Finger Joint Pain?

[nedray]

Do you stretch before you play? Stretching fingers, hands,forearms and even shoulders and back can make a big difference. That stuff is all connected and a tight neck muscle can affect the whole arm. You don't have to get elaborate with it--just 5-10 minutes of common stretches could help.

[mercy]

I dont have any additional advice but consolation as I have just started having that pain in the first joint of the index when playing certain things. Im just playing less and less hard. Im hoping it will go away but... Ill be continuing to watch this thread.

[Narsil]

What a timely topic. I, too, am currently struggling with some pain near the first joint of the index finger. Not sure it's arthritis, thinking it's more of a soft tissue thing.

Willie, does your pain ever spread to any other parts of your finger, or is it always just focused within the joint itself ?

What have you tried that did seem to lessen it ? ( Or make it worse ?)

NSAIDS aren't helping me, heat sometimes helps, resting it and reducing my playing time seems to be best so far.

How long has it been happening? Is it worse in the morning when you first awaken ? (My finger feels almost "stiff" in a semi-bent shape when I wake up. )

A dangerous hobby, these guitars ! Hope you get some relief soon.

[Von Beerhofen]

I've had something simmilar when I was still young. My top joint in my righthand ringfinger got inflamed. It didn't really worry me and I didn't link it to practising guitar. At some point it got so bad that I had a series of injections to investigate the cause (Mantoux they called it I believe).

Nothing was found but a little later I went on a holliday week with the boyscouts. I didn't play during that week since I had no guitar with me and lo and behold, it went away all by itself.

Give it some rest and it'll likely be fine again, if not see a doctor. BTW I'm lightly arthritic too and whenever I feel discomfort I take a break, I'm 63 now and haven't had serious issues. In fact my arthritic symptoms seem subdued because of playing guitar, or maybe it's the changed weather patterns. I still play between 4 and 6 hours a day.

Ludwig

[Coastman]

catdaddy & sjino offer excellent advice. In the end, you have to get this evaluated by a competent doctor (vs. an incompetent doc, of which there are many!).

I developed arthritis and trigger finger issues in my index and middle fingers on my right hand a few years ago. Excruciating pain in the finger joint on the palm of my hand. My orthopedic surgeon did 3 injections over 18 months in each joint. Each injection took the pain away anywhere from a couple months to a year. When the pain came back after the 3rd injection, she would not do another one. She indicated that too many steroid shots can destroy the tissue irreparably. At that point surgery was the only remedy. It's a simple surgery (in my case) and has allowed me to keep playing. Recovery from each "cut" was a couple weeks (using a pick) to close to a month before I was nimble enough to play finger style.

Unfortunately, it has now progressed into the joints on my left (fretting) hand, in particular my index finger joint. Like you I could not hold down a simple "cowboy" chord, let alone a Barre chord. I've had two steroid injections in that joint over the past year. I can have one more before she will have to do the surgery on that finger. Arghhhh! It is frustrating! And I'm "only" a very young 61!

When this flared up the last time I had a heavy load to play at church the coming weekend. I could not get to the doc for a shot before. My neighbor is a retired RN, with his own arthritis issues. He recommended the following regimen to get me through that weekend:

1. Lots of moist heat on the effected joint(s) before playing. His suggestion which worked great: Moisten a paper towel. Place it in a zip lock (left open) and microwave it for about 8 - 10 seconds. Be careful it isn't too hot when you pull it out. Let it cool a bit if necessary. Place that on the effected joint. Re-moisten and re-heat as needed.

2. NSAIDs (tylenol, ibuprofen, etc) several hours before playing, and as needed. As Catdaddy indicated, talk with a doc before you start on a long term regimen of any NSAID.

3. Immediately after playing, ice down the joint(s). (Wrap a small towel around the ice pack before placing it on your skin).

While this did not remove all the pain, it helped enough to get me through that weekend.

The physicians assistant to my orthopedic doc was very blunt in telling me that playing the guitar was only inflaming the situation. She suggested I stop playing. Ummmm.....no, that's not an option! I'll just buck up, get the injections or surgeries and play as long as I can.

As the saying goes "getting old ain't for wimps, but it sure beats the alternative!"

Good luck to you!

[buddyhu]

Lots of good advice.

This is what I have done to address such things: stretching, eliminate dairy products for 3 weeks or more, acupuncture. All seem to help...but since arthritis (if it is the first glimpses of arthritis) waxes and wanes on its own, anything can be superstitiously attributed to "help". So try whatever appeals to you, but try to be objective in assessing change (making daily ratings rather than relying on memory, and being careful to also make notes if you stop "treatments".

Reducing playing time will often help, as most joint pains are either the result of or are exacerbated by overuse.

To simply reduce discomfort: heat, Ibuprofen, etc.

You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the great suggestions -- maybe if I do all of them at once I'll fix it by this weekend!

[Horus]

In my personal experience, Glucosamine and similar products (Osteo-biflex, etc) work great.

[punkybub]

I get sporadic pain in my hands only rarely these days, but a couple of things I did when it hit helped.

I noticed my hands would swell a bit and the joints got noticeably stiffer after eating food that had a lot of salt in it. I don't know the physiology of it but time after time salty food led to stiff fingers, and since backing off salt they're better.

The other thing that has helped substantially are those Chinese hand exercise balls - you can find them online or in some gift stores, etc. They come in pairs at different sizes and weights (I have a variety of them) and you roll them around in your hand. Some have tines inside that make a chimey noise but I prefer the solid balls - heavier and non-annoying when exercising while watching the tube.

At times my hands would feel like they're on the way out - stiff, limited range of motion, painful - very scary for me. These exercise balls, when used for an hour or so a day, really loosened up the fingers and reduced the pain quite a bit.

Good luck with your fingers!

I love acoustic guitars !

[MikeB1]

HI Willie,

You could also try switching off a bit to a nylon string guitar as they have less tension.

I did this earlier this year when I had some stiffness and it has helped me.

Best of luck to you!

[darylcrisp]

i didn't read all responses as i'm at work and busy, but if i'm duplicating, sorry.

research your diet-diet can work wonders in reducing a lot of these chronic things we experience in life.

research a local acupuncturist. i work in "modern medicine" but have a chiropractor and highly adept acupuncturist on speed dial when in need. i have osteo at the left thumb base and put up with it for some time before i met my acupuncturist-he resolved the pain and movement limitation within a treatment or two-i will always have the osteo issue at that thumb base, but the treatments remove pain, soreness, and movement limitations for months at a time.

check into your setup-get as low and easy action as possible. i haven't been in standard tuning for years-keep it dropped a half step or into a further dropped tuning.

neck profile shapes can make or break me-some don't both my left thumb, some immediately let me know its not right.

best of luck to you
d

[sjino]

Originally Posted by MikeB1

HI Willie,

You could also try switching off a bit to a nylon string guitar as they have less tension.

I did this earlier this year when I had some stiffness and it has helped me.

Best of luck to you!

Great advice. When I was having pain I strung one guitar with Martin Silk and Phosphor strings. Definitely much easier to play, and I was surprised that they actually sounded pretty good. (Not at all like Silk and Steel strings, which come with a heavy penalty in the tone and volume department.)

Originally Posted by MikeB1

HI Willie,

You could also try switching off a bit to a nylon string guitar as they have less tension.

I did this earlier this year when I had some stiffness and it has helped me.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks so much, Mike. It's odd - the amount of pressure I put down on the string really doesn't matter -- it's more a function of how severely I have to bend that knuckle.

I'm hoping that the CEO-7 I ordered, with its wider nut, will help. Or at least that's the story I told my wife!

[jpd]

Originally Posted by Willie Voltaire

It's odd -- it's more a function of how severely I have to bend that knuckle.
I'm hoping that the CEO-7 I ordered, with its wider nut, will help.

IMO....It won't be the nut width....it'll be the neck shape. My gnarly and deformed digits have some pain playing my CEO-7, but when I switch to my "C" necks (with 1.75 nut) the pain diminishes. When I go to the 1 11/16 it returns
(a good glass or two of vino seems to help....always!)

[Glennwillow]

Hi Willie,

I'm sorry to hear that you are beginning to experience some arthritis discomfort.

I have been experiencing osteoarthritis issues in my playing and fretting finger joints since my early 40s, so that is about 27 years back in time. Almost all my finger joints today look pretty bad -- not as bad as Keith Richards' finger joints, but pretty bad.

The good news is that I have been able to keep on playing, but I have to be careful. It seems that a particular joint flares up, hurts a lot, then seems to stop hurting quite so much. So some of dealing with osteoarthritis requires patience, a light touch on the guitar, using light gauge strings if you can (that's what I do), and adjusting how you play to back off on some stuff that inflicts more trauma onto your joints.

I do sometimes resort to taking ibuprofen and I sometimes use a topical cream that I got a prescription from my doctor for called Voltaran. Soaking my hands in hot water before playing can and sometimes helps. And sometimes I just have to stop and wait for another day.

I keep my string action as low as I can get away with, I play with a fairly light touch, and it helps to have been playing for almost 52 years so that I know how to get what I want from the guitar with the least possible force and effort. People who have heard me play tell me that they cannot tell that I am having any arthritis trouble, so with experience, I have learned to deal with my limitations. I keep wondering when I won't be able to play anymore, but I keep on playing. And for that I am very grateful!

Hopefully, that will be the case for you, too, Willie.

- Glenn