Relatively few people know (and even fewer people acknowledge the true severity) of the hidden pains of the people around them. This is not always due entirely to unawareness on those bystanders’ part; sometimes, people keep a matter to themselves because they don’t want to bother others, or they perhaps think it’s not so important to share (I mean, only Twitterers share every detail of their lives, right?), or they might think that mentioning it would attract attention that they would not want for whatever reason.

Whatever the case, people keep certain things to themselves, and I’ve not bothered to mention an issue that’s been plaguing me for a long time due to my growing tired of talking of it. But the fact of the matter is that when your thumb is changing your career path around which you have already built a website, your readers should probably be informed.

As you may or may not know, I got my Bachelor’s of Music Degree in May 2012. I did not apply for any Master’s program because of my interest in composition and other factors. One of those factors is what pushed me deeper into composition than anything else: an injury to my left thumb, which has been outstanding since I injured it in August 2009. Clothes-wringing laundry, of all actions.

Despite the sharp stabs of pain that the base of my since-December-2009-joint-clicking thumb have caused me, I stubbornly trucked right through the Oct. 2009 Louisiana International Piano Competition to reach its semifinals, the Feb. 2010 Cal State Fullerton Music Associates Concerto/Aria Competition to win its Grand Prize, the Fall 2012 Rubinstein IPC for its semifinals, and all the performances in-between, including my junior and senior recitals at CSUF.

7 doctors later, every SINGLE one who diagnosed its cause differently and therefore gave different remedies for it (many of which worsened it), such as a topical ibuprofen, a grip-strengthening device, a splint, and nothing at all (that was one of the first doctor’s declarations: that nothing was wrong!!), and an x-ray and a MRI (both of which yielded no results, at least according to Kaiser Permanente’s pathetic services)… it is still in sporadic pain, a sharp crunching that tends to increase with increased usage. It drove me at one point to learn how to write with my recessive, right hand (which actually in turn I suggest doing for anyone who wants to understand how to properly learn to do something new. It shows you how to approach practicing well).

… and here I am. It haunts me as I simultaneously prepare for a competition and Master’s auditions, about which I’m still not sure. Now I am finally reconsidering surgery after multiple people (not the doctors) warned against it. I had decided against it because I would rather put up with my hand’s current half-manageable state than risk full loss for full recovery, which is the full spectrum of possible outcomes as I see it. Maybe I will leave it as is, yet…

In the meantime, I’m still going forward with a competition DVD, so I’ve been taking much time to piece it together. As a result: Yamb has made its way onto my Freebies page! If you ever need to swap out the poor audio from a video with another, superior audio track, use Yamb. I also used Audacity to synchronize two tracks together. DVDStyler may soon be joining that page, too.

2 thoughts on “Current Updates.

  1. I appreciate it! One doctor I found to be the most accurate assessed it as torn cartilage in the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. Cartilage does not heal on its own so it’s a tricky situation.

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