First thought after injury of any kind:

[The Watchman]

I had a power tool cut that has immobilized a joint on my picking hand middle finger. Yes, my first thought was being glad it wasn't my fretting hand. Then years later, I drove a screw into my fretting hand index finger. It was numb for about three weeks, and I went through all the agonized thinking of the end of guitar playing. It recovered. All that makes me think more carefully around tools and knives.

[gfspencer]

Four weeks ago I jammed a finger on my left hand. It still hurts when I try to make a chord. Very frustrating.

[Jim Comeaux]

Well now….. No. usually my first thought is either “Dang, that really hurts”, or “I sure do wish that I hadn’t done that”.

[Sugar Bear]

Many years ago, I was installing new disc-brake rotors on a car that I used to own, and I accidentally drove the edge of the grease seal into the tip of the middle finger of my left hand, with a hammer. It drove it right into the bone.

This caused me to emit a veritable storm of the foulest profanity that you've ever heard (and I'm retired military, so I know some bad words) and I bled like a stuck hog.

For years afterward, it hurt very badly when I fretted notes, to the point that I'd break out in a cold sweat. But I wasn't about to stop playing guitar, so I took the pain and kept playing.

I'm happy to report that the tremendous amount of playing that I do seems to have finally killed the nerve in that fingertip or something. I can finally play with no pain these days.

After one of the injuries that I sustained in the military, my right hand looked like it had exploded. There was meat hanging down from it, it was awful. They sewed it all back together, but the nerves were severed.

I can now set my right hand on fire and not even notice until I smell something cooking. I know this because I've accidentally done it.

But I can still play fingerstyle guitar with no issues. I just can't feel much.

Last but not least, I used to box, and I suffered what is known as a, "Boxer's Fracture" of the right hand. Broke a bunch of bones on the lower side of my right hand.

They sent me to an orthopedic surgeon who explained everything to me after x-rays and assured me that I should retain full function and be able to do everything the same as always. Then she asked me if I had any questions.

I said, "Will I be able to play the piano, Doc?"

"Absolutely!" she assured me. "That should be no problem."

"That's excellent!" I told her. "I've always wanted to be able to play the piano!"

She narrowed her eyes and gave me the "one arched eyebrow" look. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, told her, "Ignore him, doctor. He's like this all the time and he can't be fixed." Then they both cracked up laughing.

But the doctor was right. Here we are all these years later, and I can play the piano! Of course, I had to learn how first, but that's a minor technicality.

[cedartop52]

After any accident the first thing I do is check to make sure all the body parts are still attached...immediately after that I calculate the impact of any injuries on my guitar playing. Unfortunately as I get older (70) I have to make that calculation more and more often! ha

[stokes1971]

Back in 2013 I was in a motorcycle accident.As I launched forward my left hand caught the mirror stem between my left index and middle finger dislocating and snapping the 4 bones in the back of my hand, tore my left shoulder and elbow ligaments.3 surgeries and 8 yrs later and I'm still trying to re-learn to use my fretting hand.I've come to terms with the fact that I'll never get it back enough to play for anybody but myself.

[Dru Edwards]

Robin, I just listened to your version of Elzic's Farewell again (including a couple of other times over the past few months) and it's fantastic. Can't believe you played that without your index. Did you transcribe that yourself to DADGAD?

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

Hanging off a rock ledge about 2500 ft up the main wall on Glyder Fach looking at my amputated left index finger end after rock fall my first thought was - There goes learning to touch type - my second was - I'm going to have to sell my guitar (which I did) - and my third was - how the hell am I going to get back down to the valley!!!!

Short story = I actually learnt how to play squareneck dobro in a bluegrass band. But now I'm re-learning guitar, without using barre chords

[Bob Womack]

I've had a few of these. Left little finger bent backwards playing football. I was playing defensive line and did the usual of putting up my hand to push the offensive lineman across from me out of the way so I could shoot the gap. I got hit from behind by my own linebacker. That offensive lineman's helmet and mine sandwiched my little finger and I was flipped over him, hyper-extending the finger.. Snap. The coach taped it to my ring finger and said, "Man up!" By the time I got it to a doctor it had to heal up normally.

I forcefully inserted the corner of piece of sheet steel into the proximal joint of the same silly finger six years later and it penetrated the joint capsule. I cleaned it up best I could but it became infected and swelled up to the size of a golf ball. The doc had to do surgery and clean out the infection and scar tissue. It healed up with adhesion that limited the travel of the finger and caused the tendon to snap laterally whenever I flexed that joint. A couple of years later I was lifting something and SNAP the tendon was freed up forcefully and painfully. Gone.

I got another typical lineman's injury on the right ring finger: My finger ran headlong into another player's helmet and telescoped. The end of the proximal phalanx departed its home and shifted off to the near side where it still resides. The medial phalanx split down the middle and mushroomed. The finger swelled to twice its normal size. Tape and "Man up!" It is still crooked and weird to this day. I eventually got all function back.

Robin, Wales triggered this memory: I was 200ft up a 300ft rock face facing the Tennessee River. I was technical rock climbing and on belay (another person was standing by to catch my weight on a rope if I fell) when it started raining and the rocks became slippery. I had about ten feet of free rope on belay when I slipped and fell. Unfortunately, about eight feet below me there was a little tree growing out of the rock and it caught me before the rope. It entered the skin on the inside of my left elbow and penetrated up until it caught under the skin in the middle of my biceps. So, there I wuz, hanging from the upper portion of my dominant arm with a tree poking up at me under my biceps, holding my weight. I had to wrap my right arm in the belay rope and pull myself off that rascal tree, and then had to climb the remaining 100ft. By the time I cleaned it up it had swollen nicely. It took a while to get the elbow to flex well again.

And finally, beware black box warnings: I was getting over an infection and using an antibiotic. I attempted to lift and move a heavy monitor speaker when I heard and felt what sounded for all the world like a screen door spring sproinging as the door shut. Of course, it was also coupled with some pretty exquisite pain in my right elbow. Talking with another doctor I was informed that I hadn't been notified that my antibiotic, Cipro, was prone to cause tendon ruptures. The connection points to the epicondyles, the anchors for the forearm tendons, had ruptured or ripped. He participated in a study that ended up causing that to become a black box warning on Cipro and other fluoroquinolones. It took a half-year of physical therapy, wearing a brace, and going easy on the right arm before I could strum worth a darn. That black box warning has gone in my little "lessons learned" book.

So, yeah, once I've gotten past the pain of an incident, I usually think, "What is this going to cost me in guitar playing?"

Bob

[Mr Bill]

My first thought after getting injured doing something dumb is usually, "Did anybody see that?"

[jeanray1113]

Last year, right after our lives all changed for a reason we’re not supposed to talk about here, I was trying to be positive and I was thinking of things I could still enjoy. Playing my guitar, riding my bike, and gardening were all at the top of the list. That quickly changed on May 1st, when I slipped on a tile floor and fractured my left humerus at the shoulder. Fortunately, I did not need surgery, but it took months of recovery and physical therapy before I could do much of anything physical. After a couple of months I could manage to play my ukulele for a few minutes at a time. A solid four months before I could play guitar for short periods. A very difficult time in my life. Thankfully, my shoulder is now good as new.

[Guitars44me]

I am just about recovered from carpal tunnel surgery on my left (fretting) wrist.

We will see how my 2.5 hour gig tonight goes. I expect to have a blast. First time playing at a cool mountain roadhouse in almost two years. I have played there a ton for the former owners….

As for other injuries, may we all avoid them, and recover fast if we boo-boo!

And, yes, I too worry about my ability to play whenever “stuff” happens!

Cheers

Paul

[Silly Moustache]

Summer 1996. the end of a long offroad cycling trip with a friend.
The last part was an on road downhil. as I pulled left toward where my car was parked I glanced at my speedo - 40 mph. then the frony wheel hit a small rise in the road and dissappeard leaving me travelling head first.

My left shoulder hit the road first followed by my helmeted head.

My friend drove my car (which had been vandalised) to the hospital and stayed with me for about five hours until I got a trainee nurse to fashion a sling (she couldn't)
The collar bone was broken very close to the shoulder and never re-united, and I develioped my muscles to support my shoulder until irt stopped working some years later when I finally got surgery to fix it - lost a coulke of inches ogff my shoulder, but the jint worked again but somewhat restricted, and always with a dull pain.
btw, I'm left hander playing righty.

What remains of my collar bone sticks out of my shoulder.
"I ain't broke but I'm badly bent!"

Oh btw back in the '70s my left index finger was crushed between an iron gate and a brick wall. the knuckle was broken but I was too butch to go to hospital. It works ... kinda.

Currently have two trigger fingers on my left hand, plus dupuytrans contracture starting. I've been waiting for over two years for treatment.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Robin, I just listened to your version of Elzic's Farewell again (including a couple of other times over the past few months) and it's fantastic. Can't believe you played that without your index. Did you transcribe that yourself to DADGAD?

Thanks Dru. Nothing as fancy as transcribing going on there. I'd been away to Lundy Island on a climbing trip and one of our party played guitar in DADGAD. When I got home I thought that I would try it out. So I messed around with the tuning for a couple of days and thought it would make a great backing for my dulcimer playing.

Elzic's Farewell backing I made up. Most of it is one, two and three finger chords with lots of open strings. I have no idea what the chords are. I just found notes that sounded "right". I recorded it on a Zoom H5 in my lounge. Put my metronome on headphones and thought of the tune while I played the backing on guitar. Then put the guitar track on headphones and laid down the dulcimer.

The dulcimer doesn't need any fingers - I just play the melody up and down one string with a stick!

I'm recording some of our local traditional Welsh dance tunes this winter and have designed and built a new dulcimer like instrument for the project out of wood salvaged from a chapel in our village. A local guitarist will play backing and will be using DADGAD for a number of the tracks.

I'd never have started playing traditional noter drone style mountain dulcimer if I had not had my accident.

[J Patrick]

…in 2003 I was working alone on a job site installing some oak flooring when I cut my thumb off on a table saw…it was bad…at the base…I managed to jamb my thumb back on my hand and holding it in place I called 911….so obviously that was my first thought….calling 911…..the ambulance and EMTs arrived and immediately hit me up with morphine…..I clearly remember being resigned to losing my entire left hand thumb…..as I slipped into my stupor my mind was busy designing a prosthetic that I could build that would allow me to keep fretting a guitar…..

….as it happens a mad doctor in Portland Oregon was able to Frankenstein my thumb back on….after a nifty Lear jet flight from Bend where the grisly occurrence took place….it took several surgeries including a month with my reattached thumb literally sewn into my abdomen…but six months later I was gigging with the fellas…..I hav two thumbs now but they dont match……

…. I could have and would have built that prosthetic though….

[Photojeep]

Three days ago I was slicing a bagel. Stupidly, I was holding it with my left hand, with my fingers and thumb point downwards as I sliced downwards. Yep, the knife angled outwards and sliced my middle finger really well! No stitches, probably just because I didn't go to the doctor but I haven't picked up a guitar since then. I'm giving it another week before I attempt any playing. I'm petrified of getting blood on my guitar.

And yes, my first thought was hoping I could still play guitar. (All the while cussing like my Dad used to - he was a 30 year career sailor)

Best,
PJ