OK, just about every time I make a cake I end up in pain. My chiropractor is going to make a fortune on me if I don't get this under control and I'm going to have to start adding the cost of a visit to the him into my cake prices! He's actually told me that I may have picked the wrong thing to get into. 
I have pain in my right hand (tingling and pain), pain in my forearm and in my shoulder blade and neck after decorating. (Feet are another problem, but I just have to stop standing barefoot on the tile when I decorate. Bad, I know. 
) Does anyone else have these hand/arm problems? If so, are they preventable? I hate the idea of not doing cakes anymore, but the pain isn't worth it. I also use a handmixer for everything, which doesn't help, but most of the pain stems from decorating anyway. Help!
Maybe you can put your turntable on a riser that lifts the cake higher so you do not have to bend over it as much? Wilton also makes a support glove that you can wear on either hand that might help with the hand pain (or any support glove for carpal tunnel would work). In addition to wearing shoes, you can use an anti-fatigue mat to stand on when decorating - these really help your feet. Maybe you can do some stretches before and after to loosen up the muscles?
I have had two neck surgeries and yes the pain gets much worse when I decorate a cake. So I have learned to make several rest periods while I do them.
I also got trigger finger where your finger locks up when I was taking to many classes at once. Since the classes ended I have not had the problem.
You just need to learn to go slower, take several rests and move your neck around so it doesn't lock up.
With the pain in the arm it sounds like you have a disc problem like I had. Be careful. I was told if I had gone to the chiropractor when I had my problem and he adjusted me I could have the disc push forward even more then it was on spinal cord and I may not be here today.
I would go the dr and get an MRI so you know what you are dealing with before you allow any more adjustments. Just my 2 cents.
Yes yes and yes. I have carpal tunnel which is why my wrist and/or hand hurts. It also hurts from the tension of holding/squeezing the pastry bag for long periods. I've gotten my back and shoulders a little more under control since I started wearing very supportive shoes while decorating (it took awhile to get over my mothers voice in my head "take your shoes off in the house!"). As for the shoulders, I started putting my cake and turntable on top of a box so everything is higher, it helps a ton.
Oh, you should definitely get a stand mixer, if you have carpal tunnel the hand mixer is a killer!
I feel your pain. Literally!
My hands now (since picking up this decorating bug) go numb and I have a lot of wrist & hand trouble. My chiropractor has me doing wrist exercises which work very well. It also keeps you from getting carpal tunnel and having to have surgery. It's usually because you've built up the bottom muscles and they compress on the ligaments etc. causing numbness or pain. I use a water bottle or light hand weight, hold it with your palm facing down and bend your hand up and back. Basically you are lifting the weight with your hand not your arm. Does this even make sense? As for neck and shoulder, that's posture. I have always had problems with that and I work at a computer all day. Propper posture is the way to fix neck and shoulders. Make sure your cake is as high as you need so you're not bending over it all day. Hope this helps!!
Make sure you are streatching. My doctor showed me some streaches using my dish towels. They work great.
Hold the ends of a dish or tea towel. One end in each hand. Then streach the towel out - opening it up completely. Using this streach your hands up in the air all the way and lean to the right streaching and hold for 10 seconds, then to the left side for 10 sec. Sometimes doing this even pops my back and then I really feel great.
Oh and for my neck the doctor told me NOT to roll your neck back - this grids your discs together. He showed how to streach it the correct way. Side to side and forward only.
Hope this helps.
I have cronic back pain which is why I'm a stay at home mom lol. I can't stand for long periods of time so all my decorating is done sitting down at the dining room table. I place a pillow on the chair, put the turn table on top the table put the cake on top of that and go to town. I do still take frequent breaks to smoke which allows my back time to calm down and my hand and arm as well. When I take my breaks I either take them in laying across the bed and having my husband or daughter rub my back or sitting in a nice comfy recliner. Sometimes if the pain is too intense I'll move over to the recliner and use a tv tray table instead.
I will say pain killers work wonders but may cause you to get too loopy and mess up lol. Aleve works great as it is an anti inflamatory and relieves the preasure on your muscles and nerves and stuff. Good luck and I hope the pain gets better! 
Thanks, everyone! The pain in my hands is from squeezing the decorating bags and this weekend I had a groom's cake that I used a grass tip on and a wedding cake where I made a dragon and had to use stiff BC so that the details showed well. Both were killers on my hand. As for my neck and back, these problems started when I was pg the last time and usually a trip to the chirporactor do the trick. He reminds me every time I go that I should see him when the pain starts and not wait till it gets bad, but I always wait so that's my fault and I already had pain before I started the cakes. It took me about 10 hours or so to do both cakes and I did them in one day. Should I space it out over 2 days next time?
Chocomama, you should seriously see about having an MRI done on your back. I have had problems since my daughter was born, she is now 7 1/2 years old.
I went to a doctor about them and he said go have an MRI done before I see a chiropractor and it was a good thing I did!!! I have 3 shattered discs in my lower back I shattered during child birth (note on my chart from then but never told me how nice huh), had I seen the chiropractor before finding out they could've paralized me trying to realign my spine.... so now I have to look forward to having the discs repaired with artifical substaince lol
Yikes! That's some scary stuff! I do know about some of my back problems and what the issues are and I really think I need to talk to my doc more about preventing the pain the next time I see him. He's always on my back (tee hee) about exercising...blah, blah, blah...and I know I should but I'm so lazy. I really need to use that gym membership for which I'm paying! Anyway, I'm going to see the chiropractor this week and will ask him about an MRI (He did an xray and found one troublesome spot in my neck.) and the next time I see my regular physician I'll talk to him, too. 
I have to say it's always interesting to see what people have to say about chiropractors. I don't know where the info comes from, but believe me a chiropractor isn't going to paralyze anyone nor do something harmful. They are DOCTORS. They take x-rays and assess your entire body just like you would expect your physician to before they do anything. If I depended on what an MD told me to do for my breathing and back problems I'd be on meds and not at all feeling better. I guess to each his own, but whatever the choice, I hope you find your feel better regime.
I have always had back and neck trouble and have been to orthopaedic doctors numerous times, only to spend lots of money and for them to tell me nothing is wrong. I had a lot of cakes the other week and woke up one morning only to find out I could not move my neck or get out of the bed. I always thought Chiropractors were not good for you, but I gave in because I was in sooo much pain. Boy, was I glad I did. My neck is better, my hips don't hurt any more, and the tingling has gone from my hands. I go twice a week right now, and it has helped so much. My hands would be numb until about lunch time, which makes it hard to get anything done. You should have seen my makeup.LOL. I have changed my opinion totally about chiropractors!!
DH was in a car accident awhile back and was in a lot of back pain. He couldn't do anything but lie down and the only thing his doc did was put him on pain meds which just made him sleep. He finally went to a chiropractor and instantly felt better and didn't need any meds.
I love my chiropractor. He's young and cute, which doesn't hurt, either! 
There are good and bad chiros just like there are good and bad doctors. You just have to make sure you get a good one!
Do your fingers go numb before you get pain? If so which fingers go numb first? If it's your pointer and thumb, then it's carpal tunnel. If it's middle and ring, then there's usually a neck or spinal problem and can be much harder to find and fix. I would say in you're not getting relief from the chiro, you need to pursue other avenues. You really shouldn't have to continually go to a chiro for relief, unless you're dealing with chronic pain that has no other ways to fix it. In other words, find out what exactly the pain is and go from there.
I'm also a strong believer in accupuncture for pain relief. You may be able to get longer pain relief from accupuncture than a chiro.
Yes, I get numbness first and then pain. When I go to the chiro (and I don't go regularly, btw) he always asks if they're numb or hurting b/c while tingling isn't good, pain is worse. I have some compression issues in my neck and that causes some of my problems but he thinks I may also have carpal tunnel and something happening in my elbow/forearm, too. Fun, huh? Since last week's cakes I've been feeling better and haven't had to see him, but I will definitely think about acupuncture for the future. Thanks!
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