Would you mind checking out your right thumb nail?

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:38 am

Dude!

I have that divot too!

And (gasp!) I also see the beginnings of one on the thumb of my left hand!

M

But guess what? I'm gonna blame my Oak whistle, been playing it a lot lately after listening to Peter's golden oldies site a bit.....

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:32 am

Bless you both Peter and Mary! So it may well be the flute playing and how we three are holding the flute. I'm willing to bet that my left thumb isn't getting one since it doesn't support much needing to be free for the Bb key.

Eric

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:08 pm

Got a bunion/callus/something on my left thumb pad just above the joint where it contacts the flute. It'd be a pain in the ass if it weren't already in the thumb.

Cathy Wilde · Post by **Cathy Wilde** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:04 am

Ditto on the cracks; no ridges however.

But you ought to see the bony bumps on my first thumb joints that have evolved over 35 years of this nonsense (RH much worse than left). My right thumb almost looks crooked!

daiv · Post by **daiv** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:17 am

i dont play simple system (yet) but i do have thumb problems. it took me a couple years to figure out why. a knuckle in my right thumb cracks and several times a year it hurts for days on end. its always tighter, and doesnt have the same mobility as my left thumb. i adjusted my finger position, so it hasnt acted up in a long time, but the damage is done.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:05 pm

you folks need to use way more moisturizer. and you have to put the moisturizer on while you still nice and wet from a bath/shower. you all do bathe/shower, don't you?

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:38 pm

I have had both ridges and pits in my thumbnails before--from psoriasis, though, not from flute playing.

In fact, I have always thought that flute playing and typing are the reasons my hands took little permanent damage from the arthritis until they finally got it to quieten down into remission using low doses of a chemo drug called methotrexate.

Just as an aside, the way I hold my flutes, the flute actually presses against the end of the thumb more than the pad. But it doesn't seem to matter one way or the other as far as nail ridges are concerned.

--James

Danner · Post by **Danner** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:55 pm

My right thumbnail is wider than my left. (I measured.) I dunno what that's from, but that still probably doesn't help much.

Danner · Post by **Danner** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:55 pm

No, it isn't twice as wide, sorry for the double post.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:59 pm

Danner - is it twice as wide?

Eric

dfernandez77 · Post by **dfernandez77** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:55 pm

Lambchop wrote:... the tip of that thumb gets painful little cracks on the left side where it pushes into the flute.

If you turn around does it switch to the right side?

ImNotIrish · Post by **ImNotIrish** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:29 pm

Sometimes I'm all thumbs. Now there's a playing challenge!

OnTheMoor · Post by **OnTheMoor** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 3:41 pm

Actually yes I have noticed that fairly recently too, and interestingly enough, it is on my left hand and I play left-handed. Maybe you're onto something.