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#1 technique for when you AREN'T playing: wear the proper protective gear!

groovaholic

groovaholic

Protect your hearing. Protect your hands.
Supporting Member
Sep 19, 2004
5,359
9,933
Mount Prospect, IL
#1
I was working in my yard Sunday, cleaning up some tree limbs and got a splinter/thorn straight down into the first knuckle on my left index/pointer finger.
It was annoying, but seemed minor - I continued working.

But I wasn't able to dig the splinter out, and over the course of the night Sunday, the inflammation set in.

Yesterday I went to urgent care and the ER, and today I saw a hand surgeon.
We suspect that there's still a piece lodged in the joint, but it's less dense than the surrounding bone, so it's not showing up on X-ray.

So now I have to get on the schedule for a specialized scan before my surgeon can "get in there".
And that specialist is booked until late September.
Meanwhile my finger is swollen, incredibly pressure-sensitive, and immobile.

I have no idea if I can play, and this weekend is my town's local music festival.
I'm supposed to be playing 5 shows over 4 days with 3 bands, and I'm not sure I can fret a single note.

The moral of the story is:
Save yourself the headache (and pain, and money) and USE THE APPROPRIATE PROTECTIVE GEAR
 

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#3
yeah: "ouch!" i sure hope you get some relief from that pain/misery! hang in, good luck! :thumbsup:

i have work gloves scattered all over: around my workbench, in my car, close to the doors to the outside --- all in an attempt to protect my hands and fingers...however, somehow i still manage to cut/nick/scrape/smash...but you give good advice = protect the hands and fingers! ;)
 
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#5
Just ordered some puncture-resistant work gloves; the only way to make this worse is if I ever did it to myself again.

Just measured my hands to check sizing for the gloves.
Out of curiosity, I also measured the circumference of my unaffected index finger - the punctured one is 8mm larger.
I measured where the finger joins the palm, and that's not even the area where the swelling is most pronounced.
 
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#7
MotorCityMinion said:
Hopefully you had something administered for the infection. Your body may take care of that on it's own before then.

Click to expand...

Yes - I'm on a pretty stout course of antibiotics, antiseptic skin cleanser, and anti-inflammatory drugs.

BONUS: The imaging office called back and said that specialist is no longer providing the service I need, so no idea what to do now...
 
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#8
A local guitarist was loading gear via his handtruck into their box truck. Older heavy EAW PA cabs. As he let the gear tilt forward into place, his finger got caught between the truck wall and the handtruck. Pinched his finger on his left hand off at the last joint, It could always be worse !!! ;)

I once got several tiny splinters in my left palm from carrying plywood sheets without gloves. Thought I got them all out . About 2 months later , with a painful palm , I did "exploratory surgery" with a straight pin a razor blade and some alcohol, rubbing . Got down deep enough and 5-6 tiny little wood splinters shot out of my hand. For the record I DO NOT recommend this as a medical procedure. :rollno:

Hope you heal quickly ! 🚑
 
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#9
Can you play the sets with 3 fingers?

I remember in high school I sliced my left index fingertip wide open cutting a watermelon. The band director simply said figure out or fail the class. I figured it out lol. Mostly, just had to really simplify the bass parts so there were no big stretches needed.
 
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#10
I had that happen when a 1/2" long splinter from a floor joist ended up in my hand between my right index finger and thumb. Thought it was fine but 2 days later it was swollen and immobile like you said. Don't know where you are but I went to an urgent care place and they ended up removing the splinter there and prescribing some kind of antibiotic for it. Can you play with 3 fingers and just shift hand positions? Something like that can't wait for a month to be addressed
 
#11
Soak it in hot water with epsom salts. Whatever is in there will create a pus pocket and it needs to find a way out, probably the way it went in. Don’t let it heal over, that’s just prolonging the pain.

Keep it clean and work at it with clean, sterile instruments. Use generous amounts of neosporin under the bandaid dressing. Soak it several times a day.

And no, I’m not a doctor, just a retired carpenter. Dug lots of stuff out of my hide over the years.
 
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#15
singlemalt said:
Soak it in hot water with epsom salts. Whatever is in there will create a pus pocket and it needs to find a way out, probably the way it went in. Don’t let it heal over, that’s just prolonging the pain.

Keep it clean and work at it with clean, sterile instruments. Use generous amounts of neosporin under the bandaid dressing. Soak it several times a day.

And no, I’m not a doctor, just a retired carpenter. Dug lots of stuff out of my hide over the years.
Click to expand...
Same. I know more about treating hand wounds than some doctors.
 
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#16
bassicmike said:
Same. I know more about treating hand wounds than some doctors.
Click to expand...
I had a lot of issues listening to doctors TBH.

I recently had quite the ordeal. I had something DEEP inside my right hand for several years - 3-4 years at least. I had been to the doctor quite a few times but they insisted nothing was there and that my health issues must have been from something else.

In reality, I had a low lying nervous system infection that was slowly turning my hand/arm numb. About a year ago my health started taking a turn for the worst and again got the run around from doctors.

When something is embedded deeply long term, your body reacts by over-producing adrenaline and cortisol - essentially you start going into "fight or flight" mode all the time. This causes all sorts of health issues. The various "potential" diagnoses included a brain tumor, diabetes, unhealthy habits, and my favorite, mild sleep apnea.

Keep in mind I had horrible insomnia, constant fatigue, bruising everywhere, and my kidneys were starting to fail.

A few weeks ago I was playing bass and I felt a sharp pain in my hand, went to a different doctor and she prescribed a very strong anti-biotic and a bunch of tests, including an MRI.

Before I could get the MRI tho, my body decided that the object had to go, so it started forcing the object out of my hand. This was complicated by the fact that it decided to do it while I was on a flight. Perhaps it was the air pressure changes that did it.

This was not fun. What happens is that your body produces INSANE amounts of adrenaline, to the point where you can go into shock and kidney failure. I was delirious and hallucinating for quite awhile. This happened three times, three TINY objects total (the second time was the worst. I ended up cutting the object out with an exacto knife).

I did get the MRI and it came back relatively clean, some cysts and fluid retention, but no more objects. What the doctor's didn't take care of, my body did. And, if I had actually listened to them, I might be dead from the infection or the shock.

I think my moral is that I'll listen to doctors for sure, but I'll never hesitate to push them and to question them and to get second opinions.
 
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#17
singlemalt said:
Don’t let it heal over,
Click to expand...
This is great advice. If you even THINK that something is in there, don't let it heal over. That's part of the issue with what I did. Doctor's advice, of course - and she also said that I shouldn't drain it. Advice, that if I followed, could have killed me. These are not things to be shaged around with.
 
#18
groovaholic said:
I was working in my yard Sunday, cleaning up some tree limbs and got a splinter/thorn straight down into the first knuckle on my left index/pointer finger.
It was annoying, but seemed minor - I continued working.

But I wasn't able to dig the splinter out, and over the course of the night Sunday, the inflammation set in.

Yesterday I went to urgent care and the ER, and today I saw a hand surgeon.
We suspect that there's still a piece lodged in the joint, but it's less dense than the surrounding bone, so it's not showing up on X-ray.

So now I have to get on the schedule for a specialized scan before my surgeon can "get in there".
And that specialist is booked until late September.
Meanwhile my finger is swollen, incredibly pressure-sensitive, and immobile.

I have no idea if I can play, and this weekend is my town's local music festival.
I'm supposed to be playing 5 shows over 4 days with 3 bands, and I'm not sure I can fret a single note.

The moral of the story is:
Save yourself the headache (and pain, and money) and USE THE APPROPRIATE PROTECTIVE GEAR
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear about this. Good advice. Hope the surgery goes well. Did the doc give you anticipated recovery time? I’m thinking this might take a bit.
 
#20
I`m a Safety Guy in my day job and can`t stress enough about the use of Personal Protective Equipment, even when doing trivial jobs. A friend of mine was doing a brake job on some drum brakes, which he`s been doing for years, when a spring slipped out of his plyers and flew directly into his eye, which he no longer has. Be safe folks!
 
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