Hello. First post from Keef

Skinny Keef

Hello all. I decided to join the community, not really sure why, but I’ve been a member of several similar forums over the years, longboarding, surfing, guitar and piano so I thought as arthritis is such a massive part of my life now I’d join and share my experiences. This posts coincides with me getting my first wheelchair and it is that I really wanted to share. It was a big step (pun intended) for numerous reasons but it’s made a huge difference to me getting about. I’m 52 yo and have suffered with permanent pain for over ten years, the last 3 years have seen a massive change in my lifestyle as I’ve had to sell my motorcycles and I very rarely travel by car now as it’s simply too painful. One doctor even said due to the state of my lower spine i was at severe risk of SCD if i was involved in an accident and even tripping or falling was dangerous.

So anyway hello fellow sufferers. My name is Keef. I have been a police motorcyclist and a professional musician but now I don’t do much at all as I simply cannot. I enjoy playing my guitar and piano at home just for myself when my pain levels allow.

hopefully I’ll have some good input on the topics in the forum.

noddingtonpete

Hello @Keef and welcome to the community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that that will be your experience as well. You are in a good place where people swap stories for support, hints and tips on how to cope or sometimes people just want a good rant - all are welcome here.

I understand that you have just got your first wheelchair and it is allowing you to get around again. That is really good as it is good for us to get out and about.

Our website has a lot of useful information on arthritis, treatments, hints and tips so I would suggest having a look around it, to help I've put a couple of links in below which may be useful.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/your-experiences/hints-and-tips/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/managing-your-pain/

Please keep posting and let us know how you are getting on and I am sure that others will connect with you to share their support and experiences as well

With very best wishes

Peter (moderator)

frogmorton

Hi @Keef

Lovely to meet you.

Sounds as though life has deal you a tough blow which we all understand here too well.

In spite of that you sound very upbeat and positive which is just what we need here sometimes.

I very much hope you'll decide to hang around and join in. Your experience could really help some of us and we in turn might just know something to help you.

Take care

Toni x

Lilymary

Hi Keef, and welcome. My, you have been on a tough journey recently, I'm sorry it's had such an impact on what you can do. It's great that you can still enjoy your music, it's such good mental therapy. When arthritis really gets stuck in we do have to adapt how we do things, and what we can do. It helps to replace anything you can no longer do with something new that you enjoy. It keeps life moving forward, sometimes in surprisingly pleasant directions.

Keep posting on here, it's a lovely community full of people with years of experience and good tips. And we all know how rubbish arthritis can get, so if you need a moan to someone who understands, this is the best place to come.

Skinny Keef

Thanks for the replies.

unfortunately last couple of days I’ve been feeling sick and dizzy after a few minutes of playing guitar - bass actually no doubt due to having my head turned slightly to the left and down for extended time.

my last neck mri showed degradation but no apparent nerve impingement, but obviously that was laying down in the machine.

so I’m taking a breather from that at the moment. I am a rather obsessive person and take practice to the extreme. I would thought nothing of rehearsing for 8 hours solid in years gone by. Now I’m lucky to do 2 or 3 songs before having to take a break.

i went for a roll and stroll this evening. My wife likes an after dinner walk, which I’ve been unable to do for sometime but now i have my chair we can do that again. I’m just waiting for some air cushions to try and take the shock out of the bumps.

i do feel a bit down about the guitar playing though. I hope it’s just a blip. I see my osteo everyweek for acupuncture and treatment on my neck to try and keep the migraines away. It’s all linked I guess.

frogmorton

Good to hear from you😊

I'm so glad you can go for a walk with your wife again @Keef that is just so important. Too many people think having a chair or using a walking aid is some sort of loss of independence, I think the reverse it enables us to keep doing things. I hope the cushion arrives soon. I bet your wife was so happy to be out with her husband again.

As for the overdoing of stuff that's me too or rather was I am a bit better now. I used to be out in the garden until suddenly I realised I couldn't see anymore. I have learnt to pace myself now reluctantly. Of course I do still forget sometimes and pay for it later.

I also hope the guitar playing is just a blip, but for now you'll just have to practice a couple of songs at a time more often.

Take care

Toni

Skinny Keef

I’ve been getting on really well with the wheel chair. Peoples’ reactions to seeing me in it around the small town where I live have been mostly positive, only a couple of nasty comments, but in a small town like mine I think that is expected. However today it threw me a wobbler, quite literally, and ground to a halt. I must have looked like I was on a possessed wheel chair as I couldn’t control it at all and at one point was going round in circles lol. Then a guy watching my dilemma told me i was on fire, and indeed one of the motors was.

It’s gonna be a week or more before the engineer can get to me, so for now it’s back to the hobble stick, don’t think I’ll be going out much for a week or two.

RogerBill

Hi @Keef I'm making the occasional attempt to regain some of the guitar playing ability I used to have many years ago when I was a kid playing in a group. I had similar but less severe neck and back pain to you and found some relief after purchasing a music stand and a pair of Boss Waza Air headphones. Together these remove most of the need to twist and contort into uncomfortable positions and they provide more opportunity for changing position during a session.

Woofy

Hi. keef.

sorry to hear about your struggles. I do hope they fix your wheels asap.

Skinny Keef

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/701937#Comment_701937

Those waza headphones are so cool. The Boss stuff is always good. I have the Katana head which I use sometimes. I do try to keep it simple though with a 0.5 watt valve amp for guitar. Volume and tone controls. I suffer really had with OCD and I can’t stop adjusting stuff if there’s lots of options so I go guitar amp speaker. No pedals.

I picked up a new Marshall cab the 1974x which are stupid money but this was damaged and less than half price.

i could talk about music all day and all night and then all the next day too.

Keep practicing. Music is awesome.

RogerBill

Hi @Keef Talking about, playing or just listening to music is great therapy.

Another point about guitar playing and arthritis: I find the Les Paul I got at a bargain price back in 1982 is now much too heavy for comfort. My G&L S500 is much lighter and more comfortable. As a kid I never thought weight and comfort would become criteria for choosing a guitar 😊

Would like to sell the Les Paul but the two shops I've tried only offered half what it's worth and I'm reluctant to risk trying to sell it on eBay.

Did you choose @Keef as your screen name in honour of Keith Richards? With my aging body I keep reminding myself that Keef often says: "It's really good to be here and as I always say, it's really good to be anywhere."

Skinny Keef

Hey Roger, yes, my name is Keith and that spelling i use was most definitely inspired by Keef Richards.

I picked up a1984 Les Paul in Spain for a bargain price. Very heavy guitar. My son has it now. It turned out to be a fake, but even so a fantastic sounding instrument.

I only ever play sitting down these days, and lately have been playing a lot of fretless bass. Just feeling the groove and enjoying being behind the melody for a change.

G&L make some fine guitars. Some people question the quality control of Gibson, especially the acoustics. I have a couple of PRS which are good, but the best built guitar Ihave is my Clapton strat. The quality is fantastic, I’m almost too scared to take it out of the case.

Ive just come indoors from the studio actually as the sick/dizzy feelings are back again. Stupid neck playing up again.

stickywicket

@Keef , this is probably a stupid question, on the lines of teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs, but have you tried a neck support for when you're doing things that you know will affect your neck? Just a thought.

Skinny Keef

Hi stickywicket, I have thought about it, but thats it. I don’t know much about them. I would still need to be able to turn my head to see my hand on the bass or guitar neck. Would that be possible?

Skinny Keef

On another note, I’ve just bought a replacement power chair. I tried to do it on the cheap first time around, but just got in from buying a new one from my local shop which is so comfortable I actually cried after I’d tried it because I’ll be able to get to the shops without so much pain. It’s SO much better than the first one I bought and should have spent the money first time around I guess. Live and learn, get what you pay for.

Take me a few months to pay for it but who cares, its so comfy I would have paid double!!!!

stickywicket

Mine is just soft foam fastened with velcro. I think it was given me by orthotics many years ago. Could I bend my neck in it? I think so, to,some extent but the idea is to stop you getting the neck into damaging positions. If you were thinking of it I think it'd be worth getting professional advice on which type.

I just have a bogstandard wheelchair which I rarely use but, yes, get the best you can. I've just replaced a fairly new riser recliner which seemed OK at the time but proved fsr too wide for me (I could keep à book at one side and my tablet at the other!) was a bit lumpy after a while and, worst of all, shoved my neck forward. (It'-s bad enough without encouragement) I went to a tried and trusted firm which makes riser recliners for hospitals. They did a cracking job measuring me every which way. It's perfect.