Share your war stories (if you have them)!

Hi everyone.

I should tell you about this frightening experience I had when my arm completely jammed up while I was playing guitar. My fingers just didn't go where I told them to go and my hand was all rigid... It was really scary. Even more scary was when I saw my fingers wiggling back and forth on their own when I stopped playing! It seemed they had a mind of their own! I couldn't believe it.

What had happened was that I had layed down wrongly which caused nerves in my back to become entangled. At least this is what the physical therapist told me when I went to see her. So I went to her a handful of times where she massaged my back in order to loosen things up which in the end got my fingers listening to me again.

But I've never been quite the same after the experience. haha I mean I'm totally paranoid now about my hands. Yay for being a hypochondriac. But seriously it's the worst feeling when you think you may never play music again. So I'm perhaps a bit more mindful now about things where I used to "just play" all the time, let's say.

Anyway, if anyone can relate or has anything similar to share, I'd be interested in hearing your stories!

Kind regards,
Azure77

Sounds like dystonia... Well maybe not since it went away quickly, but still... Scary.

lol No it's not dystonia. Thank goodness. I think the physical therapist was right when she said it was a pinched nerve somewhere in my neck/shoulder region.

But guess what...recently after having had no trouble for months the symptoms came back! I've got twitching fingers again but now I also have stiffness in my neck and shoulders that is just really annoying. So I'm going back to the physical therapist to see if they have a new/better approach or if a visit to a neurologist may be better. *sighs* I think it will be OK eventually though as this seems to be a common problem. I'm 30 and strangely many people of that age have this problem. Peculiar...

I'll update this thread so that people know how it ends up @ the physical therapist.

Ok, so a bit later than expected I'll update this thread... I went to the doctor, asking if a trip to the neurologist might be good idea. But he did some tests (which envolved him hitting me with an axe-resembling hammer in certain places like my elbow and my shoulder) and said that a neurologist would basically do the same tests. So there really was no point as he already did them and also, he said, the neurologist would arrive at the same conclusion.

Which is......that I have a condition (according to him) called "Essential tremor". This is what is causing the involuntary movements of my fingers. It's benign and non-life threatening. I mean it isn't anything TERRIBLE in the way some other disorders are like ALS or Parkinson's. So I'm happy about that. But I could do without it nevertheless.

Anyway, he said he could put me on beta-blockers if it turns out my thyroid is functioning normally. Which may also be a cause. In which case it might NOT be essential tremor. But the beta-blockers could lessen the symptoms, however they also have side-effects which I would have to have a good feeling about if I'd choose to go that route. We'll see. I'm going to have to get my blood drawn soon in order to exclude the possibility of a malfunctioning thyroid. And then we'll see what will happen next. If anything. I mean I don't know how I feel about the beta-blockers. I'd have to do some more research on them.

He said I could continue playing guitar. This was no problem. But it's terrible as I can't play as care-free like I used to anymore. Now, I have to take it easy all the time it seems. I can't play long legato lines without my fingers fighting me. It also seems I can't explore music on my guitar the way I used to as I can't play as long as I used to play without the trembling starting to happen. And that's one way I used to start songs. By playing for half an hour or so, coming across melodies and chords as I'd improvise. *sighs* I haven't played in a few months. At least it feels like a few months... I'll have to see how it goes when I pick up the guitar again. Maybe I can work around these "tremors". I'll have to see. But they are totally random. There's no telling when or how they are going to occur. But I'll see how it goes.

It might also be a B12 deficiency. Which would be cool as it would mean all I have to do is take a bunch of supplements and POOF everything is OK again. We'll see what the blood examination says.