Chiropractor blames steel and dobro for "drop foot"

[Tab Tabscott]

Hope I have the right forum category for this...

Anybody else out there who has suffered from "drop foot"? It's a condition related to the sciatic nerve in which you can't raise the toes and front of your foot.
Well I've developed this ailment in my right foot. Makes me hobble around like I'm lame (And I KNOW I'm lame in a bunch of different ways!)but it also makes it nearly impossible to back off on my volume pedal. Loud and LOUDER is all I can do. Hard to drive, too...(Faster and FASTER!).

So I went to the chirpractor today after a month of this mess, and he said it was the worst case of "drop foot" he's ever seen. I explained to him about the mechanics of playing steel, and he thinks that this is probably the reason.

In another thread about Ergonomics I posted a while back, I decided to raise my seat height a couple inches to make it more comfortable to play. It might have something to do with exacerbating an existing problem.

So when he was doing the spinal exam he asked "What is it you do where you stand with your right shoulder raised and your left shoulder dropped?".
Picture playing the dobro standing up...The chiropractor says that "If you keep doing that, eventually you will not be able to turn your head".

I had the pleasure of hanging out a fair bit with Josh Graves from Flatt and Scruggs shortly before he died. I recall that his neck was very stiff and he would square his shoulders to you if he was talking to you. He could barely turn his head on his neck.

So has anybody else had any experiences like this? 40 years into it and I'm no way gonna quit playing these instruments...

Tab Tabscott

[Tab Tabscott]

Here's a link to more info: http://www.ehow.com/about_5035983_drop- ... source=ask

This is unsettling information...I'm thankful it's not my left foot!

I hope none of you ever get this!
Tab

[Ken Metcalf]

I have a problem with my R foot from an accident and it wont bend upward enough.
So I keep the vol. ped. out side the steel and more forward.
I doubt that PSG caused the drop foot but can aggravate.

[Ken Pippus]

pm sent

[Billy Tonnesen]

If you are a really active Pedal Steel Player and play a lot of casuals, over the years you probably are going to end up with a Bad Back.


Trust Me !

[David Mason]

My left shoulder is an inch lower than my right, and it was a big contributor to my need for a cervical fusion of three vertebrae. There are usually several causes - some people's disks are just longer-lasting than others - but slinging the Precision bass around for 30+ years (at that point) was the main one. If you don't start playing Dobro sitting down - now - it's likely that the nerves in your left arm will get pinched off by the strap and it'll go numb every time you wear a strap. And if you keep it up, they'll stay that way.

So has anybody else had any experiences like this? 40 years into it and I'm no way gonna quit playing these instruments...

If you want to keep playing music, you have to take this dead serious. They don't tell you this stuff in your teens, you have to get crippled (and deaf) to find out about it.

[Mike Schwartzman]

Yes Tab...I had drop foot after a car wreck in the late 1990's. It came from damage to the bottom 2 discs in the lower spine. I noticed it when walking. One foot would take a normal step and the other foot would kind of flop down on the floor because I lost control of the front portion of that foot. An operation helped the "drop foot" a little, but I still have to watch out on the volume pedal.

What helps me is to make sure that I have my entire foot (not just the front) on the pedal, and use my heel to help control backing off the volume pedal should my toes not be working too well on any given day. Like you, I also sit a little higher than normal, but I have to remind myself to sit as straight up as possible.

[Steve Ahola]

I had the pleasure of hanging out a fair bit with Josh Graves from Flatt and Scruggs shortly before he died. I recall that his neck was very stiff and he would square his shoulders to you if he was talking to you. He could barely turn his head on his neck.

Well, he was playing a square neck dobro- right?

Not that health issues are a laughing matter. I just can't pass up a good straight line.

My apologies to all.

Steve Ahola

[Dickie Whitley]

In reading that article, a reference was made to an "underlying medical problem", not to any repetative motion activities. And it could simply be something like a herniated disc (like I have), or some other nerve damage. My herniated disc on occasion has numbed my leg and at its worst has made it nearly impossible to find a comfortable position in which to sleep. I often attribute these things to the ever present aging process, but always good to get them checked out. One question to ponder though, what might your chiropractor had said had you not told him of your musical endevors?

[Mike Perlowin]

If you have a problem using the volume pedal, Telonics has a solution. A remote sensor that clips on to some other part of your body or clothing, like a baseball cap, that activates the pedal with some other kind of motion, like moving your head.

This devise is being given away for free to any Telonics volume pedal user who needs it.

[Glenn Uhler]

Tab,
A few years ago, my back was causing a different leg problem. Instead of my foot dropping, my knee would unlock. That caused me to almost collapse in a heap quite a few times. I knew I had sciatic nerve problems, but when my knee unlocked, I had to get help.

Fortunately, my chiropractor was much more helpful. He worked on my back to get everything back in line, then he told me to exercise my back muscles. I went to a gym and started strengthening my core muscles. Soon, I could do crumches and back extension exercises with no problem. No more back pain and bulging disc on the left side of my back. No surgery, just exercise. Try it!

[Larry Behm]

Tab I always thought you were the pain in my neck, guess I was wrong, it was "steel player neck" all along.

I have a "catch" in my neck and I think now steeling could be the cause, thanks Tab for bringing this to light.

I too will not stop playing (age 65), with maybe a week or so to live I think I will just suffer through.

Larry Behm

[b0b]

I have been having trouble with my left foot, but not my right. I don't pump my volume pedal much, and I even take my foot off of it for blues and bluegrass tunes. It's easy to imagine how repetitive stress from constantly working the volume pedal could cause this condition, especially in combination with the knee lever movements.

My problem with the left foot occurs when I do a lot of E9th-style playing that includes the LKV. I have LKV set to raise E to F#. I use it instead of the standard C pedal which is to say it gets a lot of use in country music. Recently my left leg seized up on me towards the end of a 3-hour gig. It was scary! The stress on my foot and ankle locked the muscles into a painful position and I couldn't use the pedals at all. I was okay and back to normal about 5 minutes after the end of the set. I blame the non-ergonomic nature of my LKV for this, and I'm considering several different mechanical solutions.

[Mike Perlowin]

Bobby, have you considered putting the E-F# change on a second LKL instead of a vertical?

[b0b]

Bobby, have you considered putting the E-F# change on a second LKL instead of a vertical?

Yes, that's one of the options.

[Dave Grothusen]

Twenty years ago when I was playing 3-4 nights a week I had to see a chiropractor weekly because of back pain. That was from moving my equipment. Several years ago my sciatic flared up from too much clutching of a semi truck and it took months to get over that. It would cause me to drag a leg. Thank God I do not have the drop foot thing and I feel for anyone that does. Stuff happens when you get old.

[Tony Glassman]

You need to see a neurologist and find out what the true cause of your "dropfoot" is.

Ankle and foot weakness can happen due to entrapment of the peroneal nerve at the ankle or in the foot (analagous to carpal tunnel syndrome in the hands), but it could also be due to a lumbar spinal problem at the L4-S1 discs.

You probably need nerve conduction tests with electromyography ,& an MRI of the lumbar spine as to discern between the two. If you're getting to the point where you have foot weakness, you need to not mess around w/ chiropractors. See a neurologist. You may need surgery.

[Dickie Whitley]

I agree with Tony. You need to find the root cause of the symptoms you're having. They found my problems to be associated with a herniated disc. Thankfully, they were able to help me without surgery at this time. It will let me know on occasion it is still there. Right now I'm fine, but I already have a course laid out if it gets worse.

Again, would strongly urge you to take Tony's advice.

[Ken Pippus]

Thanks Tony. You 'da man.

KP

[Tony Glassman]

I just wanna be clear.......I'm not saying all chiropractic is quackery. It has it's place in treating minor musculo-skeletal (not nerve) problems.

In this case a nerve is in jeopardy, and that is not MINOR. So, I don't think that this is a problem that should (or can) be treated by a chiropractor.

[Cal Sharp]

My right hind leg sometimes gets numb if I'm up there for much over an hour, so I get up and stroll around behind my steel guitar to alleviate it, and I don't care what a bandleader or artist has to say about it.

[Glenn Uhler]

b0b,
After a 3 hour gig, you had a lactic acid buildup in your leg muscles. You needed to get the circulation going again in that leg, so the lactic acid could be washed away by your blood. A glass of cool water, a small glass of orange juice, and a stroll around backstage would probably have helped.

[Hans Holzherr]

I have suffered from 'drop foot' on two or three occasions, one of which was obviously caused by a sudden marked increase in steel playing time necessary to sit in with a band whose songs I wasn't familiar with. Luckily, the foot returned to normal after some time after the gig. In your case I would try to play without the volume pedal for a couple of weeks to see if it gets better, but don't take this as a medical advice.

[Pete Conklin]

Tab,

I put a 1 inch block under the heel of the VP and found it way more comfortable for my right foot position.

[Richard Sinkler]

Mike Perlowin wrote:
Bobby, have you considered putting the E-F# change on a second LKL instead of a vertical?

Yes, that's one of the options.

Or put the "C" pedal back on.

Tony said a bunch of good stuff. I have serious damage to my L4 & L5 disks (been to many doctors on this one). They will bulge and swell and press against my sciatic nerves. I am also having middle back problems where my back will seize up (most pain I have ever experienced) and sometimes knock me to the floor. If I touch the muscle where the pain is located, it doesn't increase or decrease the amount of pain, so I'm thinking it is not a muscle problem and possibly a pinched nerve problem. I had a similar problem in my left arm, and it turned out to be a pinched nerve in my neck caused by a herniated disc. Had to have surgery as the disc was pushing against my spinal chord and could have damaged it so I would be paralyzed. A drummer I play with keeps telling me about a stretch he does for his back every morning when he wakes up and tells me this will cure my problems. Well, I don't have muscle problems, I have disc and nerve problems. All the stretching does is aggravate the problem.

For God's sake, if you have insurance or can afford to get it looked at, get your butt to a Neurologist and get it checked. My Neurologist told me when I got my arm/neck checked out, that a Chiropractor could have made the condition worse (I wanted to postpone surgery and try one).

Unfortunately, these appointments and tests are very expensive. I don't have insurance (or a job) right now, so getting my back checked is going to have to wait.