Musicians with Dystonia Bulletin Board

Re: The "letting go" issue
Re: Re: The "letting go" issue -- lindaf Post Reply Top of thread Forum
Posted by: Brian Hays ®
07/11/2010, 20:25:42
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Linda:
Beyond the 'letting go' topic, it might be good to start a new thread about your issue; you'll probably get more responses to a targeted topic.
Is there ANY position your hand can be in where the finger is not tightened in these ways?
When you first wake up? When swimming? Letting it hang while walking?
If not, it's all the more difficult to address it.
If there is a time when it can be relatively loose, but curls when you move something or think of moving something, you have something to work with that can be expanded on.
In either case, I would have hoped your doctors could have at least investigated and talked to you about the anatomy issues with those joints. Perhaps they did? I'm no doctor, and obviously I can't diagnose what's happening, but I can at least share some experiences with fingers that did curl on their own because of dystonia, and help you understand part of the movement issues in case you don't already know.

Disclaimers: The rest of this msgs is just ideas for you to investigate if they interest you; I can't recommend anything specifically. Such things can be extremely frustrating, and it's important to take care of yourself and not put any faith in anything I say. I'm hoping your Cervical Dystonia doctors are completely familiar with what I'm about to say, and they can shed some light on what's happening.

First of all, in an otherwise healthy hand, the tip bends because of a muscle in your forearm--not in the hand itself.
There's one specific tendon that connects to the tip of your finger to pull that forward. The middle joint is also bent by another muscle in the forearm (leaving it open that there could be some other physical problem that I know nothing about).
So if those joints are bent, normally those muscles are flexed/tightened. And if the joints STAY bent, the muscles are seriously and constantly tight.
Are you able to determine if in fact those muscles are constantly flexed? If so, then it's mostly an issue of understanding why (it would seem the brain is constantly sending the signal to tighten, or ??) and to see what can be done to help those muscles let go.
I've heard rumours of different syndromes where tendons or muscles could become stretched and be a problem; I don't know if it's possible that the tendons could have shortened somehow, but that's the kind of unknown thing that the doctor should be able to determine. But again, this is just guessing at possible alternatives to the muscles being tight.
Assuming now that it's the muscles: Many people here have found ways to get wayward muscles to relax; this is usually when the tension comes from a particular posture or movement that triggers the curling.
One other pharmaceutical approach for hand dystonia is Botox. Have you dealt with that or similar treatments for your Cervical Dystonia? It's possible to inject the tense muscles so they don't respond to the brain's signals, and therefore don't flex. This is a temporary local treatment; I'm not recommending it--just making sure you're aware of it.
I had a neurologist suggest Botox for my issues, and I chose not to do it. But you might want to discuss these things with your doctor to make sure it's neurological vs. somehow structural.
Hopefully you're already past that point and most of my text was unnecessary, but hopefully some of the topics will raise a question that may lead to something.
Let us know how it goes.
Brian




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