Have you ever sustained an injury that made it impossible to play guitar for a period of time?

[Franko]

Sometimes I read stories about Olympic athletes, who will train their entire lives and dedicate everything to a sport.
And one day they have a mishap, and break or injure something, and thats it? career over.
That kind of story terrifies me. Till this day I am afraid to cut a bagel with a sharp knife.
A few years back, I cut my index finger pretty badly on a broken plate while doing dishes. I had to get stitches and was going
crazy for the 3 week period with no playing whatsoever.
I often think about Tony Iommi's famous story.
As I write you this, I have a nail infection. My entire middle finger on my fretting hand is inflamed and read and extremely painful.
Nothing seems to make it go away. I can still play guitar but only with my finger bandaged up like a mummy.
Do you guys have any injury stories?

 

[Matt08642]

Just don't cut a bagel like this and you should be fine

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

When I was 17, I was a drunk dumbass and broke my pinky metacarpal by punching a wall really hard because someone dared me to. I didn't realize that my hand was broken for 3 days, because it didn't hurt too bad and I was hanging out with my friends climbing rocks taller than me, etc. no problem. But the swelling wouldn't get better so I went to a doctor and found out that it was broken. So the doctor put my right hand and forearm into a cast that I was supposed to wear for a month.
But this was also the time I was getting into home recording and recording my own album, and I was very serious about it. I had to play the guitar. So I took the cast off by myself after 1 day and only put it back on to sleep, in case I fell asleep on top of my hand or something. It was pretty fucking dumb but it healed fine and I didn't lose any mobility..

 

[High Plains Drifter]

Just a couple years ago I experienced a fair amount of pain in my hands/ fingers... thought it might be CTS... still dunno. It didn't force me to stop playing completely but it was uncomfortable enough that I had to go from playing daily to maybe just an hour or so each week. That was scary tbh but after changing my diet, eating habits, and greatly increasing my water intake, the condition finally subsided. It def hurt my chops but only short term.

From what you're describing, OP I'd sure as hell get to the ER. Don't let something treatable turn into something permanent.

 

[wannabguitarist]

Go to the ER. Don't fuck around with infections.

I've been working through really bad golfer's and tennis elbow in my fretting arm since the end of 2022. Actually stopped playing guitar, outside of a weekly 15min noodle, from February 2023 to September 2023. At one point the pain was so bad I could barely hold my newborn. I can mostly play pain free now, but it really depends on how diligent I am about my physical therapy and if I went too hard in the gym. Take care of your body.

 

[nightflameauto]

I busted my fretting hand in a bicycle accident in 2006. Couldn't play for about two months. I spent the time writing MIDI drum parts for tunes I knew I wanted to record and just hummed the guitar parts until I could play again. LOL. That's some seriously bad acapella metal.

Athletes, especially Olympic athletes, need to be healthy at a very precise time, or they're done. Guitarists can be drunk, stoned, stupid, and have all sorts of injuries, but you can eventually recover from anything short of an amputation and learn to play again. Some folks even manage to learn to play again after an amputation. Or turn to a different instrument just to keep the music going.

 

[Yul Brynner]

I had this weird shit going on with the palm of my right hand when I was 15. Like some kind of ring worm type thing maybe. It was this mark under the skin that moved around extremely slowly and left a nasty bloody trench behind it. It made a couple of painful squiggles on my palm over about three weeks and then disappeared leaving no trace. I had just started learning to play and getting all into Metallica so it may have just been the evil demon entering my picking hand.

 

[NoodleFace]

Frozen shoulder in both shoulders. Not fun. Not exactly debilitating for guitar but my arms get really sore after about 15 minutes of playing. My left is mostly healed but the right is still rough.

Have to go to PT and stuff for it. Funny thing is no injury caused it... just happened.

 

[IbanezDaemon]

I have bad CTS fretting arm, arthritis in left arm and neck and 2 prolapsed discs in my neck which cause tingling down my left side. I have to wear a brace on my left arm....which helps my muting technique....lol! Can only play for real short periods....sometimes not at all.

 

[Goblet of Gore]

Tendonitis in fretting arm that lasted a few years. Didn't play much at the time. Went away on it's own which was surprising.
Also had a pain in my picking index finger between the last joint near the tip. Absolutely sucked for brutal playing. Got a single cortisone shot and it disappeared

 

[Grindspine]

I was working as a dermatology tech for Mohs skin cancer cases as a morning job while working as a guitar tech as an evening job. While I was cutting some skin on a cryostat (frozen tissue cutting apparatus), I managed to snag my left fingertip on the blade and severed the tip off, down to the periosteum.

Fortunately, instead of getting sent home for six weeks from my guitar tech job, I was still able to supervise as a lead. That dermatologist was really good with advising on healing skin without much scarring, so I even eventually got my fingerprint back with only a tiny scar. Trying to do even basic guitar tech work whilst missing a fingertip SUUUCKS. As the nerves grew back in, I felt both burning and freezing (since it was a cold knife at -29 degrees Celcius).

 

[High Plains Drifter]

I was working as a dermatology tech for Mohs skin cancer cases as a morning job while working as a guitar tech as an evening job. While I was cutting some skin on a cryostat (frozen tissue cutting apparatus), I managed to snag my left fingertip on the blade and severed the tip off, down to the periosteum.

Fortunately, instead of getting sent home for six weeks from my guitar tech job, I was still able to supervise as a lead. That dermatologist was really good with advising on healing skin without much scarring, so I even eventually got my fingerprint back with only a tiny scar. Trying to do even basic guitar tech work whilst missing a fingertip SUUUCKS. As the nerves grew back in, I felt both burning and freezing (since it was a cold knife at -29 degrees Celcius).

Every single word of this made me cringe.

 

[ElysianGuitars]

I put a chisel halfway through my palm back in 2014, it made my middle and ring finger partially numb on my fretting hand, which made guitar playing really difficult for a long time. I had to basically relearn how to play guitar because the feeling I used to rely on wasn't there anymore. I play guitar possibly a little better now, just took work.

 

[KailM]

I went to Whistler bike park (DH mountain biking) and did far too many laps in one day when I wasn’t used to it, and ended up getting tendinitis in my right forearm. I couldn’t play guitar or ride my bike for a month and a half afterward.

 

[jaxadam]

Oh yes.

 

[philkilla]

I have bad CTS fretting arm, arthritis in left arm and neck and 2 prolapsed discs in my neck which cause tingling down my left side. I have to wear a brace on my left arm....which helps my muting technique....lol! Can only play for real short periods....sometimes not at all.View attachment 135728

If you can manage, look into the carpal tunnel release surgery.

I'm eight weeks out from getting mine done, and it has relieved the burning/numbness and pain I had before.

 

[Marv Attaxx]

I suffer from Atopic Dermatitis which comes and goes randomly. Sometimes it affects my hands and turns them into a bloody mess with open skin and no meds that help. The last time was thankfully like 5 years ago but I couldn't play for about 8 months
Right now battling cupital tunnel syndrome (like carpal tunnel but the other side of the hand) which doesn't make things easier. Taking it slowly with the guitar as I wanna fix it without surgery. In the meanwhile I satisfy my need for music by buying more gear

 

[boogie2]

Yep. Worked in an aluminum plant in 1985. Had an industrial accident the completely crushed my right arm and hand. I had about a dozen surgeries over the next 3 years and started working on my Electrical Engineering degree. About the last year of my degree I finally figured out a way to hold a pick in my hand using athletic tape. It’s now 30 yrs and multiple bands later. All is well!

 

[synrgy]

Cubital and carpal tunnels. Had release surgery on my left arm in 2016 - probably 10-15 years later than would have been useful for avoiding atrophy. It seems to not get any worse, but the damage was already done.

The crude medical description of the symptoms is 'clawing' of the hand. I can't straighten the fingers without hyper extending them, I can't give people the middle finger, I can't do the 'metal' horns, or the 'OK' sign, and I have so little lateral movement in my pinky that I can't make it touch my ring finger until my hand is closed into a fist -- likewise, for my ring finger, which has no lateral movement.

Long story short, I've learned how to play with my first and fourth fingers doing about 80% of the work, and have long since let go of any aspirations related to being a player. I was showing somebody how to play something recently and they were like 'hey, where's your middle finger?' and I casually blurted out 'it's hiding.'

To this day, I can't do half the stuff I could do when I was a teenager. The worst part is, the muscle memory still exists: The brain knows what to do, it sends the signals; the hand just makes tingly sensations whilst contorting it's way through refusal to comply -- occasionally "re-routing" the movement signals to other muscles in the arm, as if meekly seeking my approval. The thing is, if folks can run whole ass marathons, without legs, then I'll play with one finger, if I have to, or - Gods help me - even left handed.

 

[DECEMBER]

I cut my main left finger worse than this before, so deep that it cut part of the nail off, too. Takes quite a while before you can put pressure on it and slide around on strings.