[Trombone-l] Left hand pinky pain

[Jon Studer]

I spend most of day job at the computer and use lots of keyboard shortcuts that involve my pinky finger on my left hand. Over the last few weeks, I’ve started developing some pain and minor numbness in my pinky that extends into my hand. 

Playing my trombone tonight I realized that the pain is also happening as I hold my horn and use my pinky to hold the slide when not locked. 
I’ve noticed that I also tend to use the pinky to hold the weight of my mobile phone while using it for other than phone calls. I’m working to retrain my self on this to reduce stress on it. 

I regularly use ErgoBone to hold the weight of my horn, so no pain in my hand, just my pinky at the finger knuckles. 

Any suggestions on how I can head this off before it gets worse would be much appreciated. 

Thanks in advance,
-Jon