Wrist injury from guitar :(

Has anyone had this before? I've mostly been playing my strat over the last few months, but last Friday I felt like playing my acoustic. So I ended up playing my accosting for over 4 hours and Friday night I felt a very mild pain in my wrist of my picking/strumming hand. I didn't think anything of it since the pain was really mild and there was no inflammation. I attributed this to the thicker strings and the bigger body of the acoustic which I wasn't used to compared to a strat.

I played a combination of both my strat and acoustic on both Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday played catch as well (pain wasn't even noticeable at this point). But Sunday night my right forearm was pretty swollen and any movement in my wrist caused a pain as if gears are grinding inside it.

My questions to anyone experienced with this, could this have been caused by playing the acoustic? I know that throwing a baseball was a poor choice, but I didn't realize the pain was still there. How long should I wait until playing again? I've been icing it, taking aspirins, and applying ice hot, but it's taking a while and I still feel pain moving my wrist. I could play since the pain is not unbearable, mostly just annoying now, but I don't want to take any risks that'll leave me without doing what I love to do most for even longer.

Thanks for any help!

If you can, go see your doctor. For now, you need to stop playing completely. Never play through any kind of wrist or ligament pain. If your wrist hurts, even a little, stop. I don't know how old you are, but if you're 40 or older, you need to know that our bodies change as we age, and unfortunately this kind of thing can become a serious problem. You need to let it heal.

Playing through wrist pain is a good way to permanently end your guitar playing career.

You also need to get that "grinding" thing checked out. I once had something like that happen in my ankle, and the doctor thought it was a strain and said to wear an ankle brace for about 3 months. When that didn't solve the problem, they scanned my ankle and found that a tiny part of a bone had died and broken off. The same thing happened to a drummer friend of mine's wrist. So get it checked out. "Grinding" is not a normal function of your joints. Chances are, with a little time off, you'll be fine, but get it checked out if you can.

deffinately see a doc..