Anyone have any great tips about how to deal with this problem? Trigger finger is when everytime you bend your finger (my thumb and pinky, in this case) it catches and clicks. This is caused by inflamation of the tendons. It’s really painful and has put the brakes on playing the guitar, though I can still play the whistle, thank goodness.
I know you can get a steroid shot or have surgery. What I’m checking out is if there are any other ways or substances to treat this more naturally and wholistically–either with things I can massage in topically or herbs etc. that I can ingest. Anyone have any experience with this stuff?
I have had this problem intermittently, but it has been much better lately and only seems to bother me when I am literally trying too hard, gripping too tightly or my hands are stressed from other activity. For me, practice seems to have alleviated much of it. My hands don’t get as tired, and I’m not as prone to overgripping.
Hope it eases for you soon, as it is a pain indeed!
Oh, and Ibuprophen is our friend! If you know you are going to hurt, take it a half hour before you are going to play (or practice). In my experience, it acts as a mild muscle relaxant, and is particularly effective for minor joint pain.
I’ll second the Ibuprofen recommendation, assuming you don’t have any stomach problems to prevent your using it (ulcers, GERD, etc). You can also try Aleve (gen Naproxyn) which works better for some people, and you don’t have to take as often.
Physical therapy may help-- this may be as simple as warm water baths and passive motion of the joint ( gently move it back and forth to the point of comfortable resistance)
Check a good health food store-- some homeopathic remedies may also help.
Don’t be overly scared about the steroid injections. They can be very effective. Steriods like cortisone and the rest of the family do have serious side effects but those show up in long term use-- one or two shots of a few milligrams will only rarely have any systemic effects. I give these frequently for my podiatry patients when more conservative treatments fail and they’re almost always succesful.
I guess i’ll chime in and say acupuncture can help, though it can be expensive if you’re paying out of pocket. In Austin there are a couple of acupuncture schools that have low-cost student clinics if expense is an issue.
Another thing that can be helpful is liniment, like martial artists use; they all have pretty similar ingredients, but i usually use Dr Shir’s liniment from Spring Wind company.
There are a lot of Chinese herbs that have anti-inflammatory properties, but i usually don’t recommend anything specific for internal use over the internet.
Also, stop playing for a while, e.g. a couple of weeks.
Also, review your position and see if you can modify it
so as to ease the problem. I suspect, from my own case
(now better, thankfully) that problems like these often
flow from bad position.
I went to a orthopaedist hand specialist at Barnes Jewish
hosptital here in St. Louis to check out my
tendinitis–he said the cortisone shot into the tendon
would kill the tenon. This was left index finger.