oh my aching hands

I just had a cortisone shot in my fretting hand first finger. It would lock up and be extremely painful, completely limiting my playing. the shot alleviated it, but we’ll see for how long. (I’ve had a LOT of needles stuck in me in my lifetime, and honestly, it was one of the most unpleasent I’ve had the dis-pleasure to receive) good luck to you on your hand issue.
 
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helmi said:
I just had a cortisone shot in my fretting hand first finger. It would lock up and be extremely painful, completely limiting my playing. the shot alleviated it, but we’ll see for how long. (I’ve had a LOT of needles stuck in me in my lifetime, and honestly, it was one of the most unpleasent I’ve had the dis-pleasure to receive) good luck to you on your hand issue.
Click to expand...

Trouble with cortisone shots is that you can only take so many at a time (two weeks?) then you have to stop for a while. If you don't, the human body will stop producing it naturally.
 
helmi said:
I just had a cortisone shot in my fretting hand first finger. It would lock up and be extremely painful, completely limiting my playing. the shot alleviated it, but we’ll see for how long. (I’ve had a LOT of needles stuck in me in my lifetime, and honestly, it was one of the most unpleasent I’ve had the dis-pleasure to receive) good luck to you on your hand issue.
Click to expand...

Trigger finger? Had surgery for that five years ago. Got to the point I couldn't fret chords, and I had to use my other hand to straighten the finger out. Tried the shots - they helped for a while, but that was it. Doc woke me up during surgery to test it - I heard him say something about being done, and my first thought was "That was way too quick - it must not have worked." Then he held my hand up and told me to bend it, and it folded up just perfectly. It's about 95% of what it used to be, but before the last batch of therapy, doc said if I wasn't a guitarist, I wouldn't have missed it. It feels a little short of the strength (ha!) it used to have, and I can't spread my fingers quite a far as I used to.

Bad news for me is last week I woke up one day and was flexing my fingers and felt that familiar pop, right hand ring finger this time. But this time I know what I'm dealing with, so I'm hoping catching early will allow the shots to work for the cure.
 
alantig said:
Trigger finger? Had surgery for that five years ago. Got to the point I couldn't fret chords, and I had to use my other hand to straighten the finger out. Tried the shots - they helped for a while, but that was it. Doc woke me up during surgery to test it - I heard him say something about being done, and my first thought was "That was way too quick - it must not have worked." Then he held my hand up and told me to bend it, and it folded up just perfectly. It's about 95% of what it used to be, but before the last batch of therapy, doc said if I wasn't a guitarist, I wouldn't have missed it. It feels a little short of the strength (ha!) it used to have, and I can't spread my fingers quite a far as I used to.

Bad news for me is last week I woke up one day and was flexing my fingers and felt that familiar pop, right hand ring finger this time. But this time I know what I'm dealing with, so I'm hoping catching early will allow the shots to work for the cure.
Click to expand...

Glad it's pretty much working for you. I have arthritis in my left hand and have had a few cortisone shots over the years. Bad news is that I can't do bar chords any more, but good news is that I am more focused on learning about guide tones, chord subs etc....
 
helmi said:
I’ve had a LOT of needles stuck in me in my lifetime, and honestly, it was one of the most unpleasent I’ve had the dis-pleasure to receive
Click to expand...

Missed this the first time around. When I when to my ortho guy for the initial exam, he said he could give me the shot, but it would be really painful and he recommended I see a hand specialist. Hand doc gave me the shot and it was like nothing. I said the ortho guy told me it would hurt but it didn’t really, and he just said, “ I know what I’m doing.”
 
no arthritis yet for me but i do have trigger finger. had two rounds of shots. the first one, done by a hand surgeon, hurt like hell, and helped for a while but was no cure. so then i retired from typing all day so that i could use my hands for music before i completely lost the ability to play.
got another round of shots a year later from a different surgeon but still no less painful. this round also helped for a while but was still not the ultimate cure.

however, i did find the following behavior modifications to be make life bearable:
* switching to a silicon wedding band so now i dont feel any pressure on the finger
* sleeping with a semi-custom brace keeps the finger straight at night
* avoiding forceful gripping like shovels and snowthrowers, and when carrying something heavy like grocery bags or guitars in cases, dont do it for long distances without taking breaks to uncurl and stretch the finger
 
Boy, I can relate, retired hairstylist since 1977,I also retired from knife making because I wanted to keep the hands from getting totally wrenched. The guitar is my saving grace for the hands, in comparison.………
 
Three days before our wedding, I attempted a head-first slide and came down hard on my knee first. Doc drained it and then hit me with cortisone. Once the local wore off, I was in the most excruciating pain all that night, but next day almost nothing but stiffness. I've heard both results where some have reported that pain, others almost nothing. Wondering is it a person to person thing, or type of injury thing? That night's worth of pain seemed worth it in retrospect, I was able to walk down the aisle and all, but I was also only 24.
 
watelessness said:
no arthritis yet for me but i do have trigger finger. had two rounds of shots. the first one, done by a hand surgeon, hurt like hell, and helped for a while but was no cure. so then i retired from typing all day so that i could use my hands for music before i completely lost the ability to play.
got another round of shots a year later from a different surgeon but still no less painful. this round also helped for a while but was still not the ultimate cure.

however, i did find the following behavior modifications to be make life bearable:
* switching to a silicon wedding band so now i dont feel any pressure on the finger
* sleeping with a semi-custom brace keeps the finger straight at night
* avoiding forceful gripping like shovels and snowthrowers, and when carrying something heavy like grocery bags or guitars in cases, dont do it for long distances without taking breaks to uncurl and stretch the finger
Click to expand...
I had to stop doing weights with my arms because squeezing that metal bar while doing them was RUINING the arthritis in my hand. I've never been a big free weight guy anyway, but am not stuck with elliptical, the exercise bands and calisthenics. I also have to be very careful about carrying heavy things that require me to put a lot of weight on my fingers, like moving heavy furniture.
 
I have something going on in my thumbs... IDK yet if it's osteoarthritis, basal arthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis. I'll need to go to the doc and get some X-rays I guess. I've been fighting (being treated for) chronic Lyme disease and re-activation of the Epstein-Barre Virus... both of which can cause systemic inflammation. NSAIDS mess up my stomach, so I've been doing curcumin and fish oil 2x/day for almost a year now. I think it's helping- it keep the discomfort at a lower level, but it'a never gone. So this is the next health issue I will have to figure out, when I'm done being treated for the lyme/EBV.

OH- and Advil/tylenol don't seem to help much with my thumbs, if at all. They help with OTHER aches and pains, even my plantar fasciitis, but not my thumbs.
 
ruger9-do you take Tylenol 3s? My Doc has me taking it if the arthritis in my left thumb gets really bad.

Doug
 
My hands (knocks on every piece of wood available) are relatively arthritis "free", which is surprising if you look at my mangled fingers. I do have serious arthritis in my knee (which gets replaced this summer) and I find a lot of relief through THC/CBD ointments. These are topical, and effectively not psycho-active (not that there's anything wrong with that!), so appropriate for use any time. Much more effective than the usual OTC stuff, and no side effects like NSAID nausea.
 
FragileThunder said:
My hands (knocks on every piece of wood available) are relatively arthritis "free", which is surprising if you look at my mangled fingers. I do have serious arthritis in my knee (which gets replaced this summer) and I find a lot of relief through THC/CBD ointments. These are topical, and effectively not psycho-active (not that there's anything wrong with that!), so appropriate for use any time. Much more effective than the usual OTC stuff, and no side effects like NSAID nausea.
Click to expand...

I know that everyone's body is different, but thc ointments did absolutely nothing for me. I might as well have used cold water.
 
Hi, I had trigger finger in my left index. I woke up one morning after a long night of playing and it was locked mid way, as in I could not move it. Couldn't play and ended up having to get surgery. I elected to stay awake and just have a local. Always great to hear the Doc say "hmm, never seen this before...." My tendons on the index were wrapped around each other center hand. He didn't find this till he had totally hacked up my hand. 2 years now and I can play fine again but have constant pain. And.... he's playing golf retired in his 50's..... now starting arthritis in my right index.... Getting old isn't a lot of fun.

I feel for you!
 
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