Broken finger, damn.

[tomanyjacksons]

Anyone hear break a finger on their fretting hand? Today at work I broke the last bone on the tip of my left ring finger. I hope it will be good enough to play with in a week and a half. My band has had bad luck lately with getting everybody to practice and now I've really screwwed things up. Any recovery thoughts from others?

[daisp]

Broke my wrist last week at hockey...I feel your pain

[Trem]

Ouch, bummer... both of you. I tend to gravitate away from things that are potentially harmfull to my hands or digits

[Nimitz]

If it makes you feel any better I once broke both bones in my arm and had to have surgery. During surgery they moved a nerve to install the plate and screws to get the bones back together, I lost all feeling and movement in my hand, they said I might never have moment again... so for months I only had one working hand.

This was my fretting arm, so I would pick the guitar normally and place my dead hand over the top on the neck and try to depress my thumb on anything... for months I was doing this and slowly but surely my hand started to move again... if I didn't play guitar I don't know if my hand would have came back form the dead like it did.

I was much faster with my fret hand before I fucked it over... but it was all my fault and I got what I deserved.

I broke it drunk driving... 19yrs old




Anyway I would tape up the finger and try to play with the other three.

I hear beer or a certain herbal plant can help with these matters...

[Musician78]

I broke my thumb on my picking hand about ten years ago. I still played though. Unfortunately arthritis is creeping in.

[Twitch]

I had stitches up the inside of my fretting hand index finger once. It hurt like hell when the stitches would get caught on the fret ends. Also, in June of last year, I jammed my middle, index and ring fingers on my left hand so bad that I couldnt really move them for two days and the middle finger hurt to move side to side for almost 3 months. Vicodin wouldnt even kill the pain(I think I might have actually green-sticked or even partially broken the middle finger). I cant imagine what it would be like to actually play on a broken finger. Id be real careful, you could mess your hand up for life if the tension caused by sliding your hand up and down the fretboard causes the finger to heal improperly, ie. crooked, re-broken or worse. Im no doctor, but it makes sense to me that that could happen. Same principle as the body modifications of the Japanese(the whole geisha foot thing, wearing shoes that are too small causing the feet to grow dis-proportionally over time) and some weird tribe in Africa(neck elongation by adding stacked rings around the neck over time). Also, Ive found you can pick a random person out of a crowd thats not wearing glasses but deduce that they had been for years. Your head seems to grow around your glasses if you wear them long enough(Ive been wearing them since I was 3, and you can tell if I take them off).

Bottom line, Id be real careful playing before its fully healed.

[Axewielder]

My fingers work pretty good, but I feel a debilitating bout of G.A.S. coming on.

[atomic charvel guy]

sorry about that, that does suck especially if you gotta play next week.
i compound fractured my left thumb playing football in high school, the bone was thoroughly exposed.
grizzly affair i tell you. it took 3 months in a cast, and it finally came back to life.
i have nothing of value to help outside of resting your finger, which is a given. hope it's ready to roll
for you soon.

[Hellbat]

I believe that generally fractures take 4-6 weeks to heal for relatively healthy individuals. (Depending on severity of the fracture of course. 4-6 weeks is typical of a clean break. Shatters and crushes can take much longer.)

[gotwtt]

i fractured the top of my left arm just before Christmas and were it was broke they couldn't put in a cast just a sling . it took a month before i could start using it to play its still broke should be March the doc said because it was a bad brake for a full recovery.

[Axegrinder87]

I broke my index medicarpal completely in half on my left hand. After 2 months, I took a few tabs, and a few shots of Captain, and played Guitar Hero, until it hurt. About a month after that I picked up a guitar again. Took a while to get fretting strength back.

I also play pretty funny now. I have a lot of trouble playing the low string in the home position. So I use my thumb and ring finger to play power chords, up to the 5th fret. Sometimes I'll also use my middle finger and pinky, just depends on where I came from, and where I'm going.

It took me about 2 years to get back to 100%. Only because it was so frustrating. Also, having to change my technique around was quite the obstacle. But I do what I do, to do what I do.

[atomic charvel guy]

gotwtt. i fractured my left shoulder 4 weeks ago, and i'm in a sling too, no cast. makes it hard to sleep let me tell you.

[stevieb91]

I broke 3 fingers on my left hand in four places the summer before I started playing, and it doesn't seem to have a negative effect.. I mean, I suck anyway, but they function normally..

[rjohnstone]

gotwtt. i fractured my left shoulder 4 weeks ago, and i'm in a sling too, no cast. makes it hard to sleep let me tell you.

That's what you get for playing chicken with a car.

I kid, I kid.

Get well to all of you.

I'm currently dealing with chemical burns on both hands. Skin will split and bleed or just plain tear off if I slide my hands across the guitar. String bends.... not happening anytime soon.
Word to the wise boys and girls... if the bottle of "whatever you're using to remove something from another object" says wear gloves... they mean it.
Over a year ago I was removing wallpaper from my girls room and the shit wouldn't come off. I buy this killer blue shit and try it on a small area. Didn't think much of it as I was putting it on, but I did start to feel burning. I washed my hands pretty quick, but it was too late.
It acted as a de-fattening agent and sucked all the moisture right out of my skin. It was paper thin and bleeding.
Year and half later and it's about 50% healed. Have good weeks and bad. The bad weeks are crazy as my fingers are covered in liquid skin bandages. (Their current condition)
But I can still chug out a rhythm if I don't get too crazy.

[Scooter]

I worked construction for 20+ years, and have broken just about every finger on both hands (yeah, I dumb-assed myself on occasion.) If movement is still there, ice it to keep swelling down. But, if it's swollen and technicolored (blue, black, yellow, green, AND purple,) immobilize it completely and ice it down some more. Small breaks form a small callous (the lump around the break as it heals) which can hinder playing abilities too. Best bet is to have a real doctor check it out.

[atomic charvel guy]

That's what you get for playing chicken with a car.

I kid, I kid.

Get well to all of you.

I'm currently dealing with chemical burns on both hands. Skin will split and bleed or just plain tear off if I slide my hands across the guitar. String bends.... not happening anytime soon.
Word to the wise boys and girls... if the bottle of "whatever you're using to remove something from another object" says wear gloves... they mean it.
Over a year ago I was removing wallpaper from my girls room and the shit wouldn't come off. I buy this killer blue shit and try it on a small area. Didn't think much of it as I was putting it on, but I did start to feel burning. I washed my hands pretty quick, but it was too late.
It acted as a de-fattening agent and sucked all the moisture right out of my skin. It was paper thin and bleeding.
Year and half later and it's about 50% healed. Have good weeks and bad. The bad weeks are crazy as my fingers are covered in liquid skin bandages. (Their current condition)
But I can still chug out a rhythm if I don't get too crazy.

hay-zeus christo RJ, i'm sorry about that. sounds very very painful to me. fuck.

[RacerX]

Damn, don't read this thread while eating!

[gotwtt]

yea atomic it took me a week to start sleeping laying down i was sleeping in a chair for a week really painful. i went to the hospital yesterday and im starting physio in a week or two

[atomic charvel guy]

you're a lucky man then, and healing up quicker than i am, i haven't slept on my stomach since the accident and that is how i sleep, completely
sprawled across the bed and i'm a manic sleeper as it is, this has sucked balls to say the least but i am definitely better than 4 weeks ago.
time sometimes goes backwards at night. madness in strong form.

[CowboyFromHell]

Back in the late 80's I was working on a riding mower that had some transmission issues. This one was a front engine, trans with shifter between the riders legs just in front of the seat. Had it up on blocks working on it with the engine running. Yes, I know, but it was necessary to check gear engagement. Well, as you probably expected, it slipped some and before I knew what happened, the middle finger on my left hand was pinched between the sprocket, attached to the shaft that comes out of the side of the trans, and it's chain. The points of the sprocket punched a series of holes around my finger resulting in a broken finger with nothing but a small piece of flesh holding it on. Luckily the docs were able to reattach it but unfortunately it happened the week before we were heading to the beach for vacation. Still went but it was nowhere near as enjoyable as it would've been. Anyway, it healed up ok, retained function but lost alot of feeling in the left hand from nerve damage. Makes playing "interesting" at times but is definitely handicap. Hope yours was a clean break and doesn't result in any permanent damage.