Hospitals and doctors - I'm totally fed up with 'em. At my rheumatology review this morning, I pointed out that I have not been able to play my violin since the very beginning of January (kind of important for a violin teacher!) and was told that because of this problem, I would be seen again in 3 months instead of 6 months.





If this is going to be long-term, perhaps I should give up teaching?


^*!%?~@^&!!!!!! (Interpret it however you like!)

I know it doesn't help you, but 3 months is superb, and 6 months isn't bad - the last appointment I had was for 18 months time

Have you been in touch with BAPAM? If not, I suggest you do. If you earn an income from music (i.e. teaching) they will see you - all their people specialise in performing arts medicine. It's a charity, so it's free and they have clinics in different places around the country. I'm afraid my experience of the NHS is that the vast majority of the people you see are completely unable to understand the thing about it impacting upon your work. If you want more info, feel free to PM me.

What?? That's outrageous. Are you still with this person?

Shocking day, knew it from the moment I woke up. So, in this order...

- Nearly dropped a bottle of waste toner, and consequently covered myself and my lungs in a cloud of black toner. Lucky my uniform is black.
- Spent 2 hours figuring out how to configure a new graphics card for a computer, and then realised there was a massiev shortcut I could have taken but didn't realise it
- Missed a call at my desk so a colleague had to give up his lunch break to accompany a printer engineer
- Forgot that I was on backup duty, so was late to produce the report and put in the new tapes.
- Didn't get any of the stuff done that I was supposed to do.

Doesn't sound like a terribly bad day, compared to some of the other stories on here...but I really could have done without this today

Currently sat up with terrible neck /shoulder pain

Writing a very long reply, clicking 'add reply' and getting 'Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage' meaning all my words have been lost. Annoyance, and this often happens on this lousy connection here!

Finding out someone you thought was a friend/more than a friend.... just doesn't care... Hurrah for music!!

Well I'm up after getting about 3 hours sleep and my neck is still hurting badly, will be finding out shortly if I up to doing about 70-80 miles in the car (non PAS!) as meant to be going into uni and helping my mum out and teaching at a pupils house.

Hope you're in less pain now, P*P

I was woken this morning by the message that a very close elderly relative has had a stroke. It'll be 5 weeks before I can realistically go home and I'm currently feeling very unsettled and quite useless in the whole situation.

So sorry to hear this Floss. Sending big hugs and thoughts to you and your family.

I think we musst share a connection! Out here in the back of beyond the connection gets dropped several times a day. And it's always the responses that have been most carefully thought out that get lost!



In an manner of speaking, owing to a regretable need to keep a roof over the head of my dependents for the foreseeable future. Luckily we have just about enough rooms not to have to bump into eachother too often!

and to Pixie too

Thank you all

Ended up going to doctors and being put on strong painkillers, not sure it's working or not TBH! The worse thing is it hurts the most when I stop moving so sleeping just feels out of the question *fingers crossed* I'll get at least a bit of sleep tonight!

On the plus side ... sold two claris today!

If it's muscular type thing, have you tried one of those 'wheat pillows'. You pop them in a microwave toheat them and then drape them over the affected area and they warm everyhting up which helps blood flow etc. Might need alternating with an ice gel pack (or pack of frozen peas..) depending on the problem.

Oooo no I haven't, thank you for the tip! Too late to go out now but if it's no better tomorrow I'll go and see what the local chemist has got

Doctor reckoned on it being a pinched nerve or a muscular problem. I used to have a lot of issues with my neck that sorted itself out with a new bed and a weird pillow!

Wife wants to add more Sky Sports channels. Another inevitable step on the road to destruction and televisual domination of my peaceful abode. Don't know about scream, it makes me want to drink absinthe and parrafin.

Thanks everyone.... currently wishing I lived closer to home so I could at least give her a hug and for once not just be the absent eldest grandchild.

(Sorry if this is 'over sharing'... I use this thread a lot less than some people and just needed somewhere where I'm not particularly well known any more to vent a bit.)

Osteopath or sports physio might be another answer. I had a minor impingement a couple of years ago and the physio recommended the wheat pillow.

i give up with the college i'm at sometimes.

i really don't think they care about our individual instrumental lessons so they timetable things which then confuse me and the other people who have lessons with my teacher.

i've just been trying to sort out lessons for tomorrow, and i've now found out i'm going to be waiting for 2 and a half hours for my lesson instead of 1 and a half hours.

I too have an occasioal twinge in my neck , just to the left side of centre. Voltarol Gel helps if it gets bad, but most of the time I put up with it.
My right thumb is rather painful this morning between joint and base, and also looks swollen. I have no idea whit I have done to it !

I second this with the wheat bags, they really help my OH.

I totally forgot I had invited my Dad round for lunch today.

I had taken hubby to work in the city and stayed on to do some shopping

Dad sat outside my house waiting for an hour before going home hungry and needing the loo. (He does have a key but didn't have it with him).

I have apologised about 15 times and he has said wearily that it's okay, but I feel awful

Pain has just got worse Still in neck area but has also started in left side of chest really hurts to move and when I breathe in sharply, been going on for 4 and a half hours now so I presume it's nothing serious after this long! This is just getting ridiculous now

Don't ignore this, Pixie. Get to a doctor first thing tomorrow (or today I should say). It may be a pinched nerve as you said in an earlier post, but as the pain is now travelling, you need to get it checked out again.

And do get one of those wheatie bags. Good for all sorts of stuff - I have used for stiff neck, pulled muscles, period cramps, sciatica, bad headaches... As Tenor Viol says, alternating with a cold pack is particularly good for reducing inflammation but don't go more than 20 mins of either hot or cold because it can start to be counter-productive.

Aagh. Got apuncture last night, have to tyre seeking shortly !

Ok should post this in the misreading thread but I read this as acupuncture and really didn't understand the side effects. Maybe the migraine I developed last night is still with me.

Yes I missed the space in 'a puncture' ! Anyway got to Kwik Fit in Otley for 8.30 opening time, they had the right size, and was back here in the office by 9.15.
It has an MOT next Monday, 4 yrs old and 102,000 on the clock. I'll have to say goodbye to it on retirement at end of month.

I found this today:

Amateur Musicians for the Berlin Music-Lovers Orchestra

I will be close to Berlin and it would be one and a half hour drive to there, but it will be too much to work on, because I will have to play on friday night, sunday afternoon and sunday night. It would be more than a dream.

So did I



Wow - good opportunity if you could make it.

Bleurgh.

Just had two 12-hour working days back to back [that's 12 hours actually at work, ignoring travelling time], and then this morning at music centre, Son No.2 dropped his clarinet and bent the lower keywork - and he has an exam on Tuesday, so no time to take it to the repairer. After about an hour's fiddling and borrowing another (not bent) clarinet by way of back-up and to see what the keywork ought to look like, I think we have managed to fix it, but I could have done without the stress. Especially as he had his last run-through with his accompanist this afternoon.

I've lost something very small and important. It was on the work table, and now it isn't..or on the floor, or in my clothes or under the settee...even checked the bin. It has to be here. I have just exhausted all the places I can think of...

I hope you find it. When I mislay very small but important things they are usually in my dressing-gown pocket.

LOL nope - tried my apron and jeans pockets....and the turn-ups in my jumper!

EDIT: Haven't found it, but did find out that I can buy a replacement for a few pennies...phew!!

I wish I could - I've lost my wedding and engagement rings!

They were taken off my hand in A&E when I broke my wrist, and my husband took them away and gave them back to me at home. Knowing I ought to put them somewhere safe, I nevertheless had them on the worktop next to my computer. Eventually I decided this was both silly and risky and I know I put them somewhere very carefully.

So safe that even I can't find it. I thought I knew, but it obviously wn't there. Tried several other places I know I would have considered safe. I'm sure I put them either in a container or in a little bag.

They'll show up eventually. At least we're fairly certain they're in the house. His is in the North Sea somewhere, since he came back from swimming off Norfolk and found he wasn't wearing it

I hope you have better luck than I did with my daughter's watch in similar circumstances. She took off her watch when she broke her wrist so they could put a plaster on it. We were on holiday in a completely different country and I safely carried out round with me for a month and then put it somewhere safe when we got to my mother's house. When we came to leave my mother's house to come home two weeks later, I couldn't find it I ended up buying her a new watch when she finally had the plaster off.

I feel like something that's just been expelled from beneath a bird's tail feather. Just got back from church, and in todays service one of my favourite hymns was sung...The Lord's My Shepherd. The organist couldn't have been more than 30 or so and she played the version in Mission Praise, which isn't exactly difficult to play. I get home, and attempt to play the same psalm from my Easy Play Hymns (even easier than M.P) that I spent ten quid on last week. Could I play it?? Could I rhubarb and raw sewage.

I don't think I'll ever be a decent pianist, I practise and all I get is anxious. It makes me want to use expletives, which is bad manners.

Linda.ff and Roseau, hope the wrists are both progressing satisfactorily!

I did the same thing with a family member's passport. I found it in all the mess after the earthquake, and had it in my handbag for quite a while. Then I thought I really ought to put it somewhere safe once the house was more or less tidied up...and you know the rest of the story!

Keep at it - guaranteed it'll pay off at some point. Sightreading isn't easy. Every little bit of practise you do gets stored up, the effect of it doesn't always show up immediately.

[quote name='all ears' date='Feb 26 2012, 02:21 PM' post='1131398']
Linda.ff and Roseau, hope the wrists are both progressing satisfactorily!
[quote]
I did the same thing with a family member's passport. I found it in all the mess after the earthquake, and had it in my handbag for quite a while. Then I thought I really ought to put it somewhere safe once the house was more or less tidied up...and you know the rest of the story!
[/quote]
I just found my rings! They were in a small plastic bag with spare buttons and in the drawer I had thought they were in in the first place (OK, who was it that just put them back? Own up!)

And I can't get my wedding ring back on. It does go pst the last knuckle, but although the finger doesn't look very swollen, it wouldn't go down any further and for a couple of awful minutes I thought it was stuck my finger would go blue. Luckily hot water got it off again. It's on my little finger now.

I'll see if it's possible to gt it stretched somehow. I was married before, with quite a cheap ring, and when I was first pregnant I swelled up so much that I had to have it cut off. It wasn't so much stretched as just added to, but it must have been a different metal because on a very hot summer day I suddenly noticed it had split. I wore a broken wedding ring for about 15 years

Thanks corenfa. I have the towel in my hand and I'm that close to throwing it in again for the second time.

I know it's frustrating at times - it seems as though you are practising and practising and there is nothing to show for it. I didn't have this on piano as I learnt when I was little (but did get shouted at a lot), but I definitely remember this when learning horn.

[quote name='Lee King' date='Feb 26 2012, 02:37 PM' post='1131402']
I don't think I'll ever be a decent pianist, I practise and all I get is anxious. It makes me want to use expletives, which is bad manners.
[/quote]

Keep at it - guaranteed it'll pay off at some point. Sightreading isn't easy. Every little bit of practise you do gets stored up, the effect of it doesn't always show up immediately.
[/quote]

Thanks corenfa. I have the towel in my hand and I'm that close to throwing it in again for the second time.
[/quote]
You certainly won't ever be a decent pianist if you throw in the towel again! Put the towel down somewhere, preferably out of sight! Have you tried practising little and often? Five minutes on just two or three bars every time you pass the piano? Doing it at a snail's pace? Don't give up now, but try not taking your anxiety to the piano with you. As corenfa says, it will pay off at some point.

Misterioso, it is not as if I DON'T practice because I do, at least once per day, on average around two or three times. I put it down to my age (42) I started out too old and my brain cells are dying off one by one, which makes learning anything new like swimming against the tide. I shall always hold a grudge towards my late mother for this, repeatedly telling me no when I asked could I learn to play the piano when I was a child.

[quote name='Misterioso' date='Feb 26 2012, 02:51 PM' post='1131409']
[quote name='Lee King' date='Feb 26 2012, 02:37 PM' post='1131402']
I don't think I'll ever be a decent pianist, I practise and all I get is anxious. It makes me want to use expletives, which is bad manners.
[/quote]

Keep at it - guaranteed it'll pay off at some point. Sightreading isn't easy. Every little bit of practise you do gets stored up, the effect of it doesn't always show up immediately.
[/quote]

Thanks corenfa. I have the towel in my hand and I'm that close to throwing it in again for the second time.
[/quote]
You certainly won't ever be a decent pianist if you throw in the towel again! Put the towel down somewhere, preferably out of sight! Have you tried practising little and often? Five minutes on just two or three bars every time you pass the piano? Doing it at a snail's pace? Don't give up now, but try not taking your anxiety to the piano with you. As corenfa says, it will pay off at some point.
[/quote]
Do you have a teacher (sorry, I haven't followed all of your posts, so I don't know)

Not all teachers are there to ensure steady academic progress. Many of us like to work alongside our pupil to keep it at a reasonable speed, and to help unravel problems; it doesn't even need to be once a week. A good teacher can be a buddy, and that may just be what you need at the piano.

Don't blame your age. I took on a new language when I was a year or so younger.

As others have said, keep at it. Try something different for a while and then come back to the thing that was proving tricky. Breakthroughs happen.

Linda - I have only been going to my current teacher since early January, so I haven't had much of a chance to 'suss'her out as yet in terms of being a buddy. The only people I know that play are in church (my piano teacher plays the organ in church too but once again I've only just joined that church and she's been away during the short time I've been going).

Is it not good to start learning the piano in ones late 30s/early 40s or something?


But not for people named Lee King it seems. That's exactly why I gave up first time around.

The time taken for a breakthrough is not standard for everyone.

Anyway, here is an article on learning and mistakes that I was reading earlier - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/...learn-faster-2/

Ultimately, nobody can make the call for us as to whether or not it is worth it to do something, but just because that something doesn't happen in the time frame that we would prefer it to, doesn't mean that it's never going to happen.