The Steel Guitar Forum

i had such bad pain in my forearm, elbow and wrist at one time that i couldn't turn a screw driver or shake hands and thought it would never go away. luckily it did finally, but i'm not sure why.

now my 50ish girlfriend has something like this in her arm (shoulder down to fingers) and has pain lifting her arm certain ways...and no medical insurance. has anyone experienced this and have you stumbled on any relief from herbs, drugs or exercises? i'm worried about her and could use some ideas. thanx!

edited to spell tendonitis correctly...

Hi Chris,
I'm just about willing to bet in your case and your girlfriend's there is a group of TRIGGER POINTS involved. The trigger point is a node that sends (refers) the pain elsewhere. For the hands and lower arms there are some very important muscles in the NECK called the SCALENES, trigger points (from stress) can develop in the scalenes and refer pain to the hands and lower arms. Do some research on TRIGGER POINT THERAPY. I hope it can help.

Chris,

The symptoms you describe are similar to something I have experienced....pain and numbness from my shoulder down through my arm to my left hand.

It was not tendonitis but is due to a pinched brachial plexus nerve. My condition was diagnosed as TOC....thoracic outlet syndrome, at Stanford by an orthopedic hand specialist. The cure is not pretty (and I did not do the surgery) but with extensive physical therapy it has diminished to the point where I can live with it. Contact me directly if you want any more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracic_outlet_syndrome

Best
SS

I have it, and was in a lot of pain throughout much of March and April. The answer is a cortisone injection, which I got 2 weeks ago, and physical therapy. In fact, I have an appointment with my physical therapist later today.

The pain started subsiding the day after I got the shot, and continues to diminish as I get the therapy. It still hurts a little, but it's not bad at this point. I was told to expect it to disappear completely by the beginning of June.

Hi, Chris--

I'm sorry to hear about your girlfriend's pain.

I had shooting pains down my right arm from poor posture. Exercises prescribed by my chiropractor solved my problem.

All the best to you and her,

Andrew

this is all good info...thank you very much.

keep it coming!

My pain is a lot more localized than that of your girlfriend, from left elbow down to almost mid-palm. When it gets bad i wrap my forearm in a real hot towel and take a couple advil for the swelling... then a tight ace bandage later. This has always helped a lot.

I've been very fortunate in that it never lasts for more than 3 days at a time and it's never debilitatingly bad. People have called it tendonitis, although a chiropractor acquaintance claimed it's due to misaligned bones in my hand. He did crack my hand somehow, which helped too. Something else you could try i guess :) Best of luck to you both!

chris ivey wrote:i had such bad pain in my forearm, elbow and wrist at one time that i couldn't turn a screw driver or shake hands and thought it would never go away. luckily it did finally, but i'm not sure why.

now my 50ish girlfriend has something like this in her arm (shoulder down to fingers) and has pain lifting her arm certain ways...and no medical insurance. has anyone experienced this and have you stumbled on any relief from herbs, drugs or exercises? i'm worried about her and could use some ideas. thanx!.

Chris, I am a rehabilitation MD. What you had sounds like lateral epicondylitis (aka tennis elbow), whch is a form of tendonitis.

Thoracic outlet Syndrome is due to a nerve being pinched by a rib or muscle just after it exits from your neck to travel down the inner arm. It usually causes pain and numbness on the inside of your hand and forearm, but is not worsened by using the hand or wrist.

Trigger point pain (myofascitis) is just due to muscle knots in the neck and shoulder. Although it may refer pain down the arm, it is not usually worsened by wrist and hand movement either.

As far as your girlfriend is concerned, more information about her symptoms would be needed to make an intelligent guess.....better yet a physical exam. Arm pain can be due to nerve, bone, tendon ligament cardiac or infectious causes....so at this point, it's tough to make a call.

I had a similar situation ,Dr. told me to put ice on it.Its much like tennis elbow where the tendons get irritated & cause pain,ice will take the swelling down & releive the pain.

For what it's worth...

I suffered from what was diagnosed as a pinched nerve in my shoulder- no numbness, but chronic unrelenting pain that limited my mobility and kept me up nights. The doctor recommended surgery, but I decided to explore some alternative medicines. Nothing worked until I reluctantly tried acupuncture- I was VERY skeptical, but after just 3 treatments, the pain was gone and has never returned! I know it doesn't work for everybody, but it sure made a believer out of me....

more good stuff, thanx. yeah steve, i've always thought acupunture had some possibilities here and there. interesting.

I had suffered from left shoulder joint pain for several years that at times, was excrusiating.

I finally decided to visit the doctor to get a qualified medical opinion.

Funny thing......... The moment I saw the size of that huge needle and the thingie full of cortizone, the pain in my shoulder disappeared completely, never again to return.

They say: "Time will end all pain".

Chris, you might try one of these. I've found them at Walgreen's. I've had tendonitis and it seems like it takes a year or so to ease up.

Ray Montee wrote:I had suffered from left shoulder joint pain for several years that at times, was excrusiating.

I finally decided to visit the doctor to get a qualified medical opinion.

Funny thing......... The moment I saw the size of that huge needle and the thingie full of cortizone, the pain in my shoulder disappeared completely, never again to return.

They say: "Time will end all pain".

I've got every problem mentioned in this thread (The good lord loves me, ok, I shouldn't say that, I'm sure he does) and interestingly I've tried everything in here but surgery. They all work to some extent. For someone who can't see a doctor here's what I would try.

1. Stop doing activities that aggravate the problem
2. Yoga
3. Shell out the money to see a physical therapist once, and then do it all at home on your own.
4. Ice down areas twice a day. This is painful. No moer then ten minutes.
5. Natural anti-inflammatories on top of whatever is the mildest medical one you can find and tolerate (aleve advil etc). I find large amounts of tumeric in a capsule I make myself to work well. Other people have had luck with all sorts of things.


My hands just went numb typing this. Personally I've resigned myslwf to the pain for now and am going after the big picture of health.

Go see a doctor. Don't mess around.

I had a pain that started like tendonitis in my forearm, weeks later moved to my tricep and shoulder...I mentioned it to my doctor who immediately had me go to Crestor every other day,thereby cutting my dose in half! Vertually all my pain went away..so, check if you're taking a statin..JS

I developed tendonitus in my left elbow, years ago. I went through the cortizone shots, which, seemed to work for a while, but, the pain came back so bad, that, I couldn't even hold a cup of coffee with my left hand and I'm a leftie. A friend of mine, who, is a nutritionist told me to take vitamin B6 once a day and vitamin C ( 500 units in the morning- 500 units in the evening ). I was willing to try anything, so, I did it. Lo and behold after a couple of weeks, no pain and my strength came back in my arm and hand. Now, I'm not advocating any medical treatment for anybody else, but, the treatment worked for me. To this day, whenever I feel the pain coming back, I go on the vitamin regiment and it subsides shortly, thereafter.

Hi Chris,

I actually saw my acupuncturist today for what's called "frozen shoulder," or what the Chinese call "50 year old shoulder." I couldn't lift my left arm further than parallel to the ground to the side (for the last 6 months). He totally fixed it by working the muscles of my back, neck and shoulder. Then they stick the needles in, but that's almost for show. They're phenomenal with muscles and ligaments. This isn't the first time I visited him. He fixed a chronic stiff neck where I couldn't look behind me also.

When we play steel, all of our tension is in our shoulders and back and the muscles get fused together over time and cause us pain and restricted movement. Anyway, my guy is in Petaluma. Let me know if you want more info.

Joe

Hi Chris,

As a former college tennis player, current baseball coach, musician and diabetic, I've experienced all the tendonitis. I've had multiple instances of shoulder impingement, mostly from tennis over use injuries. I've also had numerous instances of lateral and medial epicondylitis from tennis, baseball, blacksmith hammering and fiddle playing.

Foe some reason, diabetics are very susceptible to tendonitis. I've also experienced increased susceptibility when I was on anti-histamines.

Everyone has given you good advice. Even in the worst cases, I would put surgery at the bottom of the list. These injuries can happen in the blink of an eye, but take time to heal. My experience is that it takes around a year to fully heal, even with anti-inflammatory drugs and physical therapy.

Avoid the cause of the injury. I had to take several years off from sports to allow healing. One of the worst for me was the left elbow pain caused by over fiddling. It's really hard not to want to play, and I feel for the folks who make a living playing and get tendonitis.

Steroid shots make you feel better immediately, possibly because they contain Lidocane. One shot can be a good start to healing because the tendons areas have little blood flow to bring oral anti-inflammatory drugs into play. Subsequent steroid shots can be harmful because the steroid weakens the tendon. Most doctors won't give you more than three because of this. I've seen many people (especially athletes) get a shot, feel better immediately and go right back to doing what got them injured. Two weeks later, they were a lot worse off because they didn't rest and heal.

I recommend rest, ice and heat combos, stretching and light physical therapy (the rubber bands that Wal-Mart sells for exercise are good) after you began to heal. In the case of shoulder impingement, stretching to the point of pain may be required to regain your range of motion (don't do this until you have been healing for at least three months). I've used powerful topical steroids and saclyciate creams without much success (even considered DMSO as a transport agent). Lord knows that I've tried everything but acupuncture over the years. Time and rest heals the best and costs the least...

Bill

thanks to all. i really appreciate everyone's concern and input. this has given us some directions to pursue.

maybe we should have a steel forum free clinic...

It may not be tendonitis ,if its in the hands or lower arm it likely to be "carpol tunnel syndrome"this happens when the sheath that surrounds every tendon gets inflamed and the tendon cannot run smoothly through this lubricated sheath.... The cause is repetitive actions.
Some people are genetically prone to it, you could have 100 people doing identical work like typing most wouldnt find it a problem but a small number will get it.
The big decision is do you, or can you stop , Im told if one doesn't stop the inflammation will damage the sheath permanently.
The only remedy is rest with anti inflammatory drugs initially , dont do whatever repetitive task is causing the pain.....it will get better but if you are prone to repetitive strain syndrome it will probably return again in the future if you resume the cause.

Alan Miller wrote:It may not be tendonitis ,if its in the hands or lower arm it likely to be "carpol tunnel syndrome"this happens when the sheath that surrounds every tendon gets inflamed and the tendon cannot run smoothly through this lubricated sheath

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but CARPAL Tunnel Syndrome is not a tendon sheath problem. It's a nerve problem. The median nerve which goes to your thumb and 2-3 fingers becomes compressed due to overuse. The main symptoms are pain and NUMBNESS/TINGLING of those finger. Eventually weaknees can occur.

Occasionally rheumatoid arthritis or pregnancy can cause tendon sheath swelling, but it happens chiefly (as you said) by repetitive motion (steel playing) or injury. Genetic predisposition increases the risk of getting it too.

Treatment is w/ rest, anti-inflammatories, wrist spints and possibly surgery. Nerve conduction studies cinch the diagnosis.

Tendon sheath swelling (tenosynovitis) can cause hand and forearm pain, but by a different mechanism.

For more details:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/carp ... drome.html

Tony Yes , apologies, its a while since I had it... you are correct,its nerve damage from inflammation not tendons .
I also know of several people who did repetitive jobs in a factory who have made a claim on the employer for this .....but employers are very reluctant to admit it exists.
The correct info was welcome, you're not being a jerk at all.

we talked to tony at length last night as he is a physiatrist and very generous with his extensive knowledge and trying to help. thanks tony! i can't say enough about how good all you people are!

back in december 2009 i developed the same, pain in my elbows shoulders then it went to my wrist and fingers. intense pain and sweling till i couldnt move my fingers. going to a specialist found i have rheuatoid arthritis he put me on methotrexate. take this every friday and a blood test ever six weeks, i now can work and play my STEEL with no pain......

A good friend of mine back in England had to give up playing the lute and harpsichord because of tendonitis.

A few years back I was sitting next to the classical pianist Julius Drake on board a flight from London to San Francisco, and I mentioned this. He shuddered and said that tendonitis is a pianist's worst nightmare: he didn't even like to think about it.