Left hand surgery this Friday (4/1)

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by lowrider

Afternoon; played for 45 minutes on the guitar with the 10's. It really doesn't sound like anything but my hand felt fine.

I'm sticking with this guitar for a few more days.

Take 'er slow, buddy. Steady as she goes. Great early reports.

Scott

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Take 'er slow, buddy. Steady as she goes. Great early reports.

Scott

+1.

Sounds like you may have attempted too much too early? Good news that things are feeling better again with 10s.

Good luck with the recovery! You're almost there.

[lowrider]

I'm at four weeks out. the ring finger and pinky are back to 100% and much straighter. The index finger is now at about the same stiffness as it was before but the strength has a long way to go.

My hope is that the stiffness will be gone and my strength will be back after about another month.

If on July 1, I'm back to playing like normal I'm going to treat myself and order a Custom Shop guitar!

[lowrider]

Latest Update;

I'm playing my Martin GPC with the Extra Light strings plugged in with a little bass boost and it's sounding pretty good. Before, I didn't want to go through the trouble to pull out the amp, get the cable, plug in, for just a half hour of playing, but it's worth it. I can now more clearly hear what I'm doing, right and wrong, and get things going in the right direction.

I'm playing for about 45 minutes, still heating up first, and feeling good. I started squeezing a sponge that I got from my first surgery while I'm watching TV at night to start building my strength back.

I still think this is going to take a long time, but I'm feeling good and I'm hoping to be back playing with my friends, maybe next month.

[lowrider]

Back to 11's this morning, about 40 minutes. No soreness so far.

Much better sound.

[Bob Womack]

Corn-granulations!

Bob

[lowrider]

This has become my recovery diary so here is today's report;

After stretching my left hand, I played for almost 1.5 hours this morning on my 0000-18 12fret with the 11's. I'm now working to get rid of the sloppiness that's been in my playing since the surgery. I was letting it go for a while but now I've got to buckle down.

I finished with the index finger being pretty painful at the knuckle near the fingernail, but my playing was pretty good.

Then I went to the pool and swam 1750 yards; 1000, 500, 250. This is my typical swim workout, I usually do 1750 to 2000, and it's the first time I've done the whole thing since the surgery. After swimming the finger feels like a million bucks.

So there's the proof; swimming fixes everything!

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by lowrider

This has become my recovery diary so here is today's report;

After stretching my left hand, I played for almost 1.5 hours this morning on my 0000-18 12fret with the 11's. I'm now working to get rid of the sloppiness that's been in my playing since the surgery. I was letting it go for a while but now I've got to buckle down.

I finished with the index finger being pretty painful at the knuckle near the fingernail, but my playing was pretty good.

Then I went to the pool and swam 1750 yards; 1000, 500, 250. This is my typical swim workout, I usually do 1750 to 2000, and it's the first time I've done the whole thing since the surgery. After swimming the finger feels like a million bucks.

So there's the proof; swimming fixes everything!

What a great swim routine! 1750 yards, that's a mile, right?

As far as the guitar goes, keep up the healthy progress reports, although a painful index finger afterwards doesn't sound good.

[lowrider]

The pain in the index finger comes from holding an A minor chord. That's about the last one. In the beginning, I got it from C and E also and it seems to be coming to an end.

I've been swimming for a long time. I'm also getting that back together after the layoff.

[lowrider]

Another update;

I put DR Sunbeam 12-54 on my J-40 yesterday. They are lower tension and it plays like a dream.

I played for an hour and it all felt great. Got up this morning with the hand feeling really good again and played for 1 hour, 15 minutes. The hand is feeling pretty good. I'm going to get Sunbeam for all the guitars and play them until they die then I should be ready to go back to my regular strings and it all should be good again!

[Silly Moustache]

Hi Lowrider, glad to watch your progress.

It's Day 18 for me and starting to feel normal. Middle finger is the chalenge for me.
Doining the fist making and straightening exercises whwnver I think of them.

I played a few at my club yesterday, and did a few little flubs, but got away withthem - only using my 00 and 000 with lights at present. Gonna try my dreads with mediums later this week.

Take care!

[lowrider]

Thank you Silly, for reminding me to do my exercises. I had slacked off of a while. Now I'm back in gear, stretching and flexing.

My hand is feeling much better and my playing is smoothing out again. I think that soon this will all be behind me.

[Philip N]

Good luck! Wishing you good health

[Photojeep]

Great to hear you're getting better!

I hope it continues!

Best,
PJ