Hand Injuries …

ScreamingDave

…. More precisely, lost fingertips!!

I gigged on Friday night for the first time after slicing the very tip of my ring finger off about four weeks ago.  It looked perfectly healed, but man was it tender by the end of the gig.  Those long bends were getting quite painful, but I carried on to the end like the complete and utter bloody hero I am! 

Anyone else had any injuries they’ve had to play through?

AntonHunter

I had a bit of tendonitis once upon a time, Alexander Technique really helped with that.

I'm a stuck record here but https://www.bapam.org.uk/ are fantastic for any injury or health issue related to performing. Got great factsheets on warming up correctly, protecting your voice, mental health etc etc but also have free consultations if needed. I know a few people who have benefitted from this. If there's any nerve damage or anything, might be worth dropping them a line.

All the best for your recovery. 

ICBM

I broke my left arm quite badly at the elbow 8 years ago. Since I had a metal piece put in and it didn't need setting in a cast, to my surprise I was able to play bass again for band practices only three weeks later, with my arm in a sling and some fairly strong painkillers - only a very short scale bass at first, since I just couldn't reach out very far to the left. I went up to a normal short-scale Fender Mustang after a few more weeks, and did the first couple of gigs afterwards with that. It was about six months before I could reach properly to play my Rickenbacker again.

RocknRollDave

ScreamingDave said:

…. More precisely, lost fingertips!!

I gigged on Friday night for the first time after slicing the very tip of my ring finger off about four weeks ago.  It looked perfectly healed, but man was it tender by the end of the gig.  Those long bends were getting quite painful, but I carried on to the end like the complete and utter bloody hero I am! 

Anyone else had any injuries they’ve had to play through?

Did exactly the same thing to my left-hand little finger a few weeks back. Bled like madness.
 Was a Tuesday night, gigged the Saturday. Certain barre chords were very ouchy. I’m not one for using that finger a lot in lead lines, so there were workarounds in that respect but, yeah, very ouchy.

Stratavarious

I sliced my fretting hand little finger tip deeply and through the side of my nail to the middle.. it was a month of pain at gigs before it healed enough to not sting when used.  If the string caught in the cut and pulled the nail, it was agony.  I had about 5 days between the injury and the first of a run of gigs but it was tough going for the first 10 days or so when I still had a big finger plaster on so was getting by trying to play alternate chords and solos without the pinkie.

Eventually the remains of sliced loose nail grew out enough to pull off, which was a relief.

You can use superglue or similar to add a faux layer of skin and I had a thin flexible plaster on for a bit.