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No more guitar, maybe. :(

8K views 116 replies 18 participants last post by  Laobi 
#1 ·
Hey guys. I'm up again, as usual, but tonight it's pain induced. :(
Not looking for sympathy, just bored and wanted to let you guys know, I won't be doing the 'challenge' this month, or any month soon, it seems......
I told Jeff I did NOT want to get on that 4-wheeler, I'm afraid of those things, but he said he'd take it easy, yeah, okay.
A broken arm and two torn (and now stitched) tendons later, I'm sitting here typing with one hand and a cast all the way up to my elbow. :(
It's amazing that they get you in and out pretty fast for 'just' a broken bone though.
Well, if you consider 10 hours 'fast'.
I don't want any 'aww, poor Meechy' posts, okay? :p
It is what it is.
The doctor said the tendons tore pretty bad, and he's not sure how well they will heal, so we won't know until I get this cast off and can move my fingers again. I thought I'd broken my wrist too, it bent back so far I thought it was going to tear my hand off.
So, now, if it doesn't have doors and a roof, I'm not going anywhere near it.
And if his father does end up giving him that motorcycle......well, "Okay honey, I'll follow you in my Sonata." ;)
Off to bed. Took a Percocet and I'm starting to feel it. Night guys.
 
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#2 ·
Ah man that's crap, at least your accident wasn't any worse. Broken arm and torn tendons will heal, and you should be right long term. Hope you feel better soon.

Maybe what you can do while you're only "one armed" is compose music without actually playing. When my carpal tunnel syndrome and tendon damage was at its worst I actually composed some music just using power tab to keep my mind going. I wasn't in a place to be able to actually play the piece, but I still wrote something, and it kept my mind in the right place for music.
 
#13 ·
Left. And yes, 'dimwit' did get hurt. Hyper-extended and sprained his knee, and there's a pretty good gash on that pretty face of his.
Other than my arm and his knee, mostly minor cuts and bruises for both of us.
I have a good, softball sized 'raspberry' on my left thigh, and my chest has 'road rash', of a sort. We were in the woods, so we were lucky we didn't hit a tree. Just a hard 'dip' too fast and he lost control. I think the quad is pretty much shot.
Now we might owe a friend of his a quad, on top of all this. :(
 
#16 ·
The worst thing is when you get a desire to play but you can't for some reason.

How long do you think the cast will be on?
Doctor said six to eight weeks, then therapy for the tendons. I'll have to go from time to time to get 'looked at' (translation: pad the insurance bill) but they think I should be pretty much okay. The surgeon was worried about the tendons though. He said they tore pretty good and may heal a bit shorter than they were before. Just what I need, more 'short'. :)
But we'll talk more about that on my follow ups. He said not to worry too much. I told him I play guitar and I have to type a lot for work, but he reassured me that he thinks there's a slim chance it would give me too much trouble, once everything is healed.
It's amazing: he did the surgery while I was wide awake (with a scope, he said the incision is only 2mm wide) and they had me casted and on my way home in what felt like no time.
Modern medicine. Have to love it.
 
#9 ·
Sucks! Hopefully you make a proper recovery. I couldn't play properly for about a year because of spinal problems, its not that bad after 2/3 weeks. Still cant play for more than 30 minutes without chronic pain acting up but I am glad I can play at least now. Meantime you can always write music in guitar pro.
 
#17 ·
Thanks Glen, and we're 'hillbillies', not '********', thank you very much.
Not that there's much difference. :p
It wasn't ours, all though we may end up having to pay for it. At the very least, the repairs.
Jeff was just going too fast. He said he would "take it easy" but......well, you know boys and toys. :\
I'll never be doing that again. Most I'll do now that's not a car will be a bicycle, on pavement. With a purple and pink helmet.
And I think the pain killers are going to my head a bit. LOL
 
#12 ·
The doctor said the tendons tore pretty bad, and he's not sure how well they will heal, so we won't know until I get this cast off and can move my fingers again. I thought I'd broken my wrist too, it bent back so far I thought it was going to tear my hand off.
When the cast comes off, get straight into physical therapy. Find a good therapist and make sure he or she knows you're a musician. I've never had that sort of arm injury, but I'm about 9 months out from ACL replacement surgery after a skiing accident, and while I'll be skiing in a knee brace for at least the next couple years, I'll be skiing and my mobility is probably back at least 95% by now. And in the meantime, I'm running, biking, and hiking just as much as I ever did in the past - hell, my mile time is actually faster than it's been in years these days. :)

Also, I'll echo Rich's question - which arm? If it's your left and you're a righty, if you lose a lot of motor control you could always consider switching to lefty. But, you may not even need to. The nice thing about arm tendons is because they get adequate bloodflow, they DO heal. So it's just going to be really important to work on your range of motion in PT early on, and break down scar tissue before it becomes a major impediment to your range of motion.

It's a huge challenge you'll be facing for the next three months to a year, no doubt. But come into it with an open mind and a positive attitude and you'll get through this. :)

EDIT - all that llogical and serious stuff aside... I remember the first night after the accident, lying in bed in a condo out in Utah we'd rented for the week (this was day two, of course :)), not knowing for sure what I'd done to my knee but deep down inside having a pretty good idea, and trying to sleep on my back rather than my stomach or side because my knee was in too much pain and couldn't fully support itself... That was probably the most alone and helpless I've ever felt in my life. Hang in there.
 
#18 ·
I barely slept. Not that that's unusual for me anyway. The most scary part was when I saw my hand bending back. My knuckles almost hit the back of my arm, I think. It was an intense moment and memory is a little fuzzy, but I swear it looked that way at the time. (I may be wasting keystrokes here, but typing with one hand is SLOOOOOW LOL).
I have my Jeff, so I'm not alone. And he knows I'm PISSED at him for this, so he's being extra attentive. I'll get over it though. If, however, it comes to me not being able to play guitar anymore (doubtful) I'll just have to kill him.
I'm Italian and my family is originally from New Jersey, so I know how to dissect and hide a body....LOL JUST KIDDING!!!! (or am I...........)
 
#19 ·
Um, what? How would 'pointing it at my crotch' help in this case?
I'm lost. I don't even know what happened to Les Paul.
Not going for the gonads. We are still hoping to someday figure a way to have children. :p
And I think the guilt on his face is telling enough how much he's hurt that he hurt me.
When the pain isn't quite so bad, I'll whack him with my cast in his sleep.
"Oh, I'm so sorry honey, I must have had a bad dream or something." ;)
 
#25 ·
Even if they give me bull about not needing it (they told a friend of mine she didn't need it after a broken knee and she still doesn't walk quite right) I'm going to demand it.
I'm not going to screw around with my hands. They are too important, not just for guitar, but for everyday life.
I'm getting pretty good at this one-handed typing though. :)
 
#28 ·
I blame him for not doing as he said he would: 'take it easy'.
I take full responsibility for getting on the effin' thing.
I told him a few times while we were on it to "SLOW DOWN", but he was having a ball and didn't even hear me screaming in his ear, it seemed.
And Jesus, that's a horrible picture.
Back in the days of the 'Chicago Gang Wars', it was often the case that you would drag your rival's and/or enemies bodies out in the open, to prove a point.
Not so much in modern times. You do the deed, and hide the body because it's much easier for the boys in blue to figure out who-dun-it these days and if they don't have a body, well, I'm not talking from experience but, I think it's a bit harder to get caught. ;)
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a chainsaw to clean. ;) J/K
It does hurt, but Percocet is a wonderful thing.....doesn't kill the pain totally, but puts me in a frame of mind where I don't care as much, about anything, actually. ;)
 
#29 ·
That sucks. Keep a positive outlook.

There are quite a few musicians who thought they wouldn't play after an accident, but came back. In fact, their modified playing became their style.

Also, try to use the lost practice time to study theory - learn every note one the neck and study modes. That way you will have made some gains in different areas instead of just loosing time.

PS I missed the name change
 
#30 ·
Thanks Tom. Already ordered a dozen books on theory and general music books.
Keep the brain in shape. Plus: I'm going to use this downtime to reconsider my decision not to continue school, and/or find a job in my field of study. I'll be back to work in a couple of days, broken arm won't stop me from answering phones, making appointments and the light data entry that I have to do. :)
I thought the name change would throw a few people that didn't know my real name, but everyone that matters will come around soon enough. :)
 
#32 ·
Gah... I keep thinking about your situation w/broken arm. I took the day off tomorrow to go riding with my neighbor at a place thats notoriously slick and muddy with criss-crossing roots that get treacherous when wet... and we have a chance of rain tonight! I'm all paranoid hurting a hand or arm... even though I have a good set of Moose bark-busters on my bike.:roll:
 
#36 ·
If you're that concerned about it, I say; maybe put it off. If you go riding and you're paranoid about getting hurt, your judgement will be impaired by the distraction. I know I'm never at my best, at anything, when I'm feeling paranoid about something. But with me it goes so far as to become a panic attack.
Ativan is a wonderful thing to keep that at bay. ;)
 
#37 ·
Being careful in other things you do if it could impact guitar is a hard thing to do. I loved tennis but injuries from that thwarted my growth on guitar and I had to choose or at least slow down on tennis. The motions are totally opposite but when I switched to the more similar motion of racquetball I was able to continue to do cardio yet not mess up guitar playing.

Many years later my wife and I started a skateboard business but this didn't include riding them, especially at my age. I got caught up in the technical side of it and the fun that went along with trying out new gear (kind of like GAS on guitar). But instead of threatening my arms, which skating does, your whole body is constantly at risk. My injuries cost tens of thousands in bills and lost work and it was a no brainer stopping that activity. It was hard though because the only thing I like more than guitar is skating. I wasn't even good at skating (and my whole generation had the handicap of doing awful things like grabbing the board which didn't sit well with kickflips and grinding maneuvers) and would never be but something about landing a trick/move, even the most rudimentary success was more of a rush than doing anything on guitar. If I was invincible and couldn't get injured I would much rather have an array of bamboo and carbon fiber decks in the 7.0" to 8.5" inch range outfitted with Tensors/Indys/Ventures/Thunders than a trunk full of Jems and RGs.

You have to make your hard choices in life and for me to continue street skating (dangerous, modern hands free style of skating on street dodging cars and cops) and guitar playing was about as compatible as having two wives, or as would be in your situation two husbands (tho that could fit some lifestyles just fine such as Nepal where woman can marry brothers, but that's a different topic altogether!)
 
#38 ·
I kind of get that. When I was little I loved to bike ride. Fell off a lot, like most kids, but never got too badly hurt. Then, when I was a 'tween' and later I got out of it, computers took up most of my time. I miss(ed) it often, but had more 'pressing' things to do. Rollerblading was another thing I loved to do. I was a 'nerdy' kid and the 'cool kids' made fun of me, but I didn't care. It was fun. I didn't do tricks or anything like that, but going fast down a hill (lots of them here in WV) was such a rush. But, again, I got a little older and had other things that seemed more important to do, and now I sometimes miss it.
Also; I think I've been a little skittish about doing it now. Physically, I haven't really 'grown-up', in a certain sense of the word. I'm still pretty small and I'm kind of frail, so anything with the potential of 'high impact' scares me. That's why I didn't want to get on that quad, but you do stupid things to make your love happy, including risk life and limb. :|
Back to work tomorrow. Going to be fun driving with one arm. If I can't do it, I'll just take another day, (Friday is an 'off' day. I usually go in to answer phones, but I can actually have them forwarded here) and hopefully I'll be capable on Monday to go in.
Thanks for all the encouragement guys.
I vow this; when I'm comfortable enough after all is healed and I'm playing again, I WILL do the guitar challenge. :) And this 'beginner' guitarist is going to kick some butt! ;)
 
#42 ·
Sorry to hear about your arm, I think it will heal just fine and the only problem you'll have is lost practice time and catching up. Try to get off the pain killers as soon as you can, I notice that in certain areas doctors tend to over-prescribe, I have friends who spent weeks off their trolley after an accident. One friend in particular ended up in ER here, he had a knee operation in the US before coming here for a visit, both his surgeon and GP had prescribed pain killers, I noticed he seemed disoriented and convinced him to go to ER. The result was he had nearly destroyed his liver and an irate ER doctor was breathing fire and piss down the phone at his doctors back home. Do your own research and always check the side effects.

Until last year I regularly trained in various MA, over the years I clocked up 3 noses, 12 fingers (one 4 times), a thumb, an ankle, an orbit and an elbow (not to mention numerous kicks in the Meechys). The back of my left hand is more or less numb from stick impacts to the arm, but my wake up call was when my long term training partner who is a proctologist was told to quit because if he suffered any more nerve damage to his hand he would be unable to perform surgery. I was moving at the time and the long commute to training also helped make the decision. I'd like to get back into it as it was my first love, but I also love playing and really don't want to do any more damage to my hands, there are other softer routes available, but I hate the sandal wearing wishy washy culty mythology that comes with them, so I'm in a quandary.

Anyway best of luck with your recovery and try not to worry, I pity Jeff, totally in the doghouse - I used to date a girl I trained with and once she got a black eye at training, accompanying her anywhere public while it was visible was horrible, could see people looking at her first and then feel the hatred as they saw me with her, I could feel the "you prick, I hope you die with a hot poker up your arse!" look from them as they added 2&2 only to come up with 9. By the way, I think I'll join Willch in his campaign to make Meechy a nice term for genitalia, there's a ring to it, here are a few uses:

"She fell so hard she almost broke her Meechy"
"While going over the handlebars his meechys got caught in brake grip, doctors worked for hours to re-attach them"
"Some celebrities were recently upset that pictures of their Meechys were leaked on the internet"

What do you think?
 
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