I overpracticed 2 weeks ago and started getting a sharp pain in my hands, so I left it for around a week until the pain had subsided, however when I played after that time, I experienced the same pain, only worse. Apart from refraining from practice for a few weeks, are there any things that anyone has found to be helpful while experiencing hand injuries?
Thanks,
Carl

RICE is your friend with most injuries and this includes hands.

Rest, you've done, but need to keep doing until you can play for a short time with no pain. Tendon and ligament injuries can take weeks - 6 to 12 is not unusual.

Ice, a wrap of some sort, but only for a short time at any one go, as fingers and hands are quite thin. (I actually got a surface frostbite on a finger due to icing it for too long). Once any pain goes, switch to low heat via a wheat wrap or similar.

Compress, buy some 'arthritis stretch gloves', or basketball finger sleeves, and wear them, maybe overnight, but not all the time.

You can try various rubs, Ibuleve, Voltarol. etc, or Oral NSAID's but none of these heal and only help if you have excess inflammation usually because you are not resting.

After that, start slowly for short periods and build up again.

See a general doctor if you like, but IMHO unless they are also musicians they won't help further. A hand doctor would advise if you have a serious injury, tendon tear, pulley rupture, etc, but I doubt it with piano.

A 'tendon sheath inflammation', that's what I experienced once, horrible thing, took a month and a lot of pills to calm down, overpractise indeed, mega-rsi, from then on: any bit of discomfort makes me think twice and try to do it in an other way, or stop alltogether, stay tuned to the signs your body gives, better play stuff that goes than be a cripple.

Wow thanks, I'll be sure to try alot of those, and yeah seeing my doctor was the first thing I did, she said it was most likely RSI and referred me to a radiologist for an X-ray to be sure it isn't something serious, thanks alot for all of these tips,
Regards,
Carl

Dolce: That sounds painful, it sure is an eyeopener on not taking shortcuts with techniques, I'm sure I'll be the same from now on,
Carl

very good remark: not taking shortcuts, the secret is TIME, take it, be patient, a gifted pianist will always find a way through the thornbushes and thickets of technique, it should become a footnote, the music shouldn't be hampered by it, neither the pianist.

What I'm reading is what I was going to stress: these types of injuries often can take the longest to heal. So, a week away may be enough to eliminate pain "at first", but over time, the injury exacerbates and you end up doing worse damage. Make sure you take the proper time to heal, and when you feel pain, stop immediately.

If you don't feel improvement in 2-3 months, then you probably have recurring injury due to technique issues. Separate issue, and one we can address then, unless you know you have issues now?

There's also no harm (as far as I'm concerned) in taking a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)such as ibuprofen.

True, there is no harm if you take the time to rest. However, you shouldn't take it so you can continue to cause damage.

I got tendonitis in my thumbs. It really didn't hurt while I was playing but it did after I played. I made the mistake of continuing to play for about a week and then it got really bad. It's been 10 weeks and it's just now almost better. I did go to the doctor and she sent me for physical therapy which involved heat, ultrasound and steroid patches. All helped quite a bit. I am almost pain free but I plan on giving it until after the first of the year before I even think of going back. I'm in my 50's so things do take longer to heal and I don't want to risk injuring it again. I think it may have happened because due to moving from one state to another I had not been practicing for about 3 months and even though I started gradually with easy lit when I stated with the advanced pieces that's when I ran into the problem. So it will be easy stuff for me for a couple of months.

If below is anything to go by you need to see a teacher and get a far more relaxed finger style going. Also, you're tall - a much lower seat would help get rid of the hunching over.