Do you play the pipes? Do you get pains in your fingers, arms, shoulders and neck. Do you get symptoms similar to carpal tunnel syndrome – tingling in the thumb, index and middle fingers? Don’t immediately assume the problem is in your hands!
A few months ago I posted a thread concerning problems I was having with pains in my arms, shoulders and hands. Any piper who experiences pain in these areas naturally becomes quite anxious about what is happening and whether it may spell an end to their piping career. To recap, it began when I noticed that after half an hour or so of practice I began to feel pains in my shoulders. This pain disappeared after practice, but would reappear the next day’s practice. I gave myself a rest of about a week and resumed the following week to see it there was any improvement. After about five minutes, I bent down to pick something off the floor and received a sharp jolt of pain from my shoulder down my arm and into my ring finger. This was followed by about half an hour of tingling in my finger.
Perplexed by this, I visited my chiropractor. He was able to provide some relief and put a stop to the tingling in my hands by freeing up a nerve in my shoulder area. However, this was not the end of my troubles. The pain in my shoulder worsened and eventually my other arm started to experience the same symptoms. Funny thing was, I had not resumed doing any piping since the jolt experience. I went to the chiropractor a second time, but the relief was only temporary. I went to my doctor and he thought based on the fact that I was also actively swimming in my backyard pool that I had developed an irritation in my rotator cuffs – the bits in the shoulders where the arm is held in place by muscles. He sent me to a sports physiotherapist who gave me some shoulder strengthening exercises to perform. This seemed to have positive results until one afternoon I had to do a bit of practice at the physio’s recommendation just to see if there was any improvement. Certainly the shoulder pain was subsiding, but all of a sudden I found that I could not play the chanter for more than five minutes without both of my thumbs beginning to burn severely. After a few days I realised that the physio’s exercises must have been causing my grief in my thumbs. I stopped going to the phyiso – he thought the pain was simply my muscles being unused to doing the exercises. I said it felt more like carpal tunnel or something.
I was perplexed. My thumbs continued to burn, but my index finger and middle fingers where fine. My wrist was also painful at times as was my forearm and ‘snuffbox’ (the indentation at the base of the thumb on the side of the wrist. Anyone hearing these symptoms might immediately suspect carpal tunnel or other condition located in the hand. A doctor might even suggest surgery.
I began reading widely – there was no way in hell that I was going to give up the pipes. My research led me to a little known condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. In a nutshell, the muscles running down the neck join onto the first and second rib and run through the armpit down the arms and into the hands and fingers. If there is congestion in these muscles a wild variety of symptoms can be manifest in other parts of the body, particularly the arms and hands including the classic symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Congestion in these muscles can be caused by poor posture, forward head position, raised shoulders, and repetitive movements. Sound familiar? Have a look at photos of pipers and how many do you see slouching over their pipes, bag shoulder raised higher than looks comfortable?
I found some resources on the web including a book on something called ‘Trigger Point Therapy’ and also a six-week program in stretching designed to release muscles in the thoracic area – ‘myofascial release’. I had to make a financial outlay of about AU$60 all up for these, but I could also spend the same amount on one visit to a chiropractor.
I began to do the stretching exercises. Whilst I had pain in my arms and hands, the exercises concentrated on the muscles in and around the shoulders and neck. After a week I started to notice a definite improvement. Not only had the tightness running up my neck to just behind my ear begin to disappear, but the burning in my thumbs started to disappear also.
At the advice of another C&F member – Goldy, I also made and appointment with an Osteopath, although not a cranial osteopath that Goldy had recommended. She was very helpful in that she listened to everything I had to say, even the experiences with my new stretching program. She encouraged me to continue. Her therapy consisted of releasing the muscles between my ribs which were restricting my breathing, and the muscles in my armpits which where tight as knotted ropes. All this I’d say a result of a decade or more of piping as well as general poor posture.
I’m happy to report that after only two weeks of myofacial release exercises and a bit of Osteo, I now can play the pipes again without my thumbs beginning to burn. I no longer have shoulder pain or tingling. When my arms or thumbs do begin to feel tight or painful again, I lie down on the floor and perform torso twist stretching which can be felt stretching the muscles right along the length of my arms from the chest, through the armpits down to my fingertips.
I’m happy to say, I’m positive about my prospects for full recovery. If anyone is interested in finding out more on Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, or the resources I used to overcome my problem, you can PM me or send an email to ausdag@iprimus.com.au. Whilst I have had great success with these resources, I do not wish to make any claim that they will be of benefit to others. Nor do I receive any payment or favours for promoting these resources. This is based simply on my desire to see other musicians become aware of their options should they suffer the same types of symptoms that I have been.
Cheers,
DavidG
I’m expecting my first one (first child that is, but we know it’s a girl) this May.