tendonitis? or not

[TT3]

hi guys, i'm a newbie to this forum...ive been studying piano in college in my 2nd year and have been struggling with wrists pains since last nearly a year now.  I know there's been talk about this wrist pain stuff..but i feel like this problem's been going on for so long now (nearly a year) sometimes i'm not sure if it really IS tendonitis...
i played the piano since i was 5...but i also used to be a pretty serious basketball player who had repeated sprains to my fingers/wrists...ever since i decided to "turn my ways" to study music instead, i started practicing quite keenly..heh.. perhaps i wasn't used to the phsyical "strain" since i took a year off piano before going to college..
but i think the present problem started last feb when i sprained my right thumb ...i had an upcoming festival so i practiced quite hard for it and ruined it that very week..after tht i don't' really remmeber exactly what happend but its been on and off..the pain is always there but its not extreme..just enough to stop me from playing ..i have pains in the base of my right hand..at both "corners" , where the wrist meets the hand ...its been getting worse and my left hands seems to hurt as well..i've tried going to 2 different physiotherapists..one of them was a hand clinic..they suggested soaking my hands in hot and cold water..its kinda frustrating because i want to play piano so badly..i've changed as many bad habits in my practicing as possible, releasing as much tension as i could and practicing lightly and in little practice sessions of 5-10 min each...

does anyone know any other 'tricks' or suggestions about this issue?

[xvimbi]

Of course, this is hard to say over the Internet, but tendonitis would indeed be your first bet, but there could be a lot of things going on. Obviously, a correct diagnosis requires hand specialists to take a closer look at you.

If you are aggravating your wrist problems through playing the piano you may be playing with thumb orientation, i.e ulnar deviation, which in turn often comes form the wrong notion that fingers always need to be aligned with the forearm when they are playing. This principle applied to the thumb leads to ulnar deviation.

The bottom line is, you need to carefully analyze your technique, or better yet, have it analyzed by somebody who is knowledgeable about these things (e.g. a Taubman teacher). Don't you have knowledgeable people at your college? Given that most pianists are injured, there will be plenty of people around to talk to.

Your technique must be in line with your anatomy. This is true for all activities, from opening doors to pressing buttons. If your use of your body is correct, you will not aggravate any problems you may already have. Those can then be treated specifically, provided they are diagnosed correctly. You may have to stop playing the piano for a while to get that taken care of.

[Brian Healey]

My first inclination from your description is that it is tendonitis, especially since you say that you're studying music in college. College has tendonitis written all over it for a couple reasons. Mostly, the overall amount of playing that you're doing is probably quite a lot more than you did before college. I know that when I was in college, I was playing for most of my classes as well as practicing long hours outside of class. There's also a certain stress to being in school that manifests itself in body tension. You may not notice it or feel "stressed out", but even a small amount tension in a muscle or tendon can cause problems when yoiu're doing a repetitive motion activity. And of course, past injuries don't help the situation. Without realizing it, you may be overcompensating for a past injury, which is in turn putting too much stress on another part.

All I can tell you is to go see a competent doctor (preferrably a hand expert that deals frequently with pianists). Ask your piano teacher, because most piano teachers will know all the hand doctors in the area. It may be that you don't even have tendonitis, but absolutely the best thing you can do is find out exactly what the problem is, because without knowing the problem, there's no way to go about fixing it.

[Piazzo22]

To aquire tendonitis you have to repeat several times in a row strong movements, like making a hard fist and then extend your fingers over and over again. The next day you´ll have tendonitis.
You just need time, and do not strain that locations anymore. It takes long months to get away from tendonitis´ pain, almost a year in some cases. I have tendonitis in my left wrist , i´ve got it by lifting weights in February in my left wrist (it hurts when moving to the sides, and kind of burns), so you can imagine how long it takes to cure, now it´s a little less pain.

[jazzyprof]

As already mentioned, if it's tendonitis you really need to stop playing the piano for a while and also minimise the use of your computer keyboard.  It is frustrating to have to stay away from the piano but you could use the time to work on other aspects of your musicianship, such as ear training, theory, and memorizing pieces away from the keyboard.  In fact, if you set yourself the task of memorizing a certain number of pieces away from the keyboard, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that when you come back to the piano after several weeks off, you have increased your repertoire...at least in memory.  You then just need to get it under your fingers, which would have healed by then.