Frustrated, Frustrated, FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!

Just stick at it Vic but don't try too much too soon, little by little you'll get some movement back.
I have 2 badly broken fingers on my left hand but I'm getting by, good luck

Vic,

I wish I could give you the magic solution and you would be healed but even I am not that good! :wink: :roll: However, I have worked with kids that had MUCH more severe "disabilities" (and I use the term loosely here) than you have and they could do some AMAZING things. The doctors are right in that it WILL take time. You are a bit older (sorry to burst your bubble :wink: :lol: ) so your body won't heal as fast as a kid's body would. However, with shear determination you could get to almost if not AT 100%. Whatever you do do NOT skip any PT treatments and do NOT overwork the hand. Do ALL the stretches EXACTLY as the PT shows you. If you haven't done so yet, get a support group (spouse, brother, friends, etc and have them help you through it (a beer or 2 wouldn't hurt either! :lol: )

You alwasy hear of someone who was in an accident that was paralyzed and told that they would never walk again and 8 months later you see them on Oprah standing on stage doing gymnastics! Believe it or not YOU are the one that will determine if you'll ever play guitar again. There was a time when you first started playing guitar that I am SURE you couldn't play the barre chords...correct? You overcame that obstacle didn't you? It won't be easy and I don't mean to sound unsympethetic (I truely do sympathize with you!). But in this case you will be the determining factor.

Vic

What can I say? Just keep playing and you will improve. You have heard the stories of Django Reinhardt who burned his hand severely when he was 19 years old. His hand was marred for life, he had to learn guitar from scratch again and became a great guitarist. And you have heard of Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath who accidently cut the tips off of two fingers and learned to play with thimbles over his fingers.

So it can be done.

Just play what you can play, and play it well. :wink:

does alternate tunings sound like a good idea to you? i don't know too much about them but it's easier to play chords in some alternate tunings, i believe. i've heard that joni mitchell got into alternate tunings because her left hand was weaker than her right due to childhood polio. may be worth exploring....

and btw, i'm a physical therapist and hand is a specialty so i don't know all that much about it, but eight weeks is not a long time at all and don't overdue it like other people have said. you don't want to do any more damage. so cool it for now.

Have you talked with Kingpatzer at all?

I'd drop him a PM.

Thaqt's the major problem - I can't play anything like I used to play - even playing in open G, it seems to take an age to put a Gsus4/6 on - it's an easy chord, it's two fingers, it's an Am7 shape over an open G tuning.....man, a couple of months ago, I could do it in my sleep - I had this riff in open G (check the soundclicksite on my http://www .......) and posted the riff instead of the finished song....I still think it's a pretty good riff (Rock'n'roll Footloose Travelling Man) but I can't play it any more.....

Oh well I suppose I could add vocal and a slide solo and see how that goes - weird thing is, main riff is in open G, slide solo is in standard tuning.....

Wes, remember the An9 on "Badge?" I had that nailed ......and as for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" I can't even get close to a Bm, let alone a Bm7.....

As George Harrison once said, "It's gonna take time, whole lotta precious time...."......it already seems like forever.......

:D :D :D

Vic

Man, I had no idea you were going through this. I disappeared for the summer, so I was clueless. I hope you PT pays off sooner than later and that you get back into the swing of things.

I know of one person I've spoken to on a forum who was told he won't play guitar again but made a full recovery, sorry can't remember how long it took him but I think determination was what helped him.

A friend of mine done the same as you just over a year ago and is slowly getting back to where he was after being very woriied he would not play again.

I know it's probably depressing that it could be a year or more to get back to a lesser stage than you were but hopefully gives you some encouragement. On the plus side there is still so much you can be doing in the meantime with theory etc and how about getting yourself a cheap sequencer like cakewalk or cubase etc (the lite versions are cheap and very capable) you could use things like this to improve your songwriting and music skills in the meantime so that you are still moving forward in one area at least. I have written complete songs and backing tracks like this many times without ever picking up an instrument, I know it don't replace a guitar but it's still a great alternative while you are waiting. Doing stuff on sequencers can be great for helping theory and your ear.

Lee

Can't really tell you any thing different from what others are saying... just keep at it. I will tell you that my mother broke her wrist at the beginning of summer, has gone through two surgeries, and for a while had an external fixation on her arm (picture a towel rack sticking right out of the arm), and the doctors aren't sure if she'll ever be able to play again either. But, with all the PT she's been doing lately (she has this machine that she sticks her hand in, and it flexes the fingers back and forth for her), she's at the point where she's strong enough to use a nail clipper (think about it, that takes a bit of force). When she started PT, she could move her fingers 3 degrees (yeah, you read that right), and now she can bend them 30 or so. It took her a while to get here, but I suspect she'll be touch typing again relatively soon, and maybe a while longer before she'll be able to play anything again. I won't kid you, it won't be easy, and it may in fact turn out to be learning all over again but I suspect you (along with my mother) will get there. Good luck man.

TZ

Vic,
I'm sorry to hear about the injury. Are you able to work with an occupational therapist (OTs work on fine motor skills)? OT can help a lot -- I know it's helped my son immensely over the years. If you can, see an OT. That will shorten your path to recovery, I'm sure of it.

Tim

make sure that the therapist that you see is a hand specialist. there aren't too many of them. you may wind up seeing an occupational therapist since they specialize in hand more so than physical therapists. if you can't locate a hand specialist, let me know and i may be able to help you.

I'm seeing an occupational therapist, she's got me wearing something called a dynamic splint - it's supposed to make me work the affected finger more than the other fingers on that hand, but all it seems to do is add PAIN to the equation.....

I've got a series of exercises to do, supposed to carry them out twice a day....I must be doing them 15-20 times a day, I just want my hand to get better....it feels stronger, but at the same time, I still can't bend the blasted finger....

I would never have believed ANYTHING could be so frustrating, I'm not asking for muich, all I want is to play rhythm guitar to a decent standard again, I'll never be a good lead guitarist, but I can come up with a good riff, I can write a good melody to go with it, and I can put words to same....I just want to be able to record my own songs, they may not be all that great, but they're MINE.....

I just want to play guitar - if I can't, there's not much point looking forward to that 50th birthday next year...

All I ever wanted from life was for someone to recognise a song I played - preferably one of MY songs......

:D :D :D

Vic

My instructor doesn't have a fully mobile pinky, and he can play many difficult classical pieces. And there was that girl who was told she would never walk again after a bad accident, then walked, ran, trained, and broke 3 world records in track and field.

Just keep at it :wink: :)

Gosh Vic. I wish I could help in some way. All, I can do is offer motivation. Keep at it man. Great things are done when men and mountains meet.

Good luck