Fingertip Injuries & Musicians - Anyone Out There?

[John Newell]

Without getting into the details right now (on the run for work), I had a fairly serious fingertip injury on a router table late last year. One of my hobbies is playing the guitar (and keyboards). It's really early to predict whether I'm going to be able to do either, especially play the guitar, and I know each injury and patient is different, but...if anyone out there is in a roughly similar position/has had roughly equivalent experiences, I'd love to discuss a little how things went/are going for you. Many thanks....

[Al Willits]

Can't remember names off the top of my head, but there are more than a few major players who are missing a finger or two, it can be done, might be a bit more work, but I wouldn't give up playing.

Al

[Doug Shepard]

Investigate Django Reinhardt (sp?). He basically had only 2 working fretting fingers after a fire accident. Guys with all 5 have a serious hard time keeping up with him.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I got two fingers (2nd & 3rd left hand) stuck under a lawn mower when I was like 8.

Then years later while driving stakes in the ground shoring up a porch roof for renovation I nailed my index finger with a 16 pound sledge exploding the bone into slivers.

The first injuries lasted as painful and troubling for almost 40 some odd years the latter about 20.

The fingers are still a little messed up but there is no pain any longer and I have full functionality. However, it made sure that I was a flat picker cause I couldn't pluck strings with the left hand.

[John Newell]

Eek, that's much worse than what I did to myself. I took a furrow out of the middle starting just about at the outside end of the nail and running up about the length of the nail. What's concerning me is that I took a little bit of the bone as well and a couple of months later it's still very, very tender. I realize that over time this may get substantially better, though I doubt it'll go away permanently...my concern is that it might not get better at all and I may be effectively three-fingered (as your posts discuss)...<sigh>.

It's a little hard to even discuss this, between the fact that it's very humiliating to admit you did something stupid like that in a forum like this, and the fact that music is really important to me & my mental health...thanks for your suggestions, please keep 'em coming.

[Joe Chritz]

To make a long story short I had some help having a fairly serious knife injury to the inside joint of my index finger a few years ago. Basically right between the middle and index finger. It didn't fully severe the tendon but did enough to cause issues with scar tissue and I still don't have full sensation in it.

The doc that I went to about the tendon "popping" when I moved my hand said if I was 10 it would heal in 10-20 years but since I was 30 it would probably always be like it is. Now the only problem I get with it is that it occasionally will "lock". I expect it is scar tissue or something.

Until yours heal it is pretty hard to say what level of recovery you will have. Like already mentioned, even without it you can retrain your self to over come it.

Joe

[Steven Wilson]

As I've gotten older I'm starting to get more trigger release problems with my fingers. A few years ago I had a major problem with my left thumb in that it locked up and the staph infection from the surgery almost killed me (it's not good when they have to do three surgeries and then run a pick line). Well it took almost a year to regain full dexterity in my left hand. Now, I find that a couple of other fingers are having periodic lockup issues. I make sure that I warm up properly, include finger, wrist, and hand exercises when I lift, and concentrate on good technique when playing bass, cittern, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.

[Ken Werner]

John, sorry to hear of your troubles. I think there's reason to be hopeful. The body does heal slowly after the initial healing is looking done. I think it could be a year before you are close to a final result. Could you use your middle finger with a slide? Might open up some options anyway. Best to you.

Ken

[Paul Fitzgerald]

My father (guitarist and cabinet maker) cut the tips off three fingers on his fretting hand. I don't think it was too terribly bad, but you can still tell where it happened if you look at his fingertips.

Now, it's probably a couple decades since it happened. And he's been playing every weekend for as long as I can remember. So as long as the damage isn't too great, I can't imagine you won't recover 100%. After all, my father did... and he's no worse for the wear.

Paul

[Randy Denby]

I am missing two fingers on my left hand. They are the pinky and pointer fingers. Never had'em , as my mother took a morning sickness medicine whilest carrying me called thalidomide. This was in '56. I was lucky as I have read where there were people born without arms and legs caused by this drug . My mother was pretty sharp, and encouraged my fascination with the guitar. I realized at an early age, it would be easier to play left handed as I'd have more fingers for chords. I do finger pick with my left hand using all three fingers. Im 51 this month, and have been playing since I was about 9yrs old. I realize my situation is different as I dont have any pain from severed/altered fingers...but still its Great therapy....dont give up !
Randy

[Dexter Hahn]

14 years ago I peeled the ends off of my index, middle, and ring fingers on my left (fretting) hand. Took all the callous off and most of the skin almost to the bone, and cut a good 1/4" of the nails off. It took me almost a year to get back to normal, now you can barely tell I even had an injury at all. I do experience a little tenderness at times when I'm playing guitar, but not all the time and it's bearable.

[John Newell]

Thanks, guys, lots of good encouragement and ideas there.

There is always a Dobro, as one of you wiseguys mentioned!

[Mike Langford]

This is one of several (close calls) hand injuries.....I was installing a fluorescent light fixture in our laundry room,and had just finished putting wire nuts on and was taping them. I wrapped the last one and I pulled on the electrical tape to break it.....and when it snapped it sent my middle finger right into the razor sharp sheet metal edge of the fixture!
It laid open the top of the finger and exposed the bone!
Took seven stitches....after it healed it remains in the slightly curved shape like in the picture. I can force it straight with no problem,but at rest it's slightly curved.
Sliced&Diced.jpg
Being curved doesn't affect my pickin' because I pick holding a pick and using my middle finger too ala Glen Campbell style. (My guitar hero!!)

Pickin' the 12...
100_2612.jpg
Works for the banjo too...
BanjoPickin.jpg

[John Newell]

I know this is an incredibly old thread, but hey, it's my thread, and I wanted to post how things are working out. My accident was 12/31/08 so it's now a little over 15 months later. What I'm finding is:

1. Oddly, missing a (relatively small) portion of the bone on my middle LH finger does not seem to be a big problem or require a lot of adjustment.

2. As implied by #1 above, I have been able to get back to playing pretty successfully. I was lucky that although there is some nerve loss the location of the injury (mostly the top of the finger) didn't damage a lot of the nerves, which I was told mostly run up the side of the finger. There is some hypersensitivity still, but at this point it's not much different that I'd have experienced if I'd not been playing for 15 months even without the injury.

Bottom line: I'm very optimistic about a full (in practical terms) recovery. It would have been far better to have avoided the accident, but we have to work with what we have...

[Neal Clayton]

tony iommi lost the tips of two of his on a press on his last day at work before sabbath was signed to their first record deal back in the 60s. if i remember correctly he plays with rubber thimbles on the two fingers in question.

http://www.iommi.com/archive/neversaydie.htm