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Post subject: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:29 am
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In about an hour I am leaving to go and get my first cortisone shots in my back but much more importantly,in my hands.When I went to my new pain specialist last week,I told him how fed up and frustrated I was because it's been over 3 years and I'm still no farther ahead in finding exactly what's wrong with my hands,plus they haven't improved but in fact have deteriorated.I asked him about the cortisone shots that he mentioned 5 months ago when I first saw him and he said that it was a definite possibility as a lot of people find them very beneficial.He was thinking mainly about my hip and back but my hands were my foremost thought.I asked if they could benefit my hands and he said ,they could quite conceivably fix them,I told him to go for it.

Although I am hoping that it will give me at least some form of improvement in my digital strength and dexterity,I'm not betting the farm on it and I'm being quite realistic that it could quite possibly be a complete flop like all the biologic meds such as Humera turned out to be,despite being very promising and doing wonders for others. I will be quite disappointed if these shots don't work but I'd be even more upset if I went into it all,expecting it to be a panacea for my chronic pain and limited manual dexterity and mobility and then finding that that too didn't do the job for me either.I guess I'll find out soon enough if I can get back to playing such challenging songs as "Voodoo Child(Slight Return)","Machine Gun" and "The Star Spangled Banner" or if I'll be joining the legions who can't progress beyond doing the intros to "Smoke on the Water" and "Stairway to Heaven".If I could cross my fingers,I'd be doing it now-just in case...lol.

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:31 am
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Good luck mate, hope all goes well. My drummer had a spine operation in February and fortunately all went well and his recovery is also going well, hope it's the same for you :)

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:16 am
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Good luck, man. I hope it goes well.

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:38 am
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Hope all goes well,and God's best to you!

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:52 am
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guitslinger wrote:
I...I asked him about the cortisone shots...and he said ,they could quite conceivably fix them,I told him to go for it...


That might work for you, depending on your condition. Besides having degenerative arthritis, I had a problem with my thumbs that the doctor called "trigger finger" (something to do with tendons, I think). The recommended courses of action were cortisone shots or surgery. I tried the cortisone shots, one in each thumb, and although very painful, after a couple of weeks my thumbs were back to "normal". I also had cortisone shots in my knee after surgery and that helped also, and no pain at all, unlike the thumb shots.

I hope the shots work and that all goes well for you guitslinger.

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:05 am
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My right elbow hurt so bad I couldn't lift a 12 pk of soda. I freaked out a little when I saw the size of the needle, but it didn't hurt very much. Now I have no pain at all. Good luck. :)


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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:25 am
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guitslinger

I do hope the shots turn out to be "Life-Changing" for you. Wishing you the best of luck. :)

Jerry

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:32 pm
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Good luck. I had tendinitis in both of my wrists and got shots in them a couple of times. It would work for a couple of months and then the pain would come back. They could only do the shots a couple of times before they said it would weaken the tendon. So after that I had to have surgery. Wrists feel great now though.


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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:38 pm
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good luck

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 3:38 pm
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Wishing you all the best...can't wait to hear good news!

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 5:56 pm
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Well I had about a dozen injections with most of them in the joints of my fingers and thumb of the left hand and 1 each in the thumb and forefinger of the right hand.The rest of the shots went in the fleshy parts on my hands at the base of each thumb, they are the parts of my hands that hurt most,especially the left hand when doing barre chords and the right hand after much strumming and intense picking.I hope that there is at least some improvement in the function of my hands but just in case there isn't the doc told me to come back next week and if there isn't a marked improvement,he's going to redo the injections with hopes that they will do the trick.I picked at the guitar for about 15 minutes before supper this evening and even after playing Jimi's "Angel" for a few minutes my hands didn't hurt as much as they usually do.

The doc suggested that I have my wife drive me after the injections because inevitably my hands would go numb before I got all the way home,which they did.In the meantime I told my missus that my hands would be numb for 3 or 4 days (which was a big fib) and that she'd have to clean me up after I take a dump-she was not impressed and I haven't told her the difference of it yet.Anyway I'm going to spend a while playing the guitar in a few minute's time just to see how long my tolerance is.

BTW,thanks for all the encouragement guys,it's much appreciated.

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:12 pm
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Glad it went ok Derek, hope it gets better.

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:06 pm
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A dozen shots? Wow. I get a cortizone shot to my knee every couple of years. it lasts that long. Does nothing for my fried right shoulder.
My left hand is numb every morning. It mostly clears up by the time I walk to the kitchen to make coffee. I can turn a bad guitar day into a good guitar day by just staying with it for a while, sometimes an hour, before I warm up. But, I'm looking for treatment, if (when) it gets worse.
What are your symtoms, GS? Do you have the synovial cysts going on? They can be drained. Keef's got 'em, but he's not the most articulate player, either.
Good luck.


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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:43 pm
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Hi Taurus,I hope that once the cortisone gets into my system over the next couple of days that it works as well for my hands as t has for your knee.I have 4 things on the go with my hands.First I have Raynaud's syndrome which is an extreme sensitivity to the slightest drop in temperature.If I turn on the air conditioning in the truck on a very hot summer day,I have to put gloves on.I even have to wear heat producing battery operated gloves in winter because once my hands reach a certain point,they even loose the ability to heat up on their own-they effectively shut down completely so that there is no blood circulation or nerve activity.When I had finished my cold water immersion test for Raynaud's the technician remarked that it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to get a reading because my hands shut down completely in under 15 seconds which she and the attending physician had never seen.Anyway the other issue is carpal tunnel syndrome for which I had surgery back in September but I'm not impressed with the results because I'mam dropping and loosing control of the pick even more than I did before the surgery.The other issue has me really worried because after over 3 years they still don't even have a prognosis,let alone a diagnosis,they do agree though that it's neuro-muscular in nature.

As you can see the trouble with my hands is hardly every musician's dream,especially someone as obsessive about guitar as I am,I have 33 guitars in my guitarsenal at the moment and 14 amps as well as a large number of effects pedals and other accessories as well as an 2 organs,a piano,a synthesizer,and a multi purpose keyboard. AS I keep telling doctors,I would rather loose the use of both legs than to loose the use of just one finger.With this being my 50th year of playing guitar,the thoughts of losing the ability to play is devastating to say the very least.I see a couple of more specialists in the next couple of months,maybe then I'll make some inroads to finding a proper diagnosis.

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Post subject: Re: Today's a big day-Could be Life-Changing.
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 7:07 am
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GS- Interesting. So, inflammation is not the main issue. Questions:

You own and play keyboards. Is it easier to play an instrument that has your fingers stretched out straight?

What string gauge do you use on guitar? Have you tried stepping them down?

How 'bout moving to Arizona, man? Have you ever vacationed in the Tropics? Did your symtoms lessen or stop?


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