Swollen and aching thumb and hands

[Lily-White]

Hi,

Playing the harp has been a long-time dream of mine, which I finally decided to pursue. I have been playing for 4-5 weeks now. I just love it – it’s hard for me to stay away from the harp! 😀
I practice around 2 hours a day, often a little longer 😉 , but in two sessions. I play a beautiful Ravenna 34 (Dusty Strings).

However, my right hand has been swollen between the thumb and the index finger for a couple of days now. And now moving the wrist – and especially the thumb – is a little painful. And the thumb and two other fingers ache a little (this comes and goes). My left hand is a little swollen as well, but no pain.
The only explanation I can think of is the playing, it’s something completely new for my hands. I have also had some issues with relaxing my hands and the right position of the fingers, which explains it all even better…

I would be very grateful if someone would like to share, if you have experienced something similar. What did you do about it? Did it pass?

Thank you! <3

Lily White

PS. I have been working on my relaxing and positioning issues a lot lately, playing very slowly, repeating short segments of the pieces over and over again, until I feel comfortable to go on. And I’m getting there – slowly but surely! 🙂

[carl-swanson]

Are you working with a teacher?

[Lily-White]

Hi Carl,

Yes, I am working with a teacher. In order to learn to play well, I think it’s important to get the technique right from the very beginning. My teacher is a professional harpist, and she says I’ve made more progress in one month than any other student of hers. And I think that’s the problem. I have been too eager and practiced too much, my hands have got an overdose of completely new repetitive finger movements. That’s my diagnosis.

But I’ll leave the real diagnosis up to a medical specialist. This morning it had gotten worse and it’s both hands now. So I have scheduled a doctor’s appointment for later today. Better safe than sorry…

Thank you! 🙂

– Lily

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Lily-White.

[balfour-knight]

Lily, so sorry to hear your woes. I think you have just “overdone it,” but do let us know what your doctor says.

Best wishes,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)

[Lily-White]

Hi Balfour,

You could be a doctor! 😀

I have “De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis” in both hands. Due to overdoing it… 😉
It’s like in sports, you don’t go immediately from 0 to 100, you do it gradually. When the doctor heard how much I have been practicing, the only thing he wondered about was that it wasn’t much worse. He said his hand’s couldn’t have taken what I have done. I’m not very proud of myself…

But when I get passionate about something I immerse myself completely in it, it’s stronger than me…

The good news is that I can continue playing the harp!!! 😀 I was so scared I’d have to quit.
The doctor was wonderful, he understood my passion and supported my playing 100 %. I will restart gradually, of course.

Maybe this is a good thing, after all. Now I have to take it easy for a while, so I will take a few steps back and restart with some really easy pieces, in order to be able to concentrate fully on proper hand position and relaxing my hands. I actually look forward to it, I want to get it right! 🙂

Thanks for your support Balfour!

– Lily

[balfour-knight]

So glad to hear all this, Lily! I have also overdone many things like this, including harp, piano, and organ practice, so don’t be too hard on yourself. It is indeed our “passion” for the instruments that is more powerful than we are! Enjoy getting back to your beautiful harp, gradually.

Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)

[Lily-White]

Thank you Balfour for sharing that, it felt good to hear I’m not the only one… 😉

I feel so lucky, everyone has been so kind and understanding with me here at the forums. It took a while to build up the courage to write here the first time, you are all so wise and experienced. Thanks for taking the time to help a newbie like me. I have really learned a lot!

I hope I can give back some day! 🙂

– Lily

[balfour-knight]

Lily, you are so sweet. You have already “given back” a lot to us and to these forums!

I made some scones yesterday and thought of you as I used that wonderful light White Lily flour!

Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)

[Gregg Bailey]

Hi, Lily,

How are your hands doing now? I feel so bad for your having had to deal with that when you’ve just been so passionate about practicing!

At risk of causing you to want to practice even more, I thought of you the other day when I saw Kristine Warmhold’s video of her playing her arrangement of Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” on a (Camac ebony finish) lever harp! She posted it 3 weeks ago. I will attempt to post a link to the video separately, but if the forum doesn’t allow me to do that, just look up her name on YouTube along with that title. I’ll also attempt to link you to a photo I found of a white Brilliant Harpsicle! It’s too bad that Rees Harps determined that staining the Brilliant models took too much time to be cost-effective. I don’t understand why they can’t simply offer that for an extra charge.

I hope your hands are recovering!

-Gregg

[Gregg Bailey]

Lily,

I will attempt to provide the YouTube link to Kristine’s Puccini harp video here:

[Gregg Bailey]

And the link to the photo of a beautiful White Brilliant Harpsicle (this makes me want to eat a Zero white chocolate bar, haha!):

https://harpsicleharps.com/seconds/harpsicle-harp-brilliant-white-second

-Gregg

[Gregg Bailey]

And have you seen this custom white-and-gold Salvi Minerva, Lily?

https://www.salviharps.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Minerva-bianca-1-683×1024.jpg

[Gregg Bailey]

Hmm, the link I provided above for the white Salvi harp isn’t working on my computer, because the HC forum is substituting a multiplication symbol instead of the “x” character between “683” and “1024” for some reason. If you click the link and then replace the “times” symbol with an “x”, it should work.

-Gregg

[balfour-knight]

Thanks for all your posts, Gregg! The video was very nice, and the white Salvi is beautiful!

Lily, I hope your hands are recovering nicely, too!

Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)

[balfour-knight]

The Brilliant Harpsicle looks great, too! Yum–white chocolate!

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