Hello all,
I am a musician who has been suffering with chronic hand, wrist and forearm pain for almost 2 years. I have been to 3 hand specialists, and none of them can find anything wrong. I've had an MRI, Ultrasound and EMG, all the results were clean. I tried resting for extended periods of time, and tried PT and a steroid shot, those didn't work either. The last doctor I saw said I *probably* have tendonitis, but he even admitted he thought it was weird I haven't healed. When I rested, I splinted and stopped playing my instrument for 8 weeks, I have rested on and off for smaller spans of time since, out of fear of making it worse. I did PT for 3 months with no improvement.
I have noticed that the pain absolutely gets worse when I'm stressed, though. It's primarily typing and playing my instrument that makes it hurt, but doing other things too sometimes triggers the pain, I started working out recently and the weight lifting really makes my wrist ache. I also have occasional muscle spasms in the area, and sometimes when I'm just sitting there doing nothing, it will suddenly throb for no reason.
The pain usually stays in the area of the left hand's pinky muscle, it moves up and down the tendon on that side of the wrist, and into the forearm, and even into the elbow. Back in August, I was going to a chiropractor regularly for a few weeks, and after a couple visits I got new symptoms, some aches in both my thumbs and my left elbow. I thought that was pretty weird, but luckily the thumb pain hasn't really persisted, it was bad for a little while but then just kind of went away, only flaring up randomly now, although recently my pain flareups have been spreading all throughout my left hand, into the thumb area too.
I've read the Mindbody Perscription, and I think a lot of it applies to me, I am a perfectionist and a high stress person, however I'm still having a hard time fully convincing myself it's TMS. The pain all started with some kind of physical thing, I was practicing my instrument one day, and then had a sudden shock of pain in my left pinky that radiated a little up into the arm. I had sharp, acute pain while playing after that, so I stopped and rested for 8 weeks. But when I got back the pinky was still painful to play, but this time it was a dull, nagging ache.
I'm having a hard time convincing myself it's TMS because I've heard tendonitis can also become chronic, but also I feel like I've done everything right for tendonitis, like rest and PT. Thoughts anyone? I really want it to be TMS, I want to go back to playing music and working out without being consumed by anxiety because of the pain, and fearing I could "permanently damage myself".
I am a musician who has been suffering with chronic hand, wrist and forearm pain for almost 2 years. I have been to 3 hand specialists, and none of them can find anything wrong. I've had an MRI, Ultrasound and EMG, all the results were clean. I tried resting for extended periods of time, and tried PT and a steroid shot, those didn't work either. The last doctor I saw said I *probably* have tendonitis, but he even admitted he thought it was weird I haven't healed. When I rested, I splinted and stopped playing my instrument for 8 weeks, I have rested on and off for smaller spans of time since, out of fear of making it worse. I did PT for 3 months with no improvement.
I have noticed that the pain absolutely gets worse when I'm stressed, though. It's primarily typing and playing my instrument that makes it hurt, but doing other things too sometimes triggers the pain, I started working out recently and the weight lifting really makes my wrist ache. I also have occasional muscle spasms in the area, and sometimes when I'm just sitting there doing nothing, it will suddenly throb for no reason.
The pain usually stays in the area of the left hand's pinky muscle, it moves up and down the tendon on that side of the wrist, and into the forearm, and even into the elbow. Back in August, I was going to a chiropractor regularly for a few weeks, and after a couple visits I got new symptoms, some aches in both my thumbs and my left elbow. I thought that was pretty weird, but luckily the thumb pain hasn't really persisted, it was bad for a little while but then just kind of went away, only flaring up randomly now, although recently my pain flareups have been spreading all throughout my left hand, into the thumb area too.
I've read the Mindbody Perscription, and I think a lot of it applies to me, I am a perfectionist and a high stress person, however I'm still having a hard time fully convincing myself it's TMS. The pain all started with some kind of physical thing, I was practicing my instrument one day, and then had a sudden shock of pain in my left pinky that radiated a little up into the arm. I had sharp, acute pain while playing after that, so I stopped and rested for 8 weeks. But when I got back the pinky was still painful to play, but this time it was a dull, nagging ache.
I'm having a hard time convincing myself it's TMS because I've heard tendonitis can also become chronic, but also I feel like I've done everything right for tendonitis, like rest and PT. Thoughts anyone? I really want it to be TMS, I want to go back to playing music and working out without being consumed by anxiety because of the pain, and fearing I could "permanently damage myself".
