A Painful Couple of Months

August and September were pretty painful from a trumpet player’s perspective, and October is proving to be no different.  Since the start of August I’ve been suffering with a cough that just won’t go away.  After the first month of non-stop coughing, and having pulled my intercostals muscles (an old coughing injury which is now re-occurring) I decided I’d better see a doctor.  The main problem for me here is not the irritating cough, it’s the fact that it simply hurts to breathe in and out under any normal circumstance.  So, imagine if you will, how painful it is to take in enough air to play a brass instrument and then be able to muster enough diaphragm support to blow that air back out again.  So, I went to see the doctor; otherwise I was soon going to have to start turning down work on the basis that it was just too painful to play.The doctor’s first assumption was a chest infection, and so put me on a course of antibiotics, which did nothing to help.  The second assumption was asthma, which they’ve struggled to test me for effectively as my ribs have been so sore that I can’t blow hard enough on the testing equipment for them to register proper results – an odd situation for a trumpet player to be in, I’m sure you’ll agree!  Still baffled by the on-going chest trouble, I was referred for a chest x-ray which came back normal.

Along side the asthma testing I was referred for physiotherapy on the NHS, which has been amazingly helpful.  The stretches and exercises given to me by my physiotherapist, Lorna, have been really very helpful, although without my doctor curing the cough she can only do so much to help me.  And the latest exercise of putting my fingers underneath my ribcage and pulling it outwards is pretty grim.  The intercostal inflammation (which was pulling my ribcage outwards) has gone down but now my diaphragm is under tension (which is pulling my ribcage inwards – hence the new exercise).

After a rehearsal with the Big Beer Band last week I have had two ‘remedies’ suggested to me.  The first was a homeopathic treatment called Bryonia, which is apparently excellent for clearing up coughs (cleared up somebody’s 10-month cough in 2 days apparently).  The second was to try changing my toothpaste…Apparently, toothpaste can contain irritants which can affect the chest and cause relentless coughing; a change in toothpaste brand may solve all my problems.  To be frank, I’m at the stage where I’m willing to try anything.  The toothpaste suggestion was a very interesting one.  I have been staying with a friend recently and using their toothpaste and my cough was much better until I went back home again.  However, a week on with different toothpaste and I’m still coughing, so I guess that’s not it.  I haven’t managed to find any Bryonia but am now trying an alternative homeopathic remedy for coughs and chest trouble.  In the meantime I shall just have to keep loading up on the “2x Ibuprofen + 2x paracetamol to be taken 1 hour before playing” method, which does work, but I’d prefer not to have to take so many drugs and just get the cough sorted once and for all.

The time has come…

The time has come to share the ins-and-outs of life as a freelance musician with anybody who may take an interest in such things.  Hopefully my posts will prove to be interesting and insightful (as long as I’ve got plenty of work on and therefore plenty to talk about – but we won’t go into that right now!)

Actually, I will go into that right now (how contrary).  Life as a freelancer is particularly tricky when you’re early in your career, pretty fresh out of music college as I am (I graduated in June 2008), and trying to build up your network of contacts and people who  can put work your way.  Sometimes opening the diary fills me with dread as I know there’s just not enough work in it to pay the rent this month; other times you’re so rushed off your feet that you live on 4 hours sleep a night and can’t even remember where your diary is (thank goodness for the iPhone/Google Calendar sync technology!).

Hopefully I’ll have enough fun work to blog about and which will be of interest to anybody other than me (and my landlord and my bank manager).  If this week’s anything to judge by (and I hope it is!) then that shouldn’t be a problem – more on that later…right now, I have to take my dog for a walk.  She’s been listening to trumpet practice and beginner trumpet lessons all afternoon and is now giving me ‘that look’ – the ‘please can we go for a walk now, PLEASE?!’ look.  I’d better take her out!