Hand injuries and how you had to adjust to them

Andros

Once upon a time when i began playing guitar i used to use my thumb for top string. But then disaster struck and i broke it and it set in the wrong place and had to have an operation, which resulted into it not being as flexible as before. So i had to swtich to the traditional way, any of you had injuries that have affected the way you play guitar now ?

ekwatts

I fell on a spike once and had to rest it on my other leg, making it a bit of a stretch.

element062

I read somewhere that you're supposed to play on your left leg if your right handed and right leg if you're left handed but that feels way to weird to me.

johnniespring

oh.

SillyBilly

is it your cu-tic-uls that is that skin bit that on your finger nails? well my right hands middle finger cuticles have been scabby and brown for about 6 years now.... i dont even feel when i cut it now.

i also had one of my left hand fingers crack. like the skin got so hard and dry it actually had a crack in it. hurt so bad. took ages to heal aswell. ☹

ekwatts

element062 said: I read somewhere that you're supposed to play on your left leg if your right handed and right leg if you're left handed but that feels way to weird to me.

Er, I think you got it wrong. If you play left handed, it rests on your left leg, if you play right handed, it rests on your right leg.

danielfenger

my right handed midle finger has always some loos skin and hurts after playing guitar from bending and vibrato's ... I hate that

teenageRiot

I remeber when i broke glass in my hand, i piece of glass went right into my hand i could see my bone it was pretty sick. Blood comeing out everywhere. I had to get stitches in my hand i couldnt really do anything with that hand for like a month. But still till this day, if i bend it back to a certain point it hurts like hell. Im not sure why though.

Rick

my left arm was absolutely jiggered. i fell about 20 feet onto it once and it really hurt. but i didn't think it hurt enough to be broken, so didn't go to the hospital. perhaps i really should've done. at first i thought it'd never get better, but i seem to be back to near 100% with it now. it still hurts sometimes though. so obviously, it can effect playing

N_Strow

Nice one.

othomas2

element062 said: I read somewhere that you're supposed to play on your left leg if your right handed and right leg if you're left handed but that feels way to weird to me.

Thats for classical guitar element...

I have a gangleon on my left wrist which has pretty much gone now, but feels a little achee sometimes when playing. Broke my thumb and both arms but they don't effect anything other than press ups...

blane

someone said: my left arm was absolutely jiggered. i fell about 20 feet onto it once and it really hurt. but i didn't think it hurt enough to be broken, so didn't go to the hospital.

please explain why you didn't go to the hospital. don't you guys have healthcare coverage paid with your taxes?

guess i'm not sure how the english medical system works.. but in america man i never go to the doctors cause i don't have insurance.

but if i could literally walk in and be treated no questions asked and pay nothing outta pocket. i'd be going to the dr. as often as i felt something was wrong.

blane

all my major hand and arm injuries came before the guitar.

Rick

i didn't want to be a burdon on the already overstretched NHS. plus i don't like doctors and stuff. i even waited 6 months before plucking up the courage to have a cyst on one of my testicles looked at. and when i did, i saw the doctor. he said it was benign, but that he was going to send me to see a specialist anyway. so then i went to see the specialist. it was a WOMAN!!! she felt my bumbs. then also said it was probably benign. but that she'd send me for a scan anyway. so when i went for the scan, this geezer smeared a load of slime over my balls and got this ultrasound scanner on them. he said it was probably benign, but that i'd have to see yet another specialist, who would tell me his opinion. then when i went to see him, he said it was probably ok. but to come and see him in a years time. i never went.

nine

Andros said: Once upon a time when i began playing guitar i used to use my thumb for top string. But then disaster struck and i broke it and it set in the wrong place and had to have an operation, which resulted into it not being as flexible as before. So i had to swtich to the traditional way, any of you had injuries that have affected the way you play guitar now ?

You'll find a way around it after it heals.

I cut the tendons to my right pinky while working at a glass factory when I was younger. I had a cast on and couldn't really use my fingers, but still managed to play a big show with a pick duct taped to my thumb. One of the other guitarists in the headlining band was playing with a broken collarbone that night as well. It was a pretty funny scene- two bands with two injured people still playing.

I ended up playing a show with a broken collarbone later on as well. It was excrutiating, but we were opening up for Sum41, so I wasn't about to not play.

I also broke my right hand a couple of years ago and was back to drumming 2 months later. I know what you mean about losing flexibility though. I can't move my right pinky and 3rd finger as well as before.

Ididntdrinkit

last november i was playing in a soccer tournament and i was was tripped and i automaticly stuck my arm out to stop my fall. so i landed with my arm straight and my body fell on it and the guy who tripped me fell on top of me too, and my medial epicondile snapped off (thats the little bone that pokes out on your elbow) and i dislocated my elbow too... it sucked. i got up and my arm was bent at a weird angle. then the other coach yelled at me for faking being hurt. i got to ride in the ambulence, but they wouldnt let me play with the horns.

so i got to the hospital and got put on ALOT of morphine so they could bend my arm enough to xray it. then i was in a cast for 8 weeks, which tightened my tendon in my elbow, and i still cant straighten my arm out. SOOO anyway, ive been doing physical therapy 3 times a week, getting up at 4 in the morning to go to Walter Reed with my dad where huge military guys heat me up in this fluido therapy machine which is basicly a whirl pool with sand instead of water and it heats up to 120 degrees. then they push on my arm to straighten it out. its really fun..... 🙄

blane

someone said: didn't want to be a burdon on the already overstretched NHS. plus i don't like doctors and stuff. i even waited 6 months before plucking up the courage to have a cyst on one of my testicles looked at. and when i did, i saw the doctor. he said it was benign, but that he was going to send me to see a specialist anyway. so then i went to see the specialist. it was a WOMAN!!! she felt my bumbs. then also said it was probably benign. but that she'd send me for a scan anyway. so when i went for the scan, this geezer smeared a load of slime over my balls and got this ultrasound scanner on them. he said it was probably benign, but that i'd have to see yet another specialist, who would tell me his opinion. then when i went to see him, he said it was probably ok. but to come and see him in a years time. i never went.

sounds like the american clinic.

started having a sore throat one day like back in oct of last year. put it off put it off. finally the pain just got ####in' insane. i was literally up all night just wondering what the #### was wrong with me if i was gonna die. went to the doctor. paid $157 for her to go "doesn't look infected come back in a week" went back next week $157 for the dr to go looks infected her's a perscription for anti-botics. ($87 out of pocket for the medicine) only to take it all to no effect, went dr. again... $157 later i go see the STD clinic $87 dollars and a week later. tests are clean, told to go see a throat specialist. (no open apointments for 5 weeks) in the mean time the pain gets severe even more and it's been 5-6 months now. so one night in the middle of a blizzard i drag my parents outta bed at 3a.m. and force them to drive me to the emergency room so i can get some proper x-rays and #### done.

$894 dollars and 6 tests later. looks like your anemic, no idea why your throat hurts go see a specialist.

finally go to see the specalist specialist says looks fine i owe him $250 for his 15min. Dr. tells me to go see a diffrent doctor.

go to see one more #### doctor, only for him to go "hum everything seems normal, sounds like their is a problem in your jaw and it's pinching the nerves in your neck and throat, go see a dentist, or an oral surgen to be sure. so i pay that doctor another $150, and i go see the dentist who see's the problem after a $200 check up, and wants me to come in once every two weeks to have each individual tooth adjusted at a whooping $95 a tooth. dentist say's i need about 28 out of my 33 teeth ####ed with and it'll relieave some pressure from my jaw and hopefully reduce muscles.

well by now i was quite broke and in debt up to my ears to my parents.

so i said #### it and decided i'd rather die then keep paying those assholes.

and that jhonny spring is why i don't respect doctors.

Rick

dental treatment is the only thing not available on the NHS here (unless you're dolescum or a student or something). i haven't been to the dentist since i was 17. are my teeth falling out? nope. i never eat sugar or have soft drinks. just milk and water (and ale). dentists are nothing but thieves in my eyes

BobArsecake

I sliced through the top of my finger once while cutting bread, but I just put some superglue on/over it, hahahaha, but really, it works a treat, the skin heals underneath it, and it didn't really hurt pressing on the strings, I just had to keep putting a fresh coat on as it'd rub off a bit. Not that bloody super.

deathtolowEbuzz

well I feel sorry for you americans, because up in the great white north of canada we have free health care, all those checkups you had to pay #### loads of money for I could get done for free.

the wheather may suck ass, but It is nice knowing that if my throwt is sore, it wont cast me $250 for a doctor to tell me "your fine, rest for a week".