RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury again!

[sim77]

Hi All,

I have been thinking for a good while if I should post this story or not, as it is rather unusual. But to hell with it, if it helps anyone it was worth it!

In Jan this year I hit a very busy period with my band that I play bass with. On top of that I was practicing awful lot of technical electric guitar playing. Two weeks into that busy period I started getting strange feeling of weakness in my fretting hand. I did not stop playing though and ignored it. Then one rehearsal in late Jan I got such a strong pain that I was not able not only to play bass or guitar but I could not even drive.

I stopped all playing, band had to cancel rehearsals and gigs and my teaching had to be stopped too. First I hoped that pain would go away but two weeks later I realized that I need some professional help. I went to see an osteopath. He cracked few bones, did some acupuncture. I spent another 3 weeks doing what my osteopath told me to do - mainly stretching, watching my posture and having massage to my back. That was great for my back but did not seem to help my left hand at all!

So it was 6 weeks that I could not use my hand. Band mates were starting to get impatient and informed me that they were going to look for a dep player as they could not afford to loose more gigs.

I never trusted GP's with that type of problems but well, at that stage I would do anything just to get better and rid myself of that horrible pain and feeling of weakness. Just to give you an idea of how serious my condition was:

- on a bad night I would wake up almost crying and I would not be able to fall asleep again
- I could not drive or type at all
- My left hand was getting very cold - like there was no blood flowing through it
- I had pains starting at my fingertips going all the way to the elbow - it felt like nerves in my hand and arm were inflamed
- I also felt like my body temperature was high, I felt dizzy and could not think straight at times

Basically one hell of a nightmare. So I went to see my GP. He looked at me, told me not to play bass or guitar or use my hand at all (very f^&king helpful) and booked me an appointment for physiotherapy 4 weeks later.

I walked home basically crying. I started to calculating how long it was all going to take. I started making plans for getting back to playing around maybe September, maybe October 2010. I tell you it did not feel nice at all.

Then almost by accident I found a blog entry from someone that had his RSI healed by reading a book! Yes, by reading a book. And it took like days - not even weeks or months.

Now. I know how it all sound. It sounded like positive thinking book or something in that respect. I had nothing to loose. I ordered that book on Amazon and had it delivered next day.
It all happened 2 weeks ago. I am typing it now with no problems. I played my first 4 hour rehearsal with my band last Sunday and I am back gigging from next month. I do not have to mention that I never went for that physiotherapy.

The book is called 'The Mindbody Prescription' by Doctor John E. Sarno and it is the best £5 I have ever spent in my life. It is not a 'positive thinking' or 'placebo effect' book at all.
I also have to say that this is not an advert for Dr Sarno, although I still think I should send him a check for much more than I paid for this book.

I do not think I should bore you with what's in the book (although it is absolutely fascinating read) as you can all check it for yourself. All I would say is it healed my RSI and I am a happy man again. Apparently all RSIs are psychosomatic and just by understanding the mechanism of it you can heal yourself.

Here is a link to amazon:

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Body-Prescription-John-Sarno/dp/0446675156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270073546&sr=8-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Body-Prescrip...3546&sr=8-1[/url]

And that is a link to a blog that helped me find that book:

[url="http://podolsky.everybody.org/rsi/"]http://podolsky.everybody.org/rsi/[/url]

I hope that none of you reading this post will ever suffer from RSI but if you do remember about this little book.

Thanks,

Simon

[hellothere]

I get why you don't want to tell us everything in the book but a general overview would be useful otherwise i think alot of people will write it off as you got lucky or bullshit.

[RhysP]

If I had symptoms as severe as the ones you describe there's no way I'd be trying to cure it by reading a book,
I'd be going to see a specialist & very quickly, even if it meant going private for the initial consultation.

You're assuming it's an RSI - it could also be carpal tunnel syndrome or any number of other things

Anybody that makes a statement like "all RSI is psychosomatic" is quite obviously a quack & a snake oil merchant.

[sim77]

This are exactly the kind of responses that I was expecting and why I was thinking If I should write this post at all.

The book makes perfect sense to me and has relieved all my symptoms. I understand that people have their own believe systems and let it be that way. It helped me and if it helps anyone else then great.

I thought I would just mention it here in case there are people that have run out of options with their RSI problems. It may help someone and that is all I am hoping for.

To give you a short description of what book is about:

Dr Sarno has been working with patients with RSI since early 80 ties. He is a Professor of Clinical Medicine in New York University of Medicine and a physician at the Howard Institute of rehabilitation Medicine New York.

Book reveals how many painful conditions - RSI and tendonitises are rooted in repressed emotions and shows how they can be successfully treated without drugs or surgery. Basic concept behind it is that your subconscious mind will create pains in certain parts of your body to divert your conscious mind from certain emotions. The book goes into great detail about the study of RSI and explains whole process of muscles being starved of oxygen what helps to create that condition. Then it explains that this is the brain that send less oxygen to affected areas. According to the book it happens due to psychosomatic reasons (again fully explained in the book) - as 99% of RSI.

If you check on Amazon that book has only 5 star reviews. Also look at the link to the blog I gave in my first post. I do not think the guy sells snake oil at all. As someone said: it is very sad that in today's medicine common sense is not really common'

Again I understand your reservations. But I could not care less of what you think. If you get an RSI (Which I hope none of you will) and you will rich a dead end with treatments, then give it a try. Or better - start with it straight away.

Thanks,

Simon

[FlatEric]

A good post.

I had a lot of pain in my left hand, a while back - that's how I ended up with all my
Short/Medium scale stuff, it was just too much with having to stretch.
I [i]may[/i] have to have a small operation but I am seeing how it goes at the mo'.
Mine is not RSI, I don't think but for a Fiver, I think I would be willing to have a read.
Might get myself a copy!


Cheers.

[xilddx]

Sorry, inflammation of the tendon sheaths, carpal tunnel syndrome, tenosynovitis, tendonitis are psychosomatic? Bollocks.

You do realise the term RSI was inveted by the media and is not in any way a recognised medical condition? I would suggest you had no injury at all and your condition fell into the category which Sarno describes.

But don't think it will cure medical conditions involving injury, it won't.

[cheddatom]

I would find it hard to beleive the weird goings on in my wrist are psychosomatic. Perhaps £5 is a pretty cheap test

[cupples]

Hi, sorry to hear about the bother you've had with your hand/arm problems. I would suggest phoning your local professional orchestra office and asking them to recommend a specialist in your area. String players are particularly bothered by this sort of thing, if you know any pro violinists, ask them too. It might be expensive, but your hands are pretty important.

Might be a good time to get a good teacher to cast an objective eye over your technique and see is there anything that can be worked on, any bad habits. You're doing a load of playing, and it's amazing how much difference a slight problem with technique can make.

I think calling tendonitis a psychosomatic illness is a bit much. In my experience it's related to direct trauma, activity that you're not used to, or overuse. As for RSI - it's a nebulous term that I wouldn't be quick to use. A bit like whiplash or fibromyalgia - you can't diagnose it without excluding everything else first, there's no direct test for it. There's certainly a psychological element to all pain, but (having not read that book), I suspect that the actual evidence for psychological interventions in helping these conditions is negligible. And if there's no evidence, I wouldn't go there. I'm glad it worked for you, but you're maybe one of the lucky ones.

And I think missing the physiotherapy was a mistake. Some GPs don't really know what they're talking about when it comes to musculoskeletal medicine, but physios are usually on the ball.

[Conflict of interest - orchestral musician and GP.]

Andrew

[MythSte]

Skeptical, but interested.

My main concern would be if it [i]did[/i] have a placebo effect, and you learnt to ignore the pain to such an extent where by you wouldnt notice if it got a whole lot worse. Thats a scary thought.

[ThomBassmonkey]

This thread's quite obviously just an advert for a book rather than any helpful information.

I've had tendonitis to the point the OP spoke about (maybe worse, I couldn't even move my hand for a while the pain was so bad, I had to go to an all hours surgery thing where they did sod all anyway. At a proper check up later, there was talk of an op to sort it) and had to give up bass playing for several months, losing jobs (both playing and teaching) because of it. If someone had showed me this book then when I was most desperate, I still wouldn't trust it.

It's like all those weight losing, muscle gaining, penis extending, brain enlarging books you see advertised online. They're more damaging than good because they often have various extremes of behaviour/diet in them and even if they don't, they're still fooling people into thinking they're having an affect they're not.

Edited April 1, 2010 by ThomBassmonkey

[xilddx]

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' post='793367' date='Apr 1 2010, 02:43 PM']This thread's quite obviously just an advert for a book rather than any helpful information.

I've had tendonitis to the point the OP spoke about (maybe worse, I couldn't even move my hand for a while the pain was so bad, I had to go to an all hours surgery thing where they did sod all anyway. At a proper check up later, there was talk of an op to sort it) and had to give up bass playing for several months, losing jobs (both playing and teaching) because of it. If someone had showed me this book then when I was most desperate, I still wouldn't trust it.

It's like all those weight losing, muscle gaining, penis extending, brain enlarging books you see advertised online. They're more damaging than good because they often have various extremes of behaviour/diet in them and even if they don't, they're still fooling people into thinking they're having an affect they're not.[/quote]
Glad you edited that

[ThomBassmonkey]

[quote name='silddx' post='793372' date='Apr 1 2010, 02:47 PM']Glad you edited that [/quote]


haha, I still think of it as RSI, it was diagnosed as tendonitis by my doctor though.

Also thought I'd point out that there are operations possible if it's a serious problem, they're fairly horrendous though and even if they stop the pain and allow normal-ish movement again, they can cause real problems for certain movements. I didn't want to take it because of playing bass and guitar but I had to completely stop playing for almost 6 months before it fully felt better.

[Marvin]

Ha ha. Very good, that's why I left it until after noon to post on this one. April fools jokes get worse every year.

[MythSte]

oh my days. Hook line and sinker

[ThomBassmonkey]

It's not an incredibly funny joke when it's possibly giving someone hope with something that destroys lives.

Maybe next year the BBC should run a story on how a cure for cancer or AIDs has been developed, that'd be hilarious and something that kills people isn't really that different to something that cripples people.

Sorry, but as someone who has been affected badly by tendonitis (what I posted above was not a joke, I was seriously scared I'd never be able to play an instrument using my right hand again) I don't really find this funny.

[xilddx]

Well, the book exists, the OP claims it worked for him, don't think it's an AF TBH. If it was meant to be, it's pretty lame. Meh.

[ThomBassmonkey]

Well whether it's dangerous because it's giving bad advise or offensive because it's poking fun at a serious health problem related to the target of the forum, I don't think it should be on a respectable forum that's usually full of good advice and support.

[cheddatom]

Sorry, where's the story about this being an April Fools?

[xilddx]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='793465' date='Apr 1 2010, 04:38 PM']Sorry, where's the story about this being an April Fools?[/quote]
Pure conjecture.

I don't think it is an AF at all. I think the OP is serious.

There is a lot of crap talked about "RSI". This is an example of it.

[Marvin]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='793465' date='Apr 1 2010, 04:38 PM']Sorry, where's the story about this being an April Fools?[/quote]

I do apologise that would have been me, I didn't read the time the OP was posted. I now see it was yesterday and so is evidently not an April Fool but a bona fide account.

OR

Refer to silddx's post

[ThomBassmonkey]

Actually, considering it was posted last night before 12am, it probably is supposed to be genuine advice. Either way, not a good thread.

[hellothere]

I started writing a pretty long post countering all this but then i decided it wasnt worth the bother.

[RhysP]

[quote name='hellothere' post='793599' date='Apr 1 2010, 06:54 PM']I started writing a pretty long post countering all this but then i decided it wasnt worth the bother.[/quote]

Probably wise - all that typing could give you an RSI.

[xilddx]

[quote name='hellothere' post='793599' date='Apr 1 2010, 06:54 PM']I started writing a pretty long post countering all this but then i decided it wasnt worth the bother.[/quote]
Good decision, you may have been at risk of acquiring a repetitive strain injury from the typing

[RhysP]

We appear to have some kind of telepathic mind-meld sh*t going on this evening................