Body issues affecting playing.

[itu]

I've had bursitis. Doctor took a big syringe and some bloody liquid came out of the elbow. Didn't hurt but looked pretty awful. 

 

I had been hitting my hand, and the elbow reacted. After lessening the hits, that bursitis hasn't come back. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I had elbow bursitis. Doctor said it should sort itself but come back if it inflames.

 

A few days later it went a funny colour and very hot. Horse-sized antibiotics and it then got better.

 

My main issue is arthritis but playing seems to be the best treatment. 

 

Plus I had vestibular neuritis come on at a gig, fortunately the lying down vomiting phase came on after I got my gear away... a week in hospital and a month later still having the odd bout of nausea.

[MacDaddy]

7 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Reviving this topic to ask if anybody has any tips to get rid of fretting arm elbow bursitis? The scenario: yesterday I played for about 5 hours guitar and bass at a jam session the Norfolk Blue Society put on at a local fete. Not a huge number of folks turned up, so I played pretty well non-stop for 5 hours out of the 6 we were there. To show how desperate we were, I actually sang for 30 minutes of the time I wasn’t playing 😱. 
 

Anyway, back to the topic: within a couple of hours of finishing, I noticed that my left elbow (I’m right handed) was sensitive to the touch. After another hour or so, a distinct bump had developed just below my elbow and the whole area around my elbow was hot to the touch: classic bursitis symptoms. I didn’t bash it, so I can only assume that the bursitis had been caused by playing for so long. I played guitar for about half of the session, the rest of the time was spent on my very light Greco medium scale bass (ideal for long gigs). I don’t play guitar very much these days and arthritis in the base of my left thumb means that my technique is probably not ideal. 
 

Anybody had this; any tips for recovery and is it OK to go on playing in the meantime? I have a gig coming up in 5 days.

 

 

You can usually treat bursitis with things like rest, ice packs and painkillers. But prevention being better than the cure,  @Happy Jack has a video on here somewhere, showing how to warm up before playing, which will help prevent reoccurrence.

[Happy Jack]

By God! That was a long time ago.

 

 

[Obrienp]

Thanks for all the advice folks. Really appreciated. I’ll give @Happy Jack’s warm up routine a go next gig. In the meantime I am applying ice and hoping it improves before the gig.

 

I’m used to having an aching left hand, left shoulder blade and back after a long gig but this was a new one on me. Things don’t get easier with age! 😏