# Ah yes, I have Tendinitis



## wannabguitarist (Sep 14, 2009)

I've been having issues with my picking hand starting in the end of August that I kind of ignored until they got really painful. I thought it was sore from pulling something at the gym until I got it checked out by my doctor. He said he wants to avoid giving me a Cortisone shot because there is a risk of permanent damage and he doesn't want to take that at my age. So gym or guitar for 4 weeks

Any recommendations on how to keep my "chops" up and how to not lose to much weight/muscle mass during this time? I find that whenever I stop working out I start to lose weight.


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## setsuna7 (Sep 14, 2009)

Same here.Change your picking style.If right now you pick from wrist,change to elbow.or vice versa.That's what I did.


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## -K4G- (Sep 14, 2009)

Bodyweight exercises.


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## hufschmid (Sep 14, 2009)

Learn to live with pain 

I would much prefer to have what I have in my hands...

I have arthrisis in my chest and in my back, I cant stand up static for more then 5 mn without suffering like you cant imagine and I must take pain killers everyday and nothing can be done about it...

When I go outside in the hot weather for a walk, after 30mn my fingers start to swell and I feel all strange...

The pain in the chest was so bad that I had to have an injection of cortisone into my sternum...



I'm going to have a new tatoo done soon, thats going to help fight the pain


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## 74n4LL0 (Sep 14, 2009)

instead than chops study a lot of theory


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## JJ Rodriguez (Sep 14, 2009)

wannabguitarist said:


> Any recommendations on how to keep my "chops" up and how to not lose to much weight/muscle mass during this time? I find that whenever I stop working out I start to lose weight.



I'd recommend to lose the chops for the month, and build it back up. You don't want to do anything that might extend your healing period. I'd say just take it easy, study some theory like someone else said, and just let your wrist do it's thing. I'm recovering from a torn ligament in my wrist on my picking hand, and I'm just getting back into shape now. I was out of commission for a few months. I have a lot of problems with endurance now but it's getting a lot better. Taking it easy, and working your way back up is a lot better than doing permanent damage to your hand for the sake of keeping your chops up.


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## troyguitar (Sep 14, 2009)

If it's just your picking hand, work on legato and maybe tapping and/or sweeping if the wrist can handle it.

When my wrists started getting fucked up from playing guitar and video games too much, I quit the video games entirely and just left my guitars alone for awhile. When I picked it back up, I found that my playing was no worse than before.


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## wannabguitarist (Sep 15, 2009)

Theory would be a good idea seeing as I had to stop taking lessons. I was going to ask for some good legato lessons but I just decided to let my friend borrow my guitars for the duration of my recovery so I don't get tempted 



-K4G- said:


> Bodyweight exercises.



Do you know any that are low impact on the wrists? I'm supposed to wear a splint all day and it really reduces the flexibility in my wrist when I wear it.


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## -K4G- (Sep 15, 2009)

Check out Vince Delmonte at youtube. He has tonnes of vid there.
Or : YouTube - cbathletics's Channel

Or you can check out this site : http://www.bodyweightculture.com/ But you need to sign up though.


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## Trespass (Sep 28, 2009)

Put a hair band on the neck, and start tapping out the Bach cello suites with just your left hand. Clean channel, no gain. The tapping sound of stacatto is very appropriate for baroque works, and you'll increase the string skipping capability of your left hand tremendously.


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 3, 2009)

So anyone know how long this usually takes to heal? I really, really need to start hitting the gym again and I miss doing obscene amount of pitch harmonics with the COW7


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## Bobo (Oct 3, 2009)

Two docs have told me I have tendinitis in both hands/wrists. I have not been able to completely immobilize either hand because of work, so I have had these pains on and off for the last 4-5 years. 

I can't work out anymore (but that also has to do with elbow nerve damage). I can't play guitar very long. Hell even playing video games too long or typing can start to hurt. No medication has helped much, but icing seems to help some.

I guess my advice would to be the one thing I haven't been able to try yet : immobilize the hand for a month. I pushed through the pain for years, and I don't know, maybe my damage is permanent now.


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 3, 2009)

Bobo said:


> Two docs have told me I have tendinitis in both hands/wrists. I have not been able to completely immobilize either hand because of work, so I have had these pains on and off for the last 4-5 years.
> 
> I can't work out anymore (but that also has to do with elbow nerve damage). I can't play guitar very long. Hell even playing video games too long or typing can start to hurt. No medication has helped much, but icing seems to help some.
> 
> I guess my advice would to be the one thing I haven't been able to try yet : immobilize the hand for a month. I pushed through the pain for years, and I don't know, maybe my damage is permanent now.



What do you do for work? Writing is uncomfortable for long periods of time typing can be but I'm not sure about working or guitar at the moment because I've been avoiding them.


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## Bobo (Oct 3, 2009)

I was a painter for 2 years. Paint all day, go work out for 1-2 hours, then play guitar/bass at night either practicing or with my old band. 

Now I'm an electrician, so I still work with my hands. 

I left out the part where one doctor that looked at me recomended physical therapy. I just haven't looked into it closely yet.


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## Cheesebuiscut (Oct 4, 2009)




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## All_¥our_Bass (Oct 4, 2009)

You could try circular picking, where you use the thumb and index finger to move the pick with your wrist and arm being mostly stationary unless you need to switch strings.


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 6, 2009)

All_¥our_Bass;1684884 said:


> You could try circular picking, where you use the thumb and index finger to move the pick with your wrist and arm being mostly stationary unless you need to switch strings.



I'll give that a shot, I can fingerpick without much discomfort so that should be fine as well



Cheesebuiscut said:


>



Vicodin doesn't do anything for me. My doctor gave me Indomethacin for an anti-inflammatory and that does some crazy shit if accidentally mixed with weed and alcohol


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## dexmix (Oct 7, 2009)

setsuna7 said:


> Same here.Change your picking style.If right now you pick from wrist,change to elbow.or vice versa.That's what I did.



this worked for me. I have mild carpel tunnel, and had to change my picking style to keep from making the pain worse. I was basically forced to change how i hold my pick.

i pick two different ways now, and vary them depending on what i'm playing. Pain is totally gone, and now my hand/wrist is never stressed, but i cought it early. (p.s. tingling fingertips is bad! and will lead to nerve damage!)


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 7, 2009)

dexmix said:


> this worked for me. I have mild carpel tunnel, and had to change my picking style to keep from making the pain worse. I was basically forced to change how i hold my pick.
> 
> i pick two different ways now, and vary them depending on what i'm playing. Pain is totally gone, and now my hand/wrist is never stressed, but i cought it early. (p.s. tingling fingertips is bad! and will lead to nerve damage!)



I'm glad it's not Carpal Tunnel, no tingling so far.

And you got any pics of that badass Evo MR in your sig? I've got a thing for AWD rally-replica sedans


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## dexmix (Oct 12, 2009)

wannabguitarist said:


> I'm glad it's not Carpal Tunnel, no tingling so far.
> 
> And you got any pics of that badass Evo MR in your sig? I've got a thing for AWD rally-replica sedans


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## hufschmid (Oct 12, 2009)

This is what I have:

For the past 8 years I have been to 2 doctors telling them that I have pain in my back and shest...

They all told me without exeption that it was psychological and stress related....

Well couple monthes ago I went back because I was in such pain and the doctor still told me it was stress related and gave me more pills to calm down...

I because really mad  and told him that I'm 33, I'm not a kid and I know when I have pain going on inside my body and that if he did not send me to have an x-ray done I would fucking beat up his cabinet.... 

So I then was sent for an x-ray, they did not see any structural damage in my back, everything seams to be perfect so I was wondering if I was 

But then I had the idea to show the x-ray to my sister  who is a radiologist and she told me to immediately go and see a rumatologist because she detected something... 

Further on tests, they eventually discovered that I have arthrisis in my shest and in my back which explains the atrocious pains I can go true sometimes...

At one point it was so bad that my face went numb and I started to go on the right when walking, then my shest was in such pain that I had to go have a cortizone injection in my bone... 

Probably without those stupid doctors things could have been taken care of way before


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## dexmix (Oct 12, 2009)

damn! i'm glad you pressed the issue! you should never ignore health issues, when you are sure something is wrong.


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## hufschmid (Oct 12, 2009)

But its also not the bad arthrisis problem, I dont have this bone problem arthrose but arthrisis... (I cant explain in english)

Basically they did not detect any arthrisis problem in the blood tests so my bones are ok...

The reason is mostly my fault for the back issue, I was a chef and did not carry heavy stuff the propper way for years always thinking I was a tough guy etc... 

Now it seams I'm paying the bill.... So to all the young kids in here, when your parents tell you to be carefull and to carry heavy stuff with a correct back position, there is a reason for that 

However they say that I received a punch on my shest and that the bone seams to have no properly healed which is very strange cause I never received any punches and I never fell on my shest 

And its slightly irritated and you wont imagine the pain this is causing, its virtually like you are punched in the shest 24 hours a day, you must learn to live with it.... I can also crack it lol

Glad thing is that if I dont look into cracking it or moving it I dont have any pain going on...


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## synrgy (Oct 12, 2009)

hufschmid said:


> They all told me without exeption that it was psychological and stress related....



This is the new prevailing trend of medicine. If the doctor can't *easily* determine the problem, it 'must be' psychological/anxiety related! 

For the first 2 years of terrible symptoms, my mother's eventually fatal double-whammy of Bechet's disease and Multiple Sclerosis was passed off as 'anxiety'. My ex girlfriend's chronic stage Lyme Disease was passed off as 'anxiety' for 1.5 years.

Whatever you do James, just make sure you don't take any one doctor's words at face value. Get multiple opinions, always. Also, prepare your self to have to fight to get proper treatment, like Patrick is describing here.


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 15, 2009)

synrgy said:


> This is the new prevailing trend of medicine. If the doctor can't *easily* determine the problem, it 'must be' psychological/anxiety related!
> 
> For the first 2 years of terrible symptoms, my mother's eventually fatal double-whammy of Bechet's disease and Multiple Sclerosis was passed off as 'anxiety'. My ex girlfriend's chronic stage Lyme Disease was passed off as 'anxiety' for 1.5 years.
> 
> Whatever you do James, just make sure you don't take any one doctor's words at face value. Get multiple opinions, always. Also, prepare your self to have to fight to get proper treatment, like Patrick is describing here.



I'm gonna start looking into physical therapy next week as the pains haven't fully gone away. I can't permanently immobilize my wrist because I have to take extensive notes for my classes so I don't really know what to do now. I know it sounds vain but it's kinda depressing to see myself in a mirror now compared to how I was back in August



dexmix said:


>



Autocross? Here's my baby (not an Evo, but it's a "rally replica" kinda car):


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 16, 2009)

There's some helpful information on this site if anyone is interested: What is Tendonitis? Tendonitis Treatment and Symptoms of Tendonitis explained


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## wannabguitarist (Oct 24, 2009)

Third post in a row but whatever...

If anyone else is worried about tendinitis or gets wrists pains while playing I highly recommend ice-dipping (and ice bath for you forearm). Works extremely well.

Physical therapist said I can also slowly ease back into the gym and guitar playing now


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