-
Alanm, I wish I could answer your question. If you've only had one shot, a second might not be a bad idea. If you've had two, it's probably time to go through with the procedure.
What I will say is... I had the surgery about 5 weeks ago now. The cortizone shot, for me, was so much more painful than any part of the surgery. The shot... hurt. A lot. A whole lot. For the surgery, I literally didn't really need the pain pills at all. I did take one as the deadener was wearing off my hand because I was afraid I would need them (but in the end, I really didn't). I was truly (and plesantly) surprised.
The cortizone shot did give me noticable results. I got about 30% better. But 30% was not enough for me to continue playing guitar like I'd like, so I went through with the surgery.
I will say, the jury is still out on how effective this will be for me. Only because my case was so very minor. I'm not a person whose finger sticks when doing rountine things, so, while some people have a very noticable difference the day of their procedure, mine wasn't severe enough. I haven't noticed any change in terms of my guitar playing yet, but I can tell scar tissue is still forming (trying to exercise it out daily) and my hand is, in all probability, still healing.
So, all that being said, I hope in a months time, I'll have good news to report.
But, if it eases your mind about going through with the surgery, it was totally not a big deal at all. I was so afraid of going through with it because so many people talked about how painful the recovery is. That wasn't my experience at all.
Last edited by pink snare; 07-19-2010 at 12:38 PM.
-
-
Thanks for the reply pink snare. I was lucky in that the first shot although it hurt, was not too painful so I will probably go ahead with the second. This time around the condition is not as severe as the first time in that it really only affects my guitar playing. If it was a matter of having one shot every year then it wouldn't worry me however, the experience of everyone here regarding the surgery seems to be very positive and I feel a bit more confident about the prospect after reading this thread.
I'm recovering from some other health issues at the moment but after that I will go back to the doctor and proceed. I'll let everyone know how I get on. BTW pink snare. One question I forgot to ask is how soon you could start playing guitar again after the surgery. Let me know when you get a chance.
-
Had two fingers on the right hand done a few years back. Tried the shots first, no go! Now I'm getting ready to have three fingers on the left hand done. Post-op is this Friday, surgery is next Wednesday.
Cut
-
Tomorrows the day. I check in at 8:30 AM, they cut me at 10, and I'm home by noon...hopefully!
Cut
-
Good luck tomorrow cutnstuf.
-
How did the trigger finger surgery work out for you long term?
-
Hi Tomist. I didn't have the surgery. I had the second shot (even though the first one wasn't a success) and it worked completely and I haven't had any problem since. I guess I was one of the lucky ones considering it isn't always successful. By chance, I had a cortisone shot yesterday for bursitis of the shoulder. It was becoming painful playing the guitar. So far it has improved today but not completely so I am giving the guitar a rest for a few days and we'll see what happens. Good luck with the hand surgery if you decide to go that way. Cheers
-
[QUOTE=alanm;697012 By chance, I had a cortisone shot yesterday for bursitis of the shoulder.
can playing the guitar, cause this bursitis?
i went to physio the chap, told me to exercise gently gave me a piece of thin flat rubber band about 1 meter long, 6cm wide. you stretch it, with your arms any kind of pulling nothing specific just general, behind head, backover, under, outstrething arms but pulling band etc etc etc. did a couple of times. it did relieve pain,
but it is back now, i tend to sit on amp or bed. and play. bad position/posture i guess.
the question is do you think playing causes or makes worse or would it happen by itself.
Unfortunately i wont see physio again, and if only 3 months.
-
[QUOTE=Durban;697026][QUOTE=alanm;697012 By chance, I had a cortisone shot yesterday for bursitis of the shoulder.
can playing the guitar, cause this bursitis?
i went to physio the chap, told me to exercise gently gave me a piece of thin flat rubber band about 1 meter long, 6cm wide. you stretch it, with your arms any kind of pulling nothing specific just general, behind head, backover, under, outstrething arms but pulling band etc etc etc. did a couple of times. it did relieve pain,
but it is back now, i tend to sit on amp or bed. and play. bad position/posture i guess.
the question is do you think playing causes or makes worse or would it happen by itself.
Unfortunately i wont see physio again, and if only 3 months.[/QUOTE]
I've used those rubber bands a lot. In the US they're usually called Therabands and come in a variety of colors indicating different degrees of resistance. This type of exercise is generally called Resistance Exercise. I've had my share of orthopedic issues and have used them to great effect for a wide range of problems; knees, back, shoulders, wrists, hips, etc. I even use small rubber bands for my fingers. It's never been a quick fix for me though and for some problems I've had to use them twice a day for weeks to get complete relief. Thankfully it's always worked and I've continued daily exercise with them for many years. I personally have always used them with specific exercises prescribed by a physical therapist. A musician needs to be careful with exercising their hands so as to not "do a Schumann". The composer/pianist Robert Schumann realized that the ring finger had the least amount of lift of any finger. If you sit and place your hand, palm down, on a table you'll notice that you can't raise this finger as much as the other 3. He made a little device with a string, pulley and weight to try and increase this lack of lift and wound up damaging his hands. This ended his career as a performing pianist and he continued as a composer.
In answer to your question about causing or aggravating a condition; imho there's a million ways to fail. It's much easier than succeeding. Today's my 69th birthday and I'm feeling reflective so let me share a personal story with you.
When I was in my late twenties I used to drink a bit. Not regularly on a problem level, just a stupid kid that would every once in a while get hammered. I suppose that I've got a bit of a delicate constitution so I'd usually wind up vomiting. My next door neighbor in Santa Monica, CA was going to Synanon as part of his recovery from drugs and alcohol. He was a few years older than me and I respected him so I asked him "if a person is a full blown alcoholic do they ever get over this vomiting stuff?" I'll never forget his reply. He said "Man, you can drink and puke your way through life". I thank him to this day for the tough love.
So be careful.
Last edited by mrcee; 09-28-2016 at 10:31 AM.
-
Please explain "trigger Finger" a bit more. I have experienced a problem where my left index finger freezes in the fully straight position at a gig, usually towards the end of a night of intense playing. I can get it to relax after a few minutes, but it sucks! Just wondering if that's what happened to you...
-
It seems that there are a variety of causes for bursitis. Reading the internet, the most common cause is earlier injury (eg playing football etc) or lifting something heavy or incorrectly. They also mention repetitive tasks as a less common cause and since I've recently started playing a jumbo acoustic, I thought this might be the problem. I asked my family doctor and he did not think so but then he is not an expert in shoulders nor is he an expert in injuries sustained from playing musical instruments. If the cortisone shots(s) do not work, I'm going to find an specialist in problems for musicians.
For what it's worth, I tried physiotherapy with the rubber band as well and the first 2 weeks seemed to be an improvement. The 3rd week, where the exercises were increased in intensity caused pain. At this stage, she suggested I see a doctor and organise x-rays and ultrasound before any more physio. My family doctor then suggested the cortisone rather than an extensive and costly series of visits to the physiotherapist. I hope this helps a bit.
-
I'm not a doctor but I've heard conflicting stories about cortisone shots. It seems that some healthcare professionals swear by them and others swear at them. I've heard some say you shouldn't get more than three total. One story that I heard was from a non MD who was some sort of alternative body worker. He told of a client of his who was a serious amateur/semi pro tennis player who suffered from bad tennis elbow. He had had numerous cortisone shots in his elbow because he was addicted to the game and wanted to continue playing. He had gotten to the point where they were no longer working and he was in worse pain. He went to see this guy out of desperation but x rays showed that his elbow joint didn't exist any more and was basically hollow. It would seem that the shots were really just a pain killer and allowed him to continue playing to the detriment of his elbow joint tissue. He just ground it into nothing I guess. It seems that the jury isn't in on cortisone shots. I saw a chiropractor some years ago for back problems. At the end of my appointment I was standing at the front counter waiting to pay and listened in on a conversation among some staff members behind the counter. They spoke of another patient that had gone recently and gotten shots in his lower back. It seems that the slang term in the chiropractic industry for getting these injections is to get "pumped up". One staff member said "did you hear that Joe Blow went and got pumped up?" The others replied, aghast, like a Greek chorus "They pumped him up?" "Yeah, they pumped him up". And it went on like this for a while. Their reaction was like they'd just been told that a friend had invested all of his money with Bernie Madoff. An OMG situation. True, lots of alternative health care providers are unjustifiably prejudiced against MDs. But.........
for my health I'm keeping an open mind and looking at it from all sides. That's just, well, holistic.
I personally had some acute shoulder pain a few years back. It was my left shoulder which is a little strange because I'm right handed and had a desk job at the time. So I wasn't obviously aggravating it. But x rays showed that I had a slightly frayed rotator cuff. The MD prescribed steroids (which could be similar to cortisone) in pill form for a week to calm down the inflammation I suppose and then had me embark on an exercise program, including the rubber bands. It took a few months but eventually it cleared up. I have to admit though that during that few months I had some times where it got temporarily worse and I might even have gotten some pain during the exercises. I would stop immediately if I got pain and lay out for a few days before continuing more gently with less tension on the band and fewer repetitions. It worked for me. I'll still get occasional flare ups but I'll get back on the exercises and it has always helped. Interesting though that I had some fairly serious acute elbow problems some years ago and exercises (with the band) that were prescribed for it did actually make it worse. So i stopped doing them but other exercises for my wrists and forearms seemed to help it as well. So everyone's mileage is going to vary.
-
I had trigger-finger surgery a number of years ago on my right pinky (picking hand).
It has worked out well.
-
Let me try to walk through my experiences with trigger finger. I have had surgeries to correct the condition on three fingers and have two others that are causing some problems. I am not an MD.
First as I understand it trigger finger is caused by a finger (or thumb) tendon developing a knot on it so that it will not move comfortably through the sheath that guides it. I have a picture in my head of a rope sliding repetitively through a knothole in a board. If the rope has a localized swelling on it, it will have difficulty passing through the board knot in both directions.
In the case of your finger, there is sharp pain when your finger bends causing the enlarged portion of the tendon to pass through the sheath. There is an automatic reaction to try to straighten the finger in reaction to the pain This results in a second jolt of pain as the enlarged portion of the tendon passes back through the sheath.
In my case the right thumb was by far the most painful. I would have a shot of pain similar to that I experienced when I broke my collarbone. I was pretty much unaware of my surroundings for 2-3 minutes as I coped with the symptom. Even though I was careful, this would happen 2-3 times a week. I got to the point for months where I would sleep with my hand under me to avoid the possibility the I would bend the finger and wake me up with a shock.
The course of treatment for each of the three fingers to have operations was the same. First a course of steroids over a few days. In one case this caused the problem to abate for a few months. The second was a shot (I think it was cortisone) directly into the knuckle at the base of the finger. This is as bad as it sounds. I don’t recall that this had any lasting effect. After this came surgery to snip open the sheath which cured the symptoms completely after a 3 week recovery. After this there were no bad effects. I had free painless movement with strength returning over a few weeks. I did have some range of motion problems with the right index and left middle fingers that recovered to about 90% after several months. In one case the surgeon sent me to physical therapy for a few weeks. The range of motion was still adequate to play guitar
The only case in which trigger finger affected guitar or violin playing was the left middle finger (I play righty). As it progressed, I told myself that when I got to the point at which it posed real difficulty, I would have the treatment/operation. In the end the procedure caused me to stop playing for about 8 months. The first three months were the course of treatment above. Then there was the inertia of getting back to things that had been automatic and now required relearning. I.e., muscle memory and overall strength throughout the left hand.
There was a question in this chain as to whether a finger stiffening in a straight position is trigger finger. I frequently have that as well. For me it is somewhat uncomfortable but not painful. I have interpreted it as being caused by overwork and/or inadequate hydration, something like cramping. It is nothing like trigger finger insofar as the pain level.
I may have overstayed my welcome here. Since I have extensive experience on the receiving end of trigger, I thought it would be worth sharing.
Mike
Reply With Quote
Part 2 Secrets to McCoy Tyner using 4ths,...
Today, 07:31 PM in Improvisation