it's been about 3-4 months of severe wrist pain and limitation from fretting and typing

by Craig
(Earth)

I can't even type this comfortably...

play guitar - 25 years
drums - 10 years
computer graphics/writing - 10 years. Lots of ctrl 't' 'c' 'v' etc. til I bought a mouse that is better... dummy!
piano - 2-3 years
tennis - on and off since I was a kid (38 now)
hockey - early childhood til grade 12

Both hands are in trouble but fret board hand is worse.

tennis elbow both arms. fingers and wrist on fret board hand. feels tight and my wrist cracks a lot when going through full range of motion. mid fore-arm burn when really aggravated.

Was tested for carpal tunnel: negative

Can't do difficult chords anymore...can play for about 2-3 mins ...then too much pain.

Horrified!

Sounds like I am doomed. Doing stretches (hands against wall--palm down and up, resistance, light weights), taking ibuprofren, better diet, daily green vegetable drink, lots of water/protein...

Any advice is appreciated...thinking of surgery, next.



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Craig.

Welcome to the bad end of the Pain Causing Dynamic.

Which means you're trapped in a progressive dynamic of increasing Process of Inflammation, increasing tightness, and increasing pain, that all feed on each other to increase inflammation, tightness, and pain.

That's what Guitar Tendonitis is.

Pretty simple really, even though it feels like you're 'doomed'. Think about it like this: You ARE doomed if you don't do anything to effectively reverse the the dynamic.

Your muscles and connective tissue are SO TIGHT that they can't perform their jobs anymore. Which means you can't move, can't move fast, hurt, etc.

Don't worry, it's only permanent if you don't do anything effective for it.

I highly recommend my Reversing Guitar Tendonitis ebook for a variety of reasons that all revolve around FIXING the problem.

Surgery will cut into your flesh and injure you. Were exactly would they do surgery on you, anyway? What exactly would they cut, and how would that help? I'm really curious about that.

Thinks hurt and you're afraid. That's fine, that's natural. But mostly you're afraid because you don't know how to make things better and/or lower pain levels at will.

It will take some time and effort and diligence because you've waited this long to start fixing it, but whether your current pain is excruciating or mild, the fix is the same.

If you don't want to get the ebook, at least learn How To Reduce Inflammation.


More questions, more answers.




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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com