Thanks Alan and S.K.,my fingers are still stiff and I have a lot of trouble controling them when playing lead-trying to anyway-I guess that the numbness and tingling is contributing to that.Today I was able to play Spanish Castle Magic straight through but when I came to the more difficult parts of the lead break my fingers just bound up on me.

My doctor is ordering some cold water immersion tests for me to see how my hands are reacting to temperature changes,she is too thinking now that Raynauds Syndrome is the most likely culprit.
BTW:We have a saying that essentially is said in the same spirit as yours,it's: Long may your big jib draw.Meaning may you always have favourable winds at your back.Where we are a seagoing culture going back to the 16th century we adopted many sayings related to sailing.Jib is the boom of the mainsail and draw means to pick up the breeze with the sail. So to all of you guys for your support and encouragement :Long may your big jibs draw!!!!!

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I'm still mind boggled by the length of time it took anyone familiar with your chief complaints to at least move to rule out Raynaud's.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Hi Doc,this kind of thing is not uncommon here when you look at the state of health care here.First of all our doctors are among the lowest paid in the western world.We have an incredibly long time attracting speciallists.Because of our embarassingly low pay scale for doctors we are hardly being inundated with Harvard med school graduates but we get what usually are underachievers from some 3rd world country where the medical schools are probably one or two steps ahead of witch-doctoring.There have been some terribly frightening instances of malpractice and not just incompetence but absolute neglect and stupidity on the part of some doctors.Afew years ago there were thousands of women misdiagosed with breast cancer and many had their breasts needlessly removed .At the same time many breast tissue biopsies were misread as being negative and the patient either developed breast cancer and required a mastectomy or some just died because the right diagnosis was discovered too late.Only one head rolled after that debaucle.

I have all the faith in the world with my own doctor and knowing that I'm a musician ,she didn't $@!&# foot around and got me in to see "specialists" right away.She has been absolutely wonderful in getting things done for me and even was instrumental in getting me my disability pension on first try-something that never happens-and she got me admitted to the Chronic Pain management facility in Hamilton ON.It's the doctors who the U.S.,mainland Canada, etc. wouldn't look at and who come here as a their only option,that make a balls of everything.

BTW: The director of health care for our region came her from Ontario with a somewhat less than glowing past.Ever since she came her our health care system has plummeted in quality and reliability.She has made many ill-thought and disasterous decisions.She hardly is a suitable figurehead for the largest health care system in the province,she can hardly walk because she weighs about 300lbs at least-and that's no exaggeration.I don't like to bring weight into it but how can someone who isn't concerned about her own health and welfare be concerned with the health of others?

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

hi derek , i'm hopeing that it won't be too long till they have your condition sussed out fully and can then procrdr with a treatment that 'll give you most of your feeling back to your hands and i'm well acquainted with nautical sayings , my father was in the royal navy (submariner) and when i was growing up we always had boats for going fishing / ski'ing with , cheers
Alan

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