OK, I know this may sound a little weird....but lately I have been getting muscle spasms/twitches in my thumb. I think it's from piping.

Is this happening or happened to anyone??

Ugh oh....it might indeed be the start of carpal tunnel syndrome. It's pretty common in people that work in jobs that use repetitive hand movements (knitting, sewing, writing, typing, etc.)

Be careful and ease off the hours of piping. I had such problems with it that I was facing surgery to ease the pressure. At night, my hands would go cold and numb because I'd pipe cookies 16+ hours a day!

You just need to do shorter periods of piping, then do other work. Give yourself and your hands a break whenever you can.

Here's a few threads that talked about it recently....

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-545573-tunnel.html
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-55223-tunnel.html

and a great explanation of it....

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm


I got a lot of info (and a HUGE wake-up call) from these topics above.

The morning after doing a few cakes I woke up and my hands were completely dead. Picture if you will the phone ringing and trying to answer it but you can't move your hands. I had like wax hands. I was swinging them off the side of the bed trying to wake them up.

Only me I swear.

I don't get pain or numbness, I get arm weakness. I heard that could be the start of it too.

I'm also a medical transcriptionist full-time. Ugh. If I had to choose, I'd definitely quit the MT job.

Thanks for the info!

Luckily, I'm not feeling pain just my thumb keeps twitching and sometimes gets "locked"...

Just a quick question, are you by chance diabetic? my sister is, and she gets this thing where her fingers "lock" in a position and she can't move them. she is on a computer alot during the day, so that doesn't help.
just a thought.
i get this pain that shoots through the palm of my hand, and makes my hand very weak, but it happens while i'm piping, not afterward. if i stretch my hand and stop piping for a bit, it eases up.

No way. In the muscle right below my thumb, it has been spasming-contracting all on its own. I started thinking I was going to come down with some terrible neuormuscular thing!
It makes me feel better you have had it to. I get it after working with a lot of fondant....

Try wearing supports bands on your wrist when you do this.