Embouchure Symptoms Similar to Swelling

[ddickerson]

However, when I look in a mirror, my chops don't look like they are swollen.

But, if I drink a cold drink with ice, and let the ice cool my embouchure down a bit, my embouchure plays fresh again. I googled swollen embouchure and got a lot of responses relating to medicines, allergies, etc.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

[Redthunder]

However, when I look in a mirror, my chops don't look like they are swollen.

But, if I drink a cold drink with ice, and let the ice cool my embouchure down a bit, my embouchure plays fresh again. I googled swollen embouchure and got a lot of responses relating to medicines, allergies, etc.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

Has this been happening for a while? Does it happen every time you play? And if it does, after how long do you start to feel the swelling?

I used to get swelling all the time, after less than half an hour of playing. For me, It was related to mechanical issues about how I played, rather than any external factors.

You should probably talk to Doug or Dave Wilken if you can't attribute the swelling to any external, non-trombone-playing factors.

[Doug Elliott]

It doesn't take much to feel it.
There's always a little day-to-day variation from unknown causes. Today I have a little pinhead sized blister just inside my bottom lip right in the middle. I have no idea what caused it - I played a fairly hard big band gig on Sunday 3 days ago and haven't touched my horn since then. I have gigs the next two nights.
For unknown swelling for no apparent reason, I'd try Advil and maybe an allergy medication like Zyrtec, and drink a lot of water. Allergies have been really bad for me the past few days, my throat is swollen and feels hard to breathe all the time.

[ddickerson]

For unknown swelling for no apparent reason, I'd try Advil and maybe an allergy medication like Zyrtec, and drink a lot of water. Allergies have been really bad for me the past few days, my throat is swollen and feels hard to breathe all the time.

Thank you Doug for replying. I don't think it is an allergy thing, and I don't think I have a swelling issue, even though the symptoms point me in that direction. (??)

Googling landed me on a pretty good blog for horn players that had a thorough discussion, but one of the main things that almost all of the professionals said was "you need to just practice anyway with the swelling, as this will help you when your chops are better". My words, just paraphrasing.

That's what I've been doing because I wasn't aware that there were steps you could take to get immediate relief. In that blog, several suggested using ice if you had an important performance coming up. That's why I used the ice, and it does work for me. Immediately, but not sure how long it lasts before having to go to ice again. LOL!

Red suggested looking at mechanical issues, and I have been looking at my breathing support to see if it helps. Now, my issue really only affects me in the range between C, octave above middle C, and F above that. Below that, and I can pretty much play all day long.

Anyway, thank you for your suggestions.