Susan,

You are clearly motivated. That is the biggest step to playing guitar. I suspect you will soon be back at it.

But as someone who has had to deal with a body that complains about too much guitar playing, I can empathise. I have bilatteral eppicondolitis and arthritis in my left wrist and hand, I had to give up guitar for many years as a result of overuse and misuse of my arms and hands. Your learning process sounds very similar to my experience.

I struggled with this until I got PT and then it was a lot of work to change my bad habits. First I changed the way I play guitar according to what the PT said. However, the most elusive part of my return to playing, was learning when to put my ax down. I now try to limit my playing to 45 minutes to an hour per day. I also work on paying attention to what my body is saying. Sometimes that means I don't play as frequently, or as long as I want. This is a kind of paradoxical irony since I am having to apply reverse disipline and put the guitar down when my body says so. Not my strong suit, it doesn't come easy, but it has allowed me to return to playing the instrument I love.

The up side is that I am, once again making steady progress. The down side is that the progress is not as fast, and in many cases as fun, as playing for hours. Playing for hours is how I taught myself to play guitar. It is where I wrote music. It is a constant temptation to return to my old Jahadi approach. But, I have come to realize that I am not the one who gets to make those decisions. Now I listen to my body and do what it says. I got there by listening to my PT. Slow and steady, seems to be winning this race for me.