Twenty-four hours and I can play guitar again!!!

[Bob Womack]

Yesterday when I was putting down my briefcase (backpack), my left-hand ring finger grazed the adjacent stair banister. Now, I should explain that this banister kept my young Labrador retriever puppies from going upstairs and wreaking havoc on everything in our bedrooms while they were teething. You know what that means: they chewed on the lower banisters instead. Honestly, there was a period when I feared that I might never be able to own anything that wasn't chewed to bits. But I digress.

Yesterday my left-hand ring finger grazed a chewed banister and a handful, or "fingerfull" of splinters rammed into the quick up under the nail. Ouch! I grabbed my Swiss Army knife and between the blade and tweezers got all but one out. One eighth-inch splinter ran up under the nail and broke off below the surface. I worked with a needle and the knife and the tweezers but just couldn't get it. I trimmed the nail back to the quick for better access and no-go. Frankly, I probably fiddled too much, but wasn't able to get it out. I reached the point where I made it bleed and quit. I cleaned it up with peroxide and called it a day. No guitar playing for me! Every time I pressed on the callus, the sliver further knifed the aggravated wound. Yummy!

You know what happens next: it gets sore and nags at you all the next day and there's little chance of playing the guitar. Today at work I could squeeze and get a little clear serum out of the site but any fiddling made it bleed so I grabbed the studio's bottle of isopropanol, cleaned it up, and forced myself to quit. By this evening it had irritated me long enough. I found a bright place and laid out the tools. I carefully fiddled without starting the bleeding but serum ran from the opening, making it hard to see what I was doing. I blotted, but anytime I tried to do anything I got more serum. Okay, I squeezed the serum out. And lo! and behold, when I squeezed the nail and flesh, not only did the serum come out, the splinter popped out! Woot! Glory and trumpets!

So, tomorrow I'll probably be able to play after the inflammation goes down. In fact, it already is feeling better. I may just go play a little and see how I do.

Bob

[mercy]

Its a bad day when a guy cant play

[David Eastwood]

That’s verging on TMI - but I will confess to at least one similar scenario in my own life.

Well done, Bob. It’s amazing how the mind will allow one to pursue the outcome while ignoring the self-inflicted discomfort.

Play on

[jschmitz54]

Good news. Silver’s can be so painful and lead ti infection. Glad you were able to take care of it. Play in good health.

[jschmitz54]

Good news. Sliver’s can be so painful and lead to infection. Glad you were able to take care of it. Play in good health.

[Rockysdad]

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Heal quickly Bob.

[LifesShort]

Ouch! I hurt just reading that! Glad you got it out.

[BillyH]

Serum: a complex mixture of plasma proteins plus newly released cytokines and proteinases.

I KNEW IT!!!!

[rmp]

Oh man

nasty stuff


I was rigging lights one night setting up for a 2 night stay at a club we played often

I push up on one of the acoustic tiles, to hang the par lamp on the tressle that supported the tiles, and when I did, a shard of metal ran under the finger nail of my ring finger of course, my fret hand, it lodged good in there and started to bleed OUCH!!!! what the??

Ir went in deep enough that, could not get it out, despite trying which made it worse.

you know the rest,

I had to finish setting up and then play the entire night with that object jammed under my nail on my fretting hands ring finger chya..


later that night after the gig the fretboard and strings on my guitar looked like a crime scene blood everywhere and

it hurt, throbbing kind of hurt.

got home at around 2 am and set about cleaning the wound.


I wont gross everyone out, but there was quite a mess that came out once it freed itself from the flesh under my nail

thankfully along with that, there was the shard of metal... small, but, enough to make me miserable

played the second night ok sore but, got thru the gig.

one for the war stories...

[frankmcr]

Got yourself a copy of this, did you?

https://images.eil.com/large_image/B...IDE-623902.jpg

[jricc]

Glad you are good to go Bob!

[zmf]

Ouch. That's why I ALWAYS wear gloves when bringing in firewood.

[Glennwillow]

I'm glad you are doing better, Bob. It seems like splinters is a pretty common problem for me, too.

- Glenn

[baseball]

Being a tradesman I am UBER careful, reminding myself that one of the only reasons I work is for the joy of guitar playing. No point in working so hard as to damage my hands and lose my favorite activity. Lots of gloves and nitriles.

I severed my thumb in 2013 but got lucky and had the best hand surgeon in my state reattach it.

..and it was like being reborn! Made me take way better care in the future.

[Stonehauler]

Yeah, splinters are nasty.

In the age of sail, it wasn't the cannonballs that were deadly. It was the splinters. Those that did not kill you immediately often resulted in fatal infections for those that got hit.

Glad you are doing better!