Carpel tunnel advice ?

[UstadKhanAli]

Best wishes for it getting better.

[philboking]

A couple ergonomic tips:

 

1) Whenever possible, keep your elbows next to your sides, or at least keep them as low as possible. Especially when typing or mousing for extended periods. The ideal height for a (typing) keyboard is an inch or two from your thighs, when sitting, of course.

 

2) Again, for typing, don't rest your palms on anything. Keep your palms in line with your arms.

 

3) When playing guitar while sitting, put the guitar on the leg on the same side as your fretting hand. For right handers, that's your left leg. Once you get used to it, you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to play. If possible, it's also a good idea to put something a few inches tall under your foot on that same leg.

Here is a YouTube classical guitar performance it you want to see it in action:

 

Sidenote: FWIW, it's spelled carpal. I normally detest grammar/spelling nazis, but it might help if you're searching for info.

 

[davd_indigo]

I saw the hand surgeon on Wed - 2 days ago. I gave them a description of things. The doc had bent my wrist into a certain position and pressed his thumb a certain way. After about a minute there was the tingling in 3rd and 4th (the middle and ring fingers). By the way the doc said he thought I should be able to play 4 hours per day.

 

He told me about the shot. I think they call it cortisteroids. He said it's a temporary remedy, but that it's also diagnostic in that if it does indeed help the carpal tunnel, it helps to rule out a neck problem. But he didn't push the shot on me. And I saw why. It's a very uncomfortable shot with a couple of flashes of the old elbow funny bone feeling. It was like novocaine in the jaw. And I'm wearing a velcro splint to sleep in. On both wrists - the right is the bad one.

 

He told me to do normal activities. So I'm going back to playing for several hours per day. I'm not doing Keith Emerson or Liszt sonatas. I sight read through a handful of Bach 2 part inventions. Play some jazz standards. Some scales (not lately). Some blues and R&R.

 

I go back in 6 weeks and we see. He said if there's a problem then, he can do surgery. I think it's called arthroscopic surgery. I looked at my insurer's website. For this doc's practice, the "average" cost is something like $ 1,485. He said the surgery takes 5 or 10 minutes.

 

Just wanted to update.

 

A little info on wrist arthroscopy:

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00001

[davd_indigo]

Just to sort of resolve this and also as a possible reference for someone googling this issue in the future...

 

I had followup visit to the hand surgeon 2 weeks ago. I told him my symptoms had largely subsided. Only an occasional (what I call) funny bone effect if I curl my (right) hand inward. The hand surgeon said he was very happy to hear it. He said that maybe 80-90 percent of the carpal tunnel cases could be corrected/treated by behavioral changes. He told me that keeping the wrist in a "neutral position" is best when using the hands in an activity. If you hold your forearm out in front of you, holding the forearm and hand in a straight line is a "neutral position" as I understand it.

 

I'm most definitely NOT an authority. My observations below are as a pianist. They are what I feel was my takeaway from this experience.

 

I think a long driving road trip caused my symptoms. But I see this as a sort of blessing in disguise because it made me more aware using a more beneficial piano technique. My youTube research was very helpful in finding a few simple practices. The 1st one which I was already following is curved fingers. Although I was using curved fingers already, hearing that curved fingers form a partial arch, made the reason click. The 2nd practice I took from the advice I watched on youTube was to use arm weight over muscle tension. It doesn't mean that there is no muscle tension, but that using arm weight can reduce the muscle tension used. 3rd thing I took away is using the left-right or right-left rotation of the forearm in playing, lessening the individual finger flexing in playing (let's say for illustration) a scale run.

 

The hand surgeon agreed that I should be able to play an estimated 4 hrs per day (I'm retired from a day drudge) shouldn't be a problem. The key is using good form.

 

I'm including just one youTube video by a Dr. Mortensen, a classical pianist and university professor (I think) regarding proper technique. There are many other videos out there on this subject.