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  #31  
Old 12-12-2014, 12:55 PM
DDSM2004 DDSM2004 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tdrake View Post
Yeah, after looking at some online anatomy stuff (gotta avoid the actual cut up hand pics, tho! zoinks!) I'm convinced you both are right -- the only odd thing was that the condition failed the normal tests she ran on the hand tendons. It's definitely not trigger finger, but I suspect it's similar.

As its worsened I feel it more in the index finger itself, and up the arm, where she certainly located all kinds of stressed tendons.

It also occurred to me that in the past couple months I've worked on playing/singing without a capo on quite a few songs, and on new songs I've been playing repeatedly. As you all know playing chords in the first/open position vs capoed at the second or fourth fret pretty radically shifts left arm and hand position, not to mention the added strain from fretting. That probably has amped up the technique issues.

We're headed to Hawaii for two weeks on Christmas day (and not taking a guitar as I normally do); if that doesn't cure it, nothing will and I'll look into specialists; even if it's not like it's cancer, though -- it's not like it's going to spread, so while entering the time consuming maze of specialists may indeed offer a faster solution (but only maybe, and in my experience never yet), there's no actual larger threat to trying the simpler solutions first.
Good luck to you - hope it works out. Oh yeah, Mele Kalikimaka!
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  #32  
Old 12-12-2014, 04:46 PM
frankhond frankhond is offline
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Thumb over technique is not a problem in itself, but tension is.

I would rather suspect the sudden change in musical repertoire you mention, with new positions, causing tension in your neck, back, arms etc.

Having played for 30 years you might be used to be able to push through any technical issues, which in this case (probably combined with climbing) created an issue. There are plenty of examples where pros suddenly develop problems, some never recover (look up oliver sacks recent book about music which includes a pianist who got dystonia).

Besides resting I would suggest practicing pretending you are a beginner, real slow and easy, taking care to remove any tensions and bad angles. Maybe you can isolate some specific issue that causes the pain.

I had a similar issue way back which basically prevented me from playing. Finally I figured out it was a wrist angle problem. But only after several years of pausing, resting, doctors, teachers etc. Eventually slowing down and being real attentive cleared a way and now I'm symptom free.

Best of luck!
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