On 2003-01-27 07:45, fluter_d wrote:
Hi!
I'm getting scared reading some of these posts... I play flute mostly, and have gotten what I think is tendonitis in my left wrist quite a few times in the last year. I think it's more likely to be triggered by computer keyboard over-use than by playing, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice to deal with it - stretches or that kind of thing, rather than medication. I have to play a lot over the next few days, and it showed up over the weekend... My wrist movement is quite limited (will bend only to abou 45degrees max backward, and not quite to 90 forward), and thumb movement causes the muscles around my wrist to hurt - it's definitely wrist though, not thumb. Please help!
Deirdre
Btw, whistle playing isn't a problem... that hand shape doesn't hurt.
Rest, warmth, NSAIDs...that's all I can think of. If you can, take a break from keyboarding...if not, see if you can get a wrist brace from your doctor, which will at least help keep the tendon from further damage. Get out the Ibuprofen bottle and start using it asap.
Redwolf
Make sure you're seeing a doctor who really understands what they're talking about when it comes to RSI and tendonitis problems.
I've got awful tendonitis problems, for which I wore wrist braces for a while. It turns out that the braces are designed for carpal-side injuries; for my problem (ulnar side), the braces were actually making the problem *worse*, because part of the way that they relieve strain is by transferring it to different parts of your wrist.
Tendonitis and/or RSI is not something to be taken lightly. If it hurts, don't ignore it, don't assume it will go away - figure out what you're doing to put stress on yourself in damaging ways, and try to change it. You'll save yourself a lot of misery in the long run.
On 2003-01-27 11:04, Aodhan wrote:
An NSAID is a Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug. It's pretty much a generic term for pain relievers such as Tylenol, Motrin, Aspirin, et. al. They relieve pain and inflammation (swelling), and are not based on a steroid. (Most steroidal based are prescription only)
Aodhan
Thanks Aodhan. I was under the impression that a drug needed to be a bit more heavy duty than asprin to count. We'd just call that an analgesic.
Tyelenol is an analgesic and febrifuge (pain and fever reliever), but not an NSAID. Aspirin, Ibuprofen and Naproxen Sodium are NSAIDS as well as analgesics and febrifuges, because they relieve pain, fever AND inflammation.
Actually, tylenol can relieve inflammation, just not well. Taking the maximum dosage consistently over several days will have an anti-inflammatory effect. But the degree of effect is significantly less, and significantly slower than the NSAIDs.
(I've got severe ulnar nerve RSI in my wrists, *and* I have very severe stomach troubles that required surgery plus ongoing large doses of drugs to manage. I can't take any kind of NSAID, at all, ever. My internist told me about the tylenol. She said it's never prescribed as an anti-inflammatory, because it's a lousy one in comparison to the NSAIDs - but if you can't take the NSAIDs, it will work, and even in the very high doses where it will help inflammation, the potential side effects are quite benign in comparison to steroids.)
i only play burkes:high D,low G and low D ez.i can play the big burke low D but it's a drain on my energy, so are any keys one half note up or down these first 3 whistles. the other keys i can't play at all, i don't feel like one withe them. is the pain in your there on any key you play?
Hi t,
I've had some pretty bad aches from typing all day and whistling at night. I posted a message and the best suggestion was as follows:
Relax. The poster (Tony) then went on to explain that the way to relax is to not try to play too fast.
What works for me is to concentrate on playing at about 75% or 80% of what I could achieve by playing in a mad hurry.
Not only will it relax your hands (and thumbs) but it will make the music sound better.
I'd also suggest that you play shorter whistels more and long ones (low D) less.
All of the above applies especially if you are an impatient go-getter type.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: E = Fb on 2003-01-27 19:06 ]</font>
I've taught woodwinds for about 30 years and I've noticed that many adults have a problem that rarely occurs with younger students: they practice too much and too long before they are fully conditioned to do so. Also, adults seem to have a lot more stress/tension in their hand positions than children. I don't know how long you've played whistle , but 1-2 hours daily seems to be quite a bit of stress to put on your hands if you're a fairly new player. I would advise practicing shorter amounts of time, but making it quality practice time. From what I've seen (both with myself and others) marathon practice sessions can lead to real injuries, injuries which are becoming more and more common to the music community. I think that your hands are probably telling you something.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: GFox on 2003-01-27 19:25 ]</font>
My hands have been pain free for about 7 months now - since I made a commitment to myself not to do any work that involved a lot of time at the keyboard or mouse.
When I was writing my senior thesis in college my hands and wrists hurt tremendously and hurt even more when I tried to play the flute. I was afraid I would have to give up fluting. Fortunately, after I graduated from college and stopped typing very much I was easily able to pull off three months straight of music in Ireland - fluting day and night. The only times that pain has come back seriously were when I had a temp job that involved a lot of data entry (I quit that one fast when the pain flared up) and when I was really stressed out about something.
Even if you don't grip the flute tightly - tension in your arms, shoulders, mind or anywhere else within you can cause pain in your hands. The more mentally and physically relazed I've become while playing the flute, the less often it hurts to play.
My advice though, is that if you are experiencing pain playing you really ought to stop playing completely for a couple of weeks, and steer clear of computer keyboard and mouse during that time.
Best,
Chris
I'm not too new of a player -- I've been playing for maybe 8 months now. I'm only playing high Ds (an attempt to control WhOA -- I'm not adding keys for a long time!). I play a Hoover and a Burke almost exclusively. I do have a thumbrest from another whistle that I could pad up and try on one of these (even the smallest thumbrest is too large for these small whistles).
It's not all that unusual for me to play an hour at a time, though a couple of hours is less usual. I might avoid the 2-hour stints until I figure this out. I don't want to have to stop altogether though! That would be plainful in another way!
I just thought of something else...one thing I've found helps when my tendonitis is flaring up is to change whistles. I've noticed that I use a slightly different hand position for each, because they all differ slightly in weight, diameter, size and spacing of holes, etc. Sometimes something as simple as switching from a wider or heavier whistle to a smaller or lighter one will allow me to continue to practice while the flare up calms down. For example, if I've been playing my Elfsong C a lot, I might switch to the O Briain "improved" D, which is extremely light and narrow by comparison.
It also helps to keep practice sessions short when things are getting sore. Instead of playing for an hour straight, I might play for 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there, giving my hands a chance to rest between sessions.
