help, it goes to show we're all different, my fingers are still a little numb but otherwise I'm not having any problems anymore, I do hope you get it sorted out soon you shouldn't be suffering like this at your age.

Keep your chin up and good luck with your recovery.

Cheers

Martin

Still not healed and lost all desire to study piano

Does it hurt when you scratch yourself? Or when you push things? If not, you can carry on playing.

Thanks for letting us know, Teodor--- sorry the news isn't better, but I was wondering. I'll keep sending a good thought your way.

You've named the big problem with injuries, for athletes and artists: by the time we can get back in the game, we've lost so much of our momentum. But by this time, I've had it and lost it and gotten it back so many times, I just see it all as part of the game in the first place.

The musician in you may have gone dormant to wait for favorable conditions to return, but I would bet anything it's still in there. It will come out at thte right time.

I completely agree to Jeff's thoughtful reply. Don't give up hope, and do enjoy music in other ways meanwhile. Go to a concert, take a music history class, take some singing lessons and join a choir, or learn how to play percussion like drums. Or look into conducting lessons, it's great fun, even if it maybe is not the first thing you thought of doing. I really think that participating in some kind of group music activity would be a good thing for you. It is lots of fun, inspiring, and would distract you from the pain and worries and also give you a lot of useful experience for the day you are able to return to piano.

Wish you all the best, Teodor!

Yes I agree with Jeff Clef. I play tennis and had reached a good momentum this summer, but I'm now out, injured (forearm), and it affects my piano slightly too. But I know what I have to do to heal, recover, restart, get back, and so on as I've done it so many times before.

Basia has some good suggestions. Perhaps mentally you can 'switch off' the piano thoughts for, say, 6 months but stay with the music in other ways. Then you have set a goal to come back in 6 months time. That's what I do with the tennis, I've switched off the tennis for September now, but am enjoying the US Open.

This doesn't mean it will not heal... You say it hasn't happened yet, but this does not mean it will not happen.




Don't lose your passion. If you cannot play right now maybe you can go to concerts, or also do some computer music. Some composers in the composers' forum do computer music and some of the music they post is truly beautiful.

Teodor,

Do you mind describing your symptoms again, and in detail?

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.

Your musical life is dead - Long live your musical life!

Teodor, please do take the opportunity to try new music related activities. Firstly, most musical activities will be beneficial to your piano playing when you return. If you for example improve your sense of rhythm, that will be great for piano, or if you learn some composing or music hstory that will also benifit your playing. Secondly, some activities may seem uninteresting because you have not tried them. Be open minded and you might be surprised. I strongly believe that other music making experiences can be fun and that they are good for your mental hapiness while away from piano.

In any way, don't give up hope, there will be more piano playing days coming up!

May I paraphrase myself? - there's nothing wrong with you it's your technique. If you read back you'll find I'm not the only one who is saying this.