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Chest Pain From Anglo Concertina


Michael Eskin

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Hi Michael,

I suspect that your pain is going to be musculoskeletal rather than cardiac in origin, especially if the pain is relieved by an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen.

 

Here's some information from UpToDate, a medical resource that I subscribe to.

Angina is often characterized more as a discomfort than pain, and may be difficult to describe. Terms frequently used by patients include squeezing, tightness, pressure, constriction, strangling, burning, heart burn, fullness in the chest, band-like sensation, knot in the center of the chest, lump in throat, ache, heavy weight on chest (elephant sitting on chest), and toothache (when there is radiation to the lower jaw). In some cases, the patient cannot qualify the nature of the discomfort, but places his or her fist in the center of the chest, known as the "Levine sign."

 

The following additional characteristics are typically seen:

Angina is typically gradual in onset, with the intensity of the discomfort increasing over several minutes. In contrast, noncardiac pain is often of greatest intensity at its onset.

 

Angina is a constant discomfort that does not change with respiration or position. It is generally not described as sharp, dull-aching, knife-like, stabbing, or pins and needles-like. In a report of patients presenting to the emergency department, "sharp" or "stabbing" pain was a low risk description.

 

I'll send you an UpToDate monograph on the evaluation of musculoskeletal chest pain.....that might be helpful.

 

Yvonne Fried, M.D.

(and concertina player)

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Yvonne Fried, M.D.

(and concertina player)

 

Nice to have M.D.s on the list.

I'd try to stop playing, relax and go to massage therapist. Chest pain may originate anywhere, in the spine, neck, arm, low back. Perhaps you're sitting the wrong way, or too straight, or too crouched, or keep one leg crossed over the other and over years it accumulated and sends you signals. If you go to Emergency, they'll check you for heart attack, just in case, then give you some heavy drug for pain and muscle relaxant.

Or it may be concertina unrelated. Do you do computer work? How do you sit? Where do you look? When were you in the swimming pool? How do you breath, while playing?

I'd check with the doctor, just in case, to make sure it's not heart attack or anything nasty, then I'd take that pain medicationa and visit massage clinic. I would also find Bio-feedback specialist. He'll teach you to relax and breath correctly. We went through similar nightmare with my mother a few weeks ago. She was sitting and reading a book, and her posture was not comfortable. She made a note of that, but it wasn't too bad, so she kept on reading. next night she woke up with extremely severe pain in her chest, shooting into her arm.

Massage helped, they even located the origin of the pain. It was in the neck, but neck didn't hurt. All the while I'm teaching her to play melodeon and it never was a problem.

Just reading in uncomfortable pose for a few hours!

Boy, it was awful!

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Anyone ever had shooting angina-like chest pain from excessive anglo playing? I'm trying to decide whether its from concertina or pipes, definitely worse after long session nights, relieved with high-dose ibuprofen...

Just out of interest ,do you breath in and out with the bellows as you play?

A whole evening of this with lots of notes all in one direction will eventually give you chest pains,from your lungs.

The best way to overcome breathing with bellows movement is to put your concertina down ,imagine you are playing but deep breath as you imagine playing each note,above all relax. Try it with a simple tune.Then pick up the concertina and play the simple tune using the same method. You will be more relaxed when playing and breathing normally.

Al (gasp gasp) :o

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Thanks everyone for the great advice! Yvonne, thanks for the detailed email.

 

You're welcome!

 

Yvonne

You have now blown your cover Yvonne and all our aches and pains and symptoms will be coming your way.

It reminds me of a gig we were doing in Exeter and the old car we were in being driven by the organiser broke down on a roundabout.It was the early hours in the morning and it spluttered to a stop and refused to start. We did the normal,lifted up the bonnet to see what was inside and I noticed it had a wire going to the distributor cap.I took the cap off cleaned up the wire screwed it all back together and it started first time.Not only that she said that it was going better than at any time she had been driving it.

The next day I had at least ten people telling me the symptoms of their car problems.Little did they know that it was the only thing about car problems I did know.We never did get a return booking so perhaps it blew up a few days later.

Al CSAP (Car specialist and Anglo player)

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Thanks everyone for the great advice! Yvonne, thanks for the detailed email.

 

You're welcome!

 

Yvonne

You have now blown your cover Yvonne and all our aches and pains and symptoms will be coming your way. (snip) The next day I had at least ten people telling me the symptoms of their car problems. Al CSAP (Car specialist and Anglo player)

 

Al and Yvonne,

Reminds me of a doctor who was at a party one evening and got chatting with someone who turned out to be a business consultant. The doctor bewailed the fact that everyone who discovered that he was an M.D. immediately started recounting their symptoms and asking for a diagnosis. He asked the consultant how best to handle this. The consultsant advised him to listen patiently, give his medical opinion to the best of his ability without a physical or lab examination - and then to send the questioner a bill afterwards.

The doctor thought that this was a great idea, and thanked the consultant profusely.

 

At the end of the month, the doctor received a bill from the business consultant.

 

Nip it in the bud, Yvonne! ;)

 

Cheers,

John (Concertinist and ... )

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Very good John,

Totally unrelated, but made me screech to a halt for a laugh, was the day I was listening to a help program on the radio.It was one of those programs that if someone wanted a helping hand,a pram,a wheelchair,crutches etc they would ring in and then it would be answered later by someone and they would arrange to meet up and collect the item concerned. On this particular day an Italian person rang up to say that he was walking down the road on a windy day and his wig blew off and landed in the road.Sadly before he could pick it up a car ran over it and because of the adhesive it stuck to the tyre and the last he saw of it was when the car disappeared around the corner with his wig flapping around the tyre. His request was that if anyone found a wig stuck to their tyre he would like it back!!

Has anyone got it ????

Al :lol:

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I am always happy to help in any way that I can. :D

I love the humor and sense of community engendered by the shared thoughts and feelings of the members of this site.

There's nothing like a good belly laugh to lighten the load.....or a wonderful piece played on the concertina.

 

Yvonne

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 years later...

I've had an annoying chest pain for the last few weeks.

 

Yesterday I saw my doctor for a regular checkup. When he placed his stethoscope on the sore spot over my heart, I flinched. At that point I confessed to having played my anglos for several hours per day. I knew this was musculoskeletal pain because although it was right over my heart, I wasn't having any other cardiac symptoms.

 

His diagnosis was costochondritis. I was given a short lecture on the nature of the joints between the ribs and the breastbone, how they're related to where the pectoral muscle attaches nearby, and advised to cut back on the activity that caused it and to take over-the-counter antiinflammatories.

 

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Rochelle to keep as a 'beater.' I noticed immediately that it was much more difficult to play than my leaky Lachenal. I had some soreness in the muscles of my arms and shoulders but I decided to take this as an opportunty to build stamina.

 

I was relieved to have confirmation that my pain was not cardiac in origin.

 

Last night I played for 15 minutes on the Lachenal. Nobody listens to their doctor - right, Yvonne? :lol:

Edited by sidesqueeze
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Anyone ever had shooting angina-like chest pain from excessive anglo playing? I'm trying to decide whether its from concertina or pipes, definitely worse after long session nights, relieved with high-dose ibuprofen...

Never mind the pills - you of all people should know better - keep to practising only on i-phone and i-pad applications offered by a certain YOU know who! And it won't cost YOU anything :)

 

Of course your affliction could be because you are spending so much effort developing new apps that you are overdosing by digesting too many (baking) Apples and it is transferred pain from your tummy!

:D

BTW, as usual Al is fibbing and being modest - he knows two things about cars: I can confirm, as witness (and tutor), that he has also learnt how to jam some folded cardboard between the battery and battery frame on his car so that the battery no longer slides around as he drives, while previously it was loosening the terminal connectors and creating starting difficulties!

He is such an Old Card!

Edited by Kautilya
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