Yet another Conan tall tale of pain

[otcconan]

Ever get a paper cut?  They hurt.  You think it's insignificant, but they can be very painful.  Not a serious injury by any measure.

Now...ever get a paper cut on the index finger of your fretting hand UNDER THE FINGERNAIL?

Yep, that happened now two weeks ago.  It cut about 1/4" underneath my fingernail.  Bled for about 2 hours.  Finally stopped the bleeding (Can you believe they removed the first aid kit from that area of the store...receiving?), and all the skin underneath died.  I had to clip the fingernail back to the end of the cut.  Then all the callused skin underneath on the pad of my finger died and peeled away and now I have no callus on my index finger of my fretting hand.  So I'm trying to play myself back into shape and it's like I'm learning how to play guitar again.  Every so often when I'm fretting the high E string it slips and digs right into the wound.

I'm afraid I am going to have to take a couple more weeks and just let it heal.  By then I should be rusty as hell.  Hell, the other night I couldn't play one of my OWN songs.

It bites and I hate it.  Especially when you know you can do something, but you can't.  Kind of like being LaDanian Tomlinson coming off a 2000 yard season and running for 900 the next.

The slow stuff is alright, but my fast stuff usually involves the high registers.  On lower strings I usually use the pad of my index finger, but on high strings I use the tip, and that's the part with all the new skin.  Combine this with taking a break from playing for a week prior to the injury and I'm working through dexterity issues as well.

I'm still fast, just not Evil Muppet fast.  I can still do the slow Floydy stuff (which I like better anyway), but it sucks not being able to burn.

[guitarrednfeathered]

Oh my. Good luck with the healing process and stay away from slicing citrus fruits! ouch!

[Dinosaur David B]

Better than almost chopping your foot off with an axe.  Oh, wait. Sorry. 

[madmax]

Would applying some crazy glue to the area(especially where the calluses were) help?

[yngwie666]

May be try those special bandages for blisters (Compeed ?) and then put some glue on it ?

[Dargavel]

Just stick to early Sabbath and Mountain. You only need two fingers, and never forget it.

[Gunner4Life]

Ever get a paper cut?  They hurt.  You think it's insignificant, but they can be very painful.  Not a serious injury by any measure.

Now...ever get a paper cut on the index finger of your fretting hand UNDER THE FINGERNAIL?

OUCH!!!

About a month ago, I was making my bed, and my mattress has these handles on the sides, well I reached down and got one of the rivets, I guess it was, holding the handle to the mattress right between my picking thumb nail, couldn't hold the pick for about a week.

[otcconan]

The cut went a full 1/4" under my nail.  The healing process has taken much longer than I thought.

I'm up to blues (in my world that means "Robin Trower songs"), but real shredding is difficult.  No EMP for otcconan.  Good news is that the calluses are coming back.

Anyways, I have two weeks to get it all together, and then two weeks in Peru.  What's the point?  While I take a vacation from work might as well take a vacation from guitar.

[Fence]

make an improvised callous like iommi did. just tight wrap a bandage that can serve as a artificial fingernail for the time.I had a similar accident but with a knife. Or put something sterile and plastic. And then a bandage around it. It's not a nail though. In those cases I go back to the nylon acoustic .