Not so serious I suppose but hellish uncomfortable

Ray

So when last I was playing guitar which was about a week and a bit ago, I was finding my left forearm was getting pain along the top. And also seemed really stiff and tight like inside the elbow joint top and bottom a bit as well. Anyway, I've been on a bit of trip to the seaside and didnt take a guitar with becasue I was staying in a tent and I thought maybe the guitar lying around in the tent wouldnt be so good hey. But that's another story hey becasue I swear the wind blew so some nights I thought I'd never see you okes again and I was like right on the sea I could spit in it so close.

So I've discovered some things. My arm is still hellish painful when I play and I think I must go see a doctor or someone unless someone here can tell me more about what this could be and what I can do about it. I like the whole tent and camping thing but am going to have to get something a little more substantial than the light duty tent I used this time.

guidothepimmp

lol, how old are you?

tenis elbow?

Renesongs

Yes sounds like tennis elbow to me - I had it for about 3 months last year from lifting my amp onto a a stage last year. You best see the Doc/Homoeopath/Guru and get some an anti inflammatory and pain killers otherwise it will stay sore for a very long time. Flubberduck did I say last year twice, senility is setting in ☹

Bob-Dubery

You play lots of golf no? In that case suspect golfer's elbow rather than tennis elbow - similar but not the same injuries. In either case a good physio will be able to treat and also give you streteches etc to alleviate the problem.

And don't you work in IT? Get an ergonomic keyboard. They DO make a difference. Check out your work area carefully for posture, ergonomic issues - again a physio should be able to offer guidance.

If you work on a laptop machine then get an external keyboard - preferably ergonomic as above. That cramped keyboard and the angle it forces your wrists and shoulders into is not a good thing.

I use the original Microsoft Natural keyboard at home. You can't get those anymore. This is over 12 years old now and has never given any trouble (used every day).

At work I have the Microsoft Natural 4000 which is the contemporary version of the original Natural.

A couple of years ago I was having trouble with my right elbow. I got one of these and it made a big difference. Your wrists are in a far less stressed position, and that, in turn, takes stress away from forearms, elbows and shoulders.

Are you right or left handed? The mouse is also a killer of wrists and elbows. In addition to getting the 4000 keyboard I also switched the mouse to my left hand.

Bob-Dubery

PS: If you go for an M$oft keyboard, don't fart around with the sort of vaguely gently curved things. Go the whole hog and buy the 4000. It is also raised at the FRONT, which sounds a bit odd but in practice makes a difference to the wrests. Also has a good quality padded wrist rest so you can really relax those suckers and think nice zen thoughts about the gentle washing of the waves outside of your tent.

inflames

Sounds like you got the dreaded tennis elbow ?

Mickysoft make great keyboards, but expensive.
Also look at the Logitech range, in my opinion they are better than M$.

Just my 2c worth ?

giggsy

May seem like a strange question, but do you get shooting pains in that elbow when you sneeze? :'(

The reason I ask is that I would get excruciating shots of pain in my right elbow whenever I sneezed - I also noticed it when I played a lot of guitar or carried heavy objects. I did a web search and funilly enough, found out that it was quite a common ocurence. After browsing through a 40-odd page forum thread, I basically found out that the pain in my elbow was caused by a pinched nerve in my neck/spine which was the result of a fall during an indoor football game. The stiff neck I had for a month or so has gone, as has the painful sneezing? So, after all of that... have you had a neck injury or suffered whiplash recently?

Skywalker

Interesting topic this :-\

I think the whole "the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone..." thing might be applicable here.

I've been interested in reflexology for a good few years and it's quite interesting to see how if you have pains in certain parts of your body that they are connected/related to other parts. It may not be caused by the obvious (i.e. playing tons of guitar or ?) but in fact to someting else (i.e. a previous injury) as Giggsy has mentioned or like Bob says, maybe it's the damn keyboard buggering up your hands.

At the end of the day though, I reckon if it's really painfull then you should get it checked out by a doc or specialist. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't able to play guitar for a good few months because I didn't have "the pain in my elbow' checked out.

I'm sure it sucked big time for Dave Mustaine when he couldn't jam because he stuffed up his hand.

Get it checked out Ray ?

Ray

so there is a lot of sense to what Bob says about the keyboard but not proactical for me. I went and bought the keyboard which is a bit different to his but still curved like and it helps. But I work at client sites and it not so lekker you wonder in with your laptop on your back and your keyboard under your arm ne. But I do anyway. But you know what else I tried? Instead of playing my reso in normal position, I put it on my lap like a square neck and used a shiny piece of thin squarre tubing. So it made a different sound, not better not worse just different. but my left elbow was sweet. And I thought then maybe I should just go and buy one of those koevoet things that they play the lapsteels with and play like this.Only thing it it's like riding a girl's bike to school hey. You're not going to do it when people are watching hey.

Bob-Dubery

Ray wroteAnd I thought then maybe I should just go and buy one of those koevoet things that they play the lapsteels with and play like this.Only thing it it's like riding a girl's bike to school hey. You're not going to do it when people are watching hey.

LOL

But hey, it's good enough for David Lindley, Jerry Douglas and Bob Brozman, and even my mate Richard Bruyns who plays lap steel with Them Particle in roff porsies like Troyeville and TJs. I haven't heard recently that Richard has died or had limbs ripped off or anything.

Bob-Dubery

Ray, it's your time, your dime and your arm, but maybe you want to consult with a physio.

I was listening to an interview on SAFM yesterday, some flautist whose name I didn't catch (Kellerman?). He was talking about hand injuries that flautists get, apparently these can be severe enough to hamper or even end careers. He said that any occupation where you hold parts of your body in one position all the time is not healthy and the counter is to move the effected parts in other directions. He does yoga. Anyhoo.... IT is like that really, you confine parts of your body to specific positions for long periods of time - and in your case a notebook keyboard, just look at the position those things force your wrists into.

A good physio would help not just in terms of direct treatment, but also by giving you a program of stretches that will move the effected muscles in different directions and also help to keep the nerves mobilised. I've got a program of stretches that I'm supposed to do. I space it out quite often and then I start to pay for my slackness. Get them going again and relief starts to come.