[starsailor]

I was a bit surprised it was your Strumming hand Maddog, when you were practicing were you doing strumming for the practice or mixing it up a bit, there can be a bit of tension in the playing hand just as in the fretting hand so that has to be relaxed as well, if you're taking painkillers it might be worth running it past the Doctor to see if there's any underlying problem causing it, if it's that painful probably best to take some time off as you could just make it worse, just my opinion, hope it improves soon Maddog, it's not unusual with guitar as there are a lot of repetitive movements, it's always best to do a few stretching exercises or warm ups before you play, we're sort of like Musical Athletes, the old muscles need to be kept warm.