As long-standing members of the forum will know, last year I dislocated fingers 3 and 4 of my right hand in a cycling accident.

I am happy to say that my hand is almost as good as new:

The fingers can be fully straightened
Knuckle joints have full range of movement
The constant pain has gone
Grip strength has returned

95% of other flexibility is restored
there is some residual thickening of the main finger joint - probably permanent
they ache a little at the end of a long practice session

The various web sites that offer medical advice say that recovery from such an injury takes 5 or 6 weeks. So much for the quality of advice from such sources. Perhaps for a 7 or 8 year old child it might heal that quickly, maybe even for a young adult. Certainly not for someone in their 50's.

It has in fact taken about a year. I am convinced that if I had not resumed piano practice as quickly as possible, and put in my usual 3+ hours daily then there would have been long term problems.

Gosh Tom I didn't realise you were still having trouble! That is awful. Glad to hear that you're on the mend though. I hope the improvement continues.

I'm still always amazed that you manage three hours daily and a full time job. Very impressive. Best of luck with whatever you're working on at the moment.

All the best, it must have been a very frustrating time, but pleased to hear you are on the mend

Gee , how on earth did you play that Bach at Chester!

Yes I remember - very glad to hear it's not causing you undue problems any more.

With a one-bar gap in the middle of the fugue where I forgot where I was up to!!

I don't think many of us noticed!

Rubbish isn't it? Ligaments and tendons take much longer to heal than bones because the blood supply to them is very poor. Given the choice between a sprain and a fracture, I'd take the fracture every time. I'm still feeling my broken toe from the summer, but happily it hasn't affected by piano playing! I'm sure your self-imposed physiotherapy regime has been beneficial. Glad to hear you are mending at last.

There is very little problem remaining now. But I advise pianists (in fact all musicians except singers) to avoid taking silly risks with your hands (like cycling too fast on dark wet nights in busy places!). Learn from my stupidity, and not from your own. Don't let a bad injury be your reminder of how important your hands are to your music. I was suffering from delusions of invulnerability.

It really is not that difficult once you have found a suitable place to practice, created the space in your daily routine, and made it into a well-established habit.

Thanks. Aufschwung from Schumann's Fantasiastucke, a selection from Debussy's Children's Corner, Beethoven Op 2 No 3, and reviving/repairing/improving the first Chopin Ballade - now that my right hand is once again up to its athletic demands

You've got me worried now - I cycle in to work!!

Bad luck on the dislocations etc, and pleased that you've made a recovery. You're certainly working on some pieces that will test the strength in your fingers (particularly the Chopin)!! I completely agree about not taking your hands for granted. I chose rugby over piano in my teens, and paid the price: numerous finger dislocations and a broken wrist at age 16. Particularly daft as I was far better at piano than I was at rugby. 20 odd years later, happily I don't have any long-term problems, and am playing better now than I was at 16. You can't be too careful with your hands. Best of luck with your pieces!

I will have to go back and read all of Tom's advice about getting his fingers back to strength. I have just started with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (or Channel Tunnel Syndrome as my Mum calls it ) and need to work out how I can keep practising without doing any lasting damage. Agh!

[quote name='Mad Tom' date='Nov 4 2009, 04:53 PM' post='891816']
But I advise pianists (in fact all musicians except singers) to avoid taking silly risks with your hands (like cycling too fast on dark wet nights in busy places!). Learn from my stupidity, and not from your own. Don't let a bad injury be your reminder of how important your hands are to your music. I was suffering from delusions of invulnerability.[/quote]

IIRC, didn't some other drunken fathead (sorry, didn't mean that the way it sounded ) have a part to play in the calamity? You can't always avoid mishaps just by being careful, because who knows where the peril will come from? There have probably been piano-lid accidents before now.


[quote name='pianodub' post='891761' date='Nov 4 2009, 04:36 PM']
Best of luck with whatever you're working on at the moment.
[/quote]
Thanks. Debussy's Children's Corner, Beethoven Op 2 No 3, and reviving/repairing/improving the first Chopin Ballade
[/quote]
Gosh - are you doing that too? I confess I've put it on the back burner because its too big for me. (To pass an exam with, at any rate)
Glad things are mending; gives me hope for my tennis elbow. Ouch.

It's funny so many sources say dislocations heal in a few weeks. I suppose maybe what they mean is that the physical mending is done in a couple of weeks so that you can come off restricted activities and won't have to wear bandages and such any more, but healing takes a really long time. When I ripped my ankle ligaments up I was told it would take about 5 months to stop hurting and a year to feel normal again, and that was about right.

Glad you are on the mend, I am the lucky (!) owner of the defective collagen gene that means my ligaments don't work in the first place. With lots of treatment I am now down to just 3 or 4 dislocations per day so I know just how flipping miserable they are.

There's one that requires a good warm up! I pulled a muscle in my hand playing that rather overzealously without warming up properly first...but I do have very small hands. Very satisfying to play!

The principles of fracture healing (usually taken to mean bony fracture healing but the same applies to damaged non-bony tissues such as ligaments and tendons) are to resuscitate the patient if necessary, reduce the fracture, hold it reduced and treat the soft tissues: Bone actually has a pretty good blood supply by comparison with ligaments so tends to heal quicker (!). Dislocations and ligament damage can often take a lot longer to heal than people expect for this reason.

While bones and/or ligaments are healing the soft tissues around them alter a great deal: In the immediate vicinity there is the immediate increased bulk associated with the accumulation of fluid, inflammatory cells and later cells associated with repair and reabsorbtion. This swelling persisits long after the fracture has united and regained strength. More distantly there is inactivity and wasting of muscles that move the joints/bones affected as well as stiffening through inactivity of some joints and ligaments both originally involved and distant.

The treatment of the soft tissues does little or nothing to accelerate the healing of the injury in terms of union or the gain in strength of the damaged tissue. It is all about minimizing the long term loss of function resulting from the original damage. Dislocated fingers "heal" moderately quickly (2-3 months). The loss of function resulting from the injury takes a lot longer to recover, even if really well treated, which is why the treatment of the soft tissues is one of the most important aspects of the treatment. Alas, treating the soft tissues is often thought of as an optional extra and a luxury and is often forgotten, particularly where the original injury is not a bony fracture.

I am not in the least surprised it has take a year for the effects of Toms injury to improve to the point where he can claim to be more or less recovered. I entirely agree with him that for dislocated fingers, playing the piano is probably one of the best forms of physiotherapy I can imagine. I suspect things will continue to improve for at least another year.

Well it took a while, but glad to hear it. For years now I've been protective of my hands to the point where it has become a neurosis....but yes, you've got to take extra care, especially when your sanity depends on both hands being in working order.

Funny you should say that, this piece is how I injured my hand last year! Maybe Schumann did it on purpose because he was bitter!

I'm glad your fingers are better Mad Tom, i'd have found that incredibly frustrating! My piano teacher has actually recently injured her RH 4th finger, but she's been in very little pain, which is very odd. She was stood at the side of a field watching her son play rugby when the ball came flying off the pitch towards her, and she put her hands up to stop it hitting her face (naturally), and it hit her finger straight on, and broke the bone between the tip of the finger and the first joint! Her finger has had a metal splint attatched to it for a month now, so all the pieces she plays when it comes off will have the most amazing left hand part!

That is good to hear that your fingers are finally better Mad Tom, you must be relieved.

Thanks everyone, for your good wishes. There are such nice people on this forum.

It is indeed great (and a relief) to have all my equipment working properly again [Piano playing equipment that is! ]

(I've never posted a reply made entirely of emoticons before... )

And still haven't!

Ah now, I came pretty close...