Dealing with pain

[stevejfc]

I'm truly happy that you've found a method of pain relief that works for you. Hopefully you will never have any side effects from the medication you are on. Pain is something that few people who haven't been through it can fully understand. Any method of reducing or eliminating it as long as it safe can not be criticized. Whatever works is great. We are amongst the fortunate who have found relief for their pain. For many people there seems to be no recourse at all using any method. My heart goes out to these unfortunate people. When you're in pain you need to do anything it takes, be it naturally or with medications or a combination of both, in order to preserve your sanity and maintain a healthy quality of living.
Discussions like this often go the way of discussing politics, religion, or low G vs re entrant tuning. I've thrown out a couple of suggestions that I hope some have found useful but I certainly don't think I'm going to change anyone's minds. My only suggestion is that people do their homework and look at the alternatives.

Oh gawd, please not another low G vs re entrant tuning discussion! (ha,ha).

Seriously though, doing your homework and looking at alternatives with an open mind is the best approach.
Like Chuck, I'm hypersensitive to solvents, and prolonged exposure causes severe joint pain and swelling. Fortunately I'm no longer around them that often, but even a slight exposure causes pain and swelling particularly in my hands. My old MD had me on numerous western medicine prescriptions, most of which caused side effects, but did nothing for the joint pain. My wife mentioned my condition to her Homeopathic doctor who suggested that I try 1000mg of high quality cold water cod liver oil per day. Guess what? Works great.......virtually eliminated the pain, even with occassional exposure to solvents. Who would have thought?
So I'm not suggesting everyone run out and get your cod liver oil................but keep an open mind to what may appear to be diffent and/or unusual treatments.
Oh, and don't get me going on diets.........................geez, I really miss an occassional BBQ spare rib!

 

[DPO]

I'm truly happy that you've found a method of pain relief that works for you. Hopefully you will never have any side effects from the medication you are on. Pain is something that few people who haven't been through it can fully understand. Any method of reducing or eliminating it as long as it safe can not be criticized. Whatever works is great. We are amongst the fortunate who have found relief for their pain. For many people there seems to be no recourse at all using any method. My heart goes out to these unfortunate people. When you're in pain you need to do anything it takes, be it naturally or with medications or a combination of both, in order to preserve your sanity and maintain a healthy quality of living.
Discussions like this often go the way of discussing politics, religion, or low G vs re entrant tuning. I've thrown out a couple of suggestions that I hope some have found useful but I certainly don't think I'm going to change anyone's minds. My only suggestion is that people do their homework and look at the alternatives.

We both arrived at the same destination, we simply traveled different paths. Peace.

 

[bonesigh]

Okee dokee Never hurts to talk. That's how I found out that I 'may' have Sjogren's syndrome. Sill waiting for the test to arrive.

Bonesigh - This is straying a bit OT and if you would like to PM me, please feel free; for now I'll keep it brief. The mention of adrenals set off alarms for me - have you had your aldosterone-renin ratio tested? Long story short, I once had trouble losing weight, was in a lot of pain, and was written off by a good half-dozen doctors as either menopausal, fibromyalgia, or stressed-out, none of which turned out to be the case. I had an adrenal tumor, and while I'm fine after having the tumor removed, I did learn that most doctors are absolutely clueless about how to deal with this condition and it's especially hard for women since we're almost *expected* to gain weight and complain of pain in middle age. PM me if you'd like more info.

 

[bonesigh]

Kind of wish I lived on a farm. I'd get my own chicken and turkey and raise some talapia. Yum. If only I had the energy. How does one find the energy to do what needs to to get energy! Lol, like you said, those that don't suffer just have absolutely NO idea. I'm working at it though! Thanks for all your advice

When I got serious I eliminated read meats, most grains, ALL sugars (including lactose and fructose in my diet. From your list that would include meat, cheese, yoghurt, fruit, oatmeal (except for steel cut) deli meats and salami (highly processed foods!!!), corn anything and potatoes. (That's the short list.) Of course that may sound extreme and I only did that for a month but it brought my quality of life back to me (amongst doing other things.) Today I am more moderate in my diet but those things you listed can all be considered trigger foods. The hard thing about this is that it can take a lot of experimenting to find out what works for you. Or you can just take a pill. Not my recommendation but one
that many choose.

 

[stevejfc]

Kind of wish I lived on a farm. I'd get my own chicken and turkey and raise some talapia. Yum. If only I had the energy. How does one find the energy to do what needs to to get energy! Lol, like you said, those that don't suffer just have absolutely NO idea. I'm working at it though! Thanks for all your advice

The chickens and turkey sound great Janet.........I'm just not sure about the tilapia. Anyway, keep working at it..........you never know what might come along

 

[plastuku]

Think about changing the biomechanics of your playing.

When I got my first uke, I didn't know if I'd be able to play one at all, and it was hit or miss for a while with the arthritis in my hands. I had bought a low-priced uke just because I didn't know if I'd be able to use it at all.

I ran up against a chord (I don't recall which one) that I simply could NOT finger. I was trying all kinds of things, and finally tried fretting one of the strings with my thumb. That almost worked, and in trying to get it to work a little better, I wound up with the uke sitting flat across my lap.

Then a light went on. I tried again, and I could play everything.

Every chord is easier that way, because you're pressing down with your whole arm instead of pinching the strings against the neck with your wrist and fingers.

For me, this made the difference between playing and giving up completely. It looks odd, but it works.

 

[Michael N.]

I think we need to be a bit careful, separate out the true medical conditions from conditions that are a result of poor body posture. I'm very much in the latter camp, in fact I've been injured on every single instrument that I've tried - guitar, ukes, recorder, violin and piano.
If you are experiencing pain whilst playing an instrument you are almost certainly doing something wrong. Probably the biggest factor are shoulders and each instrument seems to have a related condition. Guitarists and uke player tend to push their shoulders forward, violinists tend to push their left shoulder up and clamp down with the chin. Wind players tend to crane their neck forward. None of these are really medical problems. They are a problem of incorrect posture. An incorrect approach to playing the instrument. The doctor might be able to treat the symptoms but it's highly unlikely that they are going to instruct you on how to hold and play your instrument. As such it is not a medical or a dietary problem.
These days virtually every music college/conservatoire has an Alexander specialist attached to them. They are there for good reason. They know that a certain percentage of their students (on whatever instrument) is going to experience pain and tension/posture issues. Once you lose the efficiency of the body it is highly likely that your playing will go rapidly down hill. At best you will plateau. Even if you aren't a believer in Alexander technique (and I'm not sure that I am) they are experts at body posture. Of course some instrument teachers will also be able to spot potential problems within a few minutes.
As for physical exercise/yoga. It's unlikely that by themselves they will solve the problem. They certainly don't do any harm and I truly believe that they are a very useful tool in helping to correct posture. Mostly you need a bit more than physical exercise though, you need to retrain the mind as well.

 

[willisoften]

I don't know enough about dietary causes of inflamation to comment other that to say its seems difficult to sort fact from pseudo-science. Due to poor lifestyle I was recently diagnosed with diabetes 2 so I have pretty much cut refined sugars from my diet, not entirely; the medical guideline is less than 10g per hundred in a given item of food. However, I no longer add sugars to cereal and I avoid biscuits with coffee or tea, jams on toast and scones and so on. I still take a treat at the weekend ( marmalade on toast for Sunday breakfast). My sinuses have improved, less inflamation equals easier breathing and I've lost a bit of weight so my Concert sits at a better angle when I play mind you my sopranos have lost the shelf they used to sit on.....

 

[UkieOkie]

I have terrible structural back problems. My posture while playing certainly matters, but I can't really stay in any one position too long. The best thing for my back has been losing weight by eating clean foods and learning to stretch.

 

[jddennis]

In terms of playing, I've been lucky to avoid a lot of pain in my hands and arms. My formal music training was in classical guitar pedagogy, so I came to the ukulele knowing a lot about how to properly apply ergonomic technique.

I do avoid playing if I have a lot of pain. Let me give you an example. I've been doing lap swimming and water walking for general exercise, and last week I overdid something. I had a lot of soreness and inflammation in my right shoulder. It actually hurt all weekend. So I set aside the ukulele until it felt better. Actually, I didn't pick it up until yesterday.

One thing that affects my playing is my feet. Last summer, I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, due to overly high arches. I wear shoe inserts every day, but avoid standing up to play for long periods to avoid causing issues with that.

Let me say this: If you're having a lot of pain in your wrists or your forearms, please see a doctor. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome will do more to end your ability to play than anything else.

 

[arpie]

Without having read the whole thread - I hope I am not repeating someone else's suggestion!

I have arthritis in the base of my thumb & find it difficult if not impossible to do barred chords - so I don't use them very often.

One of my group has rather severe RSI on her left wrist, making it impossible for her to form chords without extreme pain - she is seeing specialists about it but it is taking time to 'come good'.

In the mean time, I've suggested she try putting the uke on her lap or on a table & have a go at doing TAB instead so she doesn't have to do 'chords' as such ..... as it makes it easier to understand how to play TAB if the printed TAB is on the table in front of the uke (which is also on the table.)

Some people also play & strum regular chords this way!

 

[Croaky Keith]

There's a thread going at the moment about playing lap uke style, maybe worth looking at.
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?124900-Lap-Uke

 

[plunker]

Hey, see if there is a massage school in town. Offer yourself as training material. I don't mean to offend anyone. But I would think it would be hard to mess up a message. There are great ones and OK ones. Never got a bad one.

 

[Rllink]

This is just an anecdotal story about my experience with pain, but I do think that it illustrates something. A year and a half ago I was running a lot and I started getting pain in my heel. So I did more stretching exercises and took some ibuprofen and that didn't help. But then my friend diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis, because he had that one time and knew everything about it, so I started doing different exercises that he suggested and bought some arch supports for my shoes, just like he told me to get. The good ones, you know. But things got worse, I quit runningl, but I could still walk. So I tried to make up for the lack of running by walking everywhere. In the mean time, three other friends diagnosed me with plantar faciitis and gave me sage medical advise and I tried it all, but the pain got worse. To the end of this story. After a year of my friends treating my foot pain. I went to my doctor for a physical. My doctor diagnosed me with a bruised heel. Everything that I had been doing was aggravating the bruise. The arch supports were changing the angle of my foot, causing me to put even more weight on it and causing even more bruising, as were the exercises that my friends were advising me to do. At my "doctor's" suggestion, I bought shoes with lots of cushion and absolutely no arch support. Put rugs on my ceramic tile floors where I stood most of the time. Changed things around so that I spent more time on the carpeted floor. Walked on the grass instead of the sidewalk. Made every effort not to spend hours on end standing on hard surfaces. Guess what, my doctor knows more than my friends. I'm back running.

 

[puja joshi]

Cramps and muscle aches are recognized to be a common issue in the present days. even the kids suffer from this type of issues at present. The body massagers are considered to be the best option to procure relief from such conditions.

In case you are suffering from chronic pain, which becomes unbearable for you, these are definitely the best options for you.

Benefits of massagers :
1. Relaxing
2. Promotion of muscle relaxation
3. Lowering the blood pressure
4. Improvement in the posture

 

[Jerryc41]

Jake said he started using a strap because he was having shoulder pain.

 

[Dansimpson]

Cannabid Oil, vaped. It sure helps the arthritis pain in my knees, and if I dont use it for a couple of days they hurt like hell.
Thing is, what works for one person may not work for you, so I guess its a matter of trying things until you do find a suitable method/pain killer.
I was told that the worst thing for my knees was inactivity, but was caught in the loop of if I walked around they hurt, if I didnt they were fine, but appaently I was making it worse by not using them, so tried usual chemist shop stuff without success, then my daughter bought me some vape juice with this cannabis oil extract in it, bingo !!

 

[clear]

What other ideas do people have?

Rest. Give your body time to recover. IMHO, rest is needed no matter what other suppplemental recovery techniques you decide to use.

After resting, figure out why you got the pain in the first place and eliminate that. If you can't play without pain and it's not your technique or posture, then maybe it's time to give up the uke and pick up something else (there are so many different ways to express yourself musically these days; even if you can just talk and sing, that's music too).

I read a lot on this board where people push themselves to play some chords and then post about it being painful. That's just silly to me. If it's painful, it's not enjoyable (ok, maybe I'm wrong, there are sadists who like that stuff... but anyway, they are an unusual bunch). Enjoy the uke; and don't go around seeking painful way to do things.

 

[Voran]

If a PT gives you exercises, please do them. I had RSI in my early 20s and it came back until I picked up a small dumbbell and actually did my rehab.

Granted I am a mostly healthy 31 year old. Might not work for people with more serious conditions.

Also, stand up and walk around while playing if you can. My lower back appreciates it anyways.

 

[Down Up Dick]

Yeah, I usta walk around while playing my instruments. All except for my tuba. Anyway, now, when I’ve tried it, I can’t play as long because I get tired and stuff starts ta hurt. Exercise and old age ain’t really a good mix — ahhh, well . . .