Me & My Hands

Get your minds out of the gutter, you perverts.

Now that I'm ensconced in my hotel room in Carson City, I have to slip back in to old patterns, old ways of doing things. I've had to deal with carpal-tunnel syndrome in both hands for years. The only saving grace is that neither wrist is really in that bad of a shape. The rest of me may not be that healthy looking, but having a pooch doesn't stop me from playing. Not being able to feel my fingers would, however.

Over the years, I've had flare-ups, sometimes so bad I've actually had to tape my sticks into my hands to be able to continue playing. I've developed methods of combating the swelling and strain. I take NSAID's like aspirin and acetominophen, B-complex vitamins (B6 helps reduce swelling of the nervous system), and most importantly, I stretch. Every finger is carefully bent back for a few seconds at a time. The wrists get stretched out for a few minutes at a time. Elbows, shoulders, neck and back, all my joints get a stretch before I go onstage. The sticks I use were designed reduce the shock of impact on my wrists. Using gloves and grip tape allow me to hold the stick with a looser grip, reducing the stress on my wrists even further. I even crack my knuckles, despite people telling me that it theoretically hurts my knuckles more than it helps. I've always read different, so there. This is something I've been doing since high school, so I think I know what the hell I'm doing.

All I know is that I have to take care of the machine, or else I'm not working any more.

On a side note, I'm pondering the idea of starting one or two more blogs, so I can rant about sports, politics, and anything else in the world that doesn't have to do with drums and drumming. I'll keep you posted as to what comes up. I've got the time to kill over the next few weeks, so you never know when I might get a wild hair up my ass and start writing.