Hi everyone. I am pretty desperate! I suffered an injury at Xmas - a torn ulnar collateral ligament in my thumb. It has not been repaired surgically due to it not being a 100% tear. It has been cast & splinted & I have had physio/ultrasound for 11 weeks. Although the movement has improved, the pain is awful on thumb turns & gripping - octaves etc. & I have huge muscle wastage now. I feel so desperate because I feel at a total loss with this & completely left alone because the professionals don't hasve a clue about the impact on a pianist, no matter how much you stress it! I just wonder if any other pianist on these boards has suffered injury & if they can provide any support or advice about getting back to playing because I dont know which way to turn at the moment. Each time I play I hear how I USED to play it in my head & its making me more & more depressed!
Thanks for any help!!

I can't help as I'm not a pianist and have never had anything happen to me... but I just wanted to sympathise... I'm really sorry this happened to you... do you know if it will get better with time?

Hi,

Try a Carola Grindea search as she has written about piano injuries and I think there is a video.

I found this article which might help you find out more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1887162.stm


Hope it gets better soon.

Carola Grindea taught me piano!! She was very good on injuries but I'm not sure if there's much on the website about this.

Getting back to full health after such injuries is, in more ways than one, a real pain! It does take a lot of time to regain strength and flexibility - it can take months. The fact that you are in pain suggests to me your body is not yet ready for you to be putting this sort of pressure on it. I would have thought you need to bring your muscle tone back to strength before you try doing too much that places additional stress on your hand. Your physio should have given you some exercises to help with that. They probably need doing first, then the piano playing once the general strength is returning.

I'm no physio - no medic whatsoever - but when I had RSI in my arm, I was off piano playing (and oboe for that matter ) for a long, long time. It was a while after I was going about my general duties in life before I could successfully resume the piano and, even now, years later, if I play too much octave work in the left hand (the injured arm) I can really suffer.

Do you have a local sports injury clinic or similar near to you - sometimes they're better on specialist injuries than the standard NHS physios. If you do a Google on your condition and on "Pianist injuries" quite a bit of stuff comes up.

If you'd broken your leg you wouldn't go running a race without weeks and weeks of reconditioning and working out. I guess the same is true for your injury and piano playing.

Hope you recover soon but be kind to yourself.

OOOO Thanks everyone - I'm off Googling now - that really helps! The problem with my thumb is that the inflammation is refusing to settle down. They were expecting to be able to settle the inflammation with ultrasound and THEN get the dtrength back etc. but they can't even do that because I get pain flare up's - it's drivning me insane it really is!!!

If it's been 6 months and you are still having a lot of pain despite the physio etc, perhaps you should try and get a second opinion from an expert - can you find out if there is a hand specialist orthopaedic surgeon in your area? If you can't get a referral on the NHS, you might want to consider paying for a private consultation - maybe worth it to sort out something that is clearly having a big effect on you?

Good luck, hope it gets better

Awh, I know what it's like

Although it wasnt the same injury I HAD a injury, But you just have to rest it basically


Bless Rest up!


Abbie

Ligaments and tendons are mostly collagen and therefore pretty much always have a fairly poor blood supply. For this reason it can take longer for a ligament injury to heal than for a bony fracture, particularly if it is being re-injured regularly, no matter how lightly.

Even so, I agree that 6 months is too long: Demand a referral for a second opinion from a hand specialist (or, if you've already seen one, another one), every hospital will have one. Then, having asked for a second opiniont, trust it, though if they don't suggest an MRI suggest it yourself to look for flake fracture fragments, bony spurs etc. If they suggest surgery ask for ALL the information: The pros and cons of operating and the pros and cons of all alternatives. Then go for the op if it's the right thing. If they suggest immobilization, let them. If they suggest physio, go to physio. It may be that you won't be able to play for several months or even a year or more: Accept it and don't push it too early or you may be back to square one.

Yes, you're a pianist and this will have a huge impact on you - it clearly already has. That isn't their fault and it may well be that they appreciate the problems, they just can't magic up a solution that doesn't involve lengthy rest.

When Beckham, Owen, Rooney et al. fractured their metatarsals it was said with some truth that if you treat these fractures they heal in about 6 weeks, but if you don't it takes 42 days! The same sort of thing is true with any physical activity: You have to treat the injury properly - you can't rush it, NO MATTER how much you might want to.

Best of luck, though: sounds horrendous.

n.b. many sympathies - I caught the fingers of my left hand in a circular saw once. Whilst I am acutely aware that I am very lucky still to have fingers, it was 2 month's before I could scrub up and work (I'm a surgeon, though not orthopaedic) and the scars were sufficiently tender that I couldn't play any musical instrument at all for a year. It was immensely frustrating at first, then depressing because I thought I would never play again. The day I played a guitar again for the first time was such a good day!

I have RSI of the thumb and little finger which then forced me to quit the classical guitar, ...but things have improved since then, and time is a great healer. It does'nt affect me too much on the piano but takes the form of numbness/laziness in the thumb rather then pain . And pain in the little finger caused by pinched ulnar nerve. Your'e right, many medical professionals won't take this seriously, even sometimes if you're a professional !! and though it causes the sufferer much torment, it's often not understood by others. I know how you feel believe me, the problem is still there but i have to adapt, do warm up circulation exercises. Caroline Rugman, a physio who specialises in musicians with injuries, wrote a good article for Pianist magazine last year, I think she has a private practise in London, which probably would cost some for a consultation. However, your determination to recover is important, and you'll get there i'm certain.