Describe your injury/disease that keeps you from being the best you can be on guitar

[Abando]

I used to play football as a kid. Seriously sprained my left fingers a couple of times. One is constantly cramping up on me. I always have to crack it or the pain become quite intense. My ring finger also gets really stiff if I don't crack it. I have no doubt I will have arthritis in some of these fingers when I get older. I might have arthritis already. Every time I play the guitar I wish I didn't play football as a kid. It wasn't even high school football. It was football on the street. I don't even have the glory of high school football to console me. What keeps you from being all that you can be on the guitar? I know my problem will pale in comparison to some of your stories. I'm interested in how you cope with your problem when playing the guitar.

 

 

Abando

[guitarist21]

Stickittothemaneosis

 

 

[Cripes]

Nothing other than acute recurring suckacitis.

[lndianScout]

testicular & prostate cancer as well as symphysis publis (too long to explain)

 

I play as long as the pain lets me coop, so it may be 10 mins one day and 30 the next, I never know

[denvertrakker]

Notpracticeenoughitis. Closely related to couchpotato syndrome.

[d03nut]

burp....I've got a problem..burp...with GAS....

 

actually, the "real truth" is even less funny......

[daklander]

Cancer and associated treatments that cause finger tenderness and other nerve problems. When push comes to shove I'll still do a four hour gig when I have to. I just suffer pretty badly for the next couple of days.

[OldGuitarPlayer]

I do have some arthritis in my left hand and the joints in my fingers take longer to limber up than they used to. I also occasionally have wrist pain which stems from breaking my wrist about 6-7 years ago.

 

OGP

[Cripes]

 

I do have some arthritis in my left hand and the joints in my fingers take longer to limber up than they used to. I also occasionally have wrist pain which stems from breaking my wrist about 6-7 years ago. OGP

 

 

Same here. I soak my hands in water as hot as I can stand it and wring my hands together while doing it. Once done, I'm good to go.

 

Some years ago I got my right hand a bit mangled and the bone in the hand above the ring finger didn't heal together at the break but rather slightly over-lapping. No medical facilities where I was at the time so I had to work the bones together as best as I could. I got the other bones set right. Anyway, now the knuckle sits lower than the rest of the knuckles on that hand. Because of that, I have to raise the ring finger slightly higher than the others before each plucking stroke based on the position I hold my hand. I've sort of become accustomed to that but if I have to use excessive force like when trying to back out a stubborn screw, that bone breaks again. At a point where it hardly hurts when it breaks now. I just feel it snap. Gotta wait for it to "heal" before playing guitar again, though. I can still play but the break won't heal. One of these days I'll see a bone cracker and get it fixed right.

[Terry Allan Hall]

My only "problem" is a certain amount of burning/numbness/pain due to my diabetes, and it's (fortunately) really more in my feet than my hands...and, Brother Babablowfish was kind enough to turn me onto R-Lipoic Acid*, which seems to help a bit ( Thanx again, Baba! )

 

*No, campers, it's not THAT kind of a acid ( dang it! ), but I do get to tell folks, "Well, it time to drop my daily acid!"

testicular & prostate cancer as well as symphysis publis (too long to explain) I play as long as the pain lets me coop, so it may be 10 mins one day and 30 the next, I never know

 

Truly sorry to hear that, bro!

 

Hope you have more "good" days than "bad"!

[scottop1972]

cut off the tip of my left index finger when i was 16. It has grafted skin over part of the finger about 50%. the grafted skin never callouses. the finger nail grows funny.

 

it has affected my style of play. no bends with the index finger. some chords are impossible. i have small hands anyway so shortening my stretch by a 1/2 inch didnt help. didnt play bar chords for forever.

 

it is easier now to play with this. but i am still half tempted to go and have more surgery. i had 2 on it besides the initial graft. now those really stopped my playing for a while.

[babablowfish]

I have a bum right shoulder as a result of Lyme disease and heavy weight lifting - this get real painful when I play to hard like at Bluegrass Jams. I also have Carpal Tunnel in my left wrist - Just got a Cortisone injection in it and it is helping. Other than that I have a sick mind and a broken heart.

 

P.S. You are most welcome Terry!

[MattSkibaIsGOD]

osteo-condritis or some {censored} in my right elbow is a bit painful, but what really bugs me when playing is my rigger thumb. bastard thing cracks a lot, but I play through the pain because I'd rather hurt than not play.

[kwakatak]

No disease hinders my technical proficiency though I could probably be a much better musician. Procrastination and lack of direction in life are the main reasons why I'll probably always be a couch player.

[Sparkytfl]

Had a truck blow me off my bike on the way to a final exam in high school, messed my left wrist up pretty bad. Now it won't bend nearly as much as it used to. I have to wear the guitar ridiculously high and still it hurts after a while. My fingers are too short to play with thumb over the neck.

[Jkater]

 

 

10 years ago, this has prevented me to play for almost a year but it's better now. I cut the tip of my finger while chopping onions and I had to search in the onions for the piece that I held in place on my way to the hospital. It was sewn in place and stayed sensitive for a long time.

 

Other than that, my hands are smallish and, although it doesn't prevent me much from playing lots of stuff, I'd like to be able to use my thumb over the neck and I can't do it easily because of it.

[babablowfish]

10 years ago, this has prevented me to play for almost a year but it's better now. I cut the tip of my finger while chopping onions and I had to search in the onions for the piece that I held in place on my way to the hospital. It was sewn in place and stayed sensitive for a long time. Other than that, my hands are smallish and, although it doesn't prevent me much from playing lots of stuff, I'd like to be able to use my thumb over the neck and I can't do it easily because of it.

 

Yikes!

[Jkater]

 

I'm happy to say that it healed completely and I feel no ill effect today...

[Jesse G]

I used to have a grape-sized Ganglien cyst on my right wrist that used to get sore when I played.

[BrandonBrinley]

i was using steel wool and put a huge slice into my finger but what i found let me play is this stuff called "new" skin its like a medical removable super glue stuff sealed that sucker up but had to apply it 6 times a day

[guit30]

Cervical Stenosis, (pinched nerves in neck) which cause bad radiation pain down left shoulder into wrist and hand. Can play for about 15 minutes at a time for which I am grateful

Jim

[Sisyphus2]

Old age - in my 90's now and occassionally Im too arthritic to move. Maybe we need an obituary.....I want to be buried with my guitar!!

[d03nut]

10 years ago, this has prevented me to play for almost a year but it's better now. I cut the tip of my finger while chopping onions and I had to search in the onions for the piece that I held in place on my way to the hospital. It was sewn in place and stayed sensitive for a long time. Other than that, my hands are smallish and, although it doesn't prevent me much from playing lots of stuff, I'd like to be able to use my thumb over the neck and I can't do it easily because of it.

 

 

....and you couldn't post this in my "by show of hands" thread?

 

...lol....

[Sparhawk]

Other than lackofmakingtimeits because I am a school teacher, I have a spouse that has fibromyalgia, diabetes and herniated discs. By the time everything is done and I can have time to practice, it is about 11:30pm. My 9 year old also needs help with homework. AAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! so I should be able to practice soon. I usually get 2 hours during the week, except durring football season, where it seems to go into the negative catagory and I use up 3-4 hours a week watching college football that adds up to negative time over the rest of the year. Does that count?

 

}{awk

[Glenn F]

Depression, and periodic bouts of CTS. And, no matter how good anyone tells me I am, I still think I suck.