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Ouch...


BrunoBass

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Whilst emptying the dishwasher tonight, in a hurry before going out for rehearsals I somehow managed to slice my fingers to bits on the blade attachment of MrsBass’s smoothie maker. The cut on my index finger is particularly deep and bled a lot for quite a long time. I considered missing rehearsal to see if I needed a stitch in it or something but eventually I stopped the bleeding with pressure and strapped everything up tight. And besides, we have a gig on Saturday...

I mostly play finger style, and sods law the deepest cut is right on my main plucking finger, which is pretty painful. We went through the whole set with me playing using a pick held awkwardly between thumb and middle finger. It was difficult to play precisely and after a while my hand ached from the unusual grip. I’m determined to play the gig so as not to let anyone down but equally to shut up my pisstaking band mates. Hopefully it will have improved by Saturday and I’ll be able to at least hold a pick between thumb and index finger. It’s bloody sore though! Anyone else played with injuries and battled through the pain barrier like a hero? 😂

114CC1F0-C557-4D7B-A6CB-B66A7B83743E.jpeg

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I did something very similar some years ago. I taped it up with elastoplast, the smooth type. However, I had maybe from Tuesday to Saturday to heal. It wasn’t my very best performance, but I got through. The superglue idea may well work. I know it‘s sometimes used in emergencies.

Don‘t panic, you‘ll make it. Good luck on the weekend.

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7 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

Anyone else played with injuries and battled through the pain barrier like a hero? 😂

 

Yep! Leaving for band practice, carried my gear out of my front door, bass on back, cab infront of door.  I lean over the cab, resting my hand on the doorframe and pull the door shut to lock it...

Hear crunching noise, look at my thumb... now trapped in the shut door (hinge side) halfway down my thumbnail.

My thumb pretty much doubled in size, the nail filling with blood but I was determined to go to practice.  3 hours of practice later my thumb is absolutely throbbing and now a rather horrific shade of red/black (worth noting I'm a pick player and this was my picking hand).  They needed to pierce my thumbnail with a red hot needle to release the blood, typically in going through the thumbnail they managed to drive said needle into my nail bed at the same time.

The pressure of the built up blood in my thumbnail was so high by this point that the blood managed to easily cover a distance of around 4-5m as the needle released it.

That wasn't a great deal of fun!  How the hell I didn't break my thumb I'll never know!

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6 hours ago, charic said:

Yep! Leaving for band practice, carried my gear out of my front door, bass on back, cab infront of door.  I lean over the cab, resting my hand on the doorframe and pull the door shut to lock it...

Hear crunching noise, look at my thumb... now trapped in the shut door (hinge side) halfway down my thumbnail.

My thumb pretty much doubled in size, the nail filling with blood but I was determined to go to practice.  3 hours of practice later my thumb is absolutely throbbing and now a rather horrific shade of red/black (worth noting I'm a pick player and this was my picking hand).  They needed to pierce my thumbnail with a red hot needle to release the blood, typically in going through the thumbnail they managed to drive said needle into my nail bed at the same time.

The pressure of the built up blood in my thumbnail was so high by this point that the blood managed to easily cover a distance of around 4-5m as the needle released it.

That wasn't a great deal of fun!  How the hell I didn't break my thumb I'll never know!

Ouch!! I did similar many years back, on the day of Sack The Drummer's biggest gig to date supporting Blyth Power at Peterborough Beer Festival we were finishing off ply lining our band van when muggins here, not paying attention managed to hammer my thumb rather than the nail I should have been aiming at, cue much screaming and blood loss! I stuck it in ice water for a couple of hours took loads of pain killers and got through the gig in true punk style with blood all over my bass by the end of the gig, strangely it didn't actually hurt during the gig, a couple of days later my thumb was black and the nail fell off!

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10 hours ago, charic said:

Yep! Leaving for band practice, carried my gear out of my front door, bass on back, cab infront of door.  I lean over the cab, resting my hand on the doorframe and pull the door shut to lock it...

Hear crunching noise, look at my thumb... now trapped in the shut door (hinge side) halfway down my thumbnail.

My thumb pretty much doubled in size, the nail filling with blood but I was determined to go to practice.  3 hours of practice later my thumb is absolutely throbbing and now a rather horrific shade of red/black (worth noting I'm a pick player and this was my picking hand).  They needed to pierce my thumbnail with a red hot needle to release the blood, typically in going through the thumbnail they managed to drive said needle into my nail bed at the same time.

The pressure of the built up blood in my thumbnail was so high by this point that the blood managed to easily cover a distance of around 4-5m as the needle released it.

That wasn't a great deal of fun!  How the hell I didn't break my thumb I'll never know!

Top tip from someone who has done this many times (given to me by a doctor): don't use a needle or anything sharp. By the time the hole is big enough to let the blood out the point is painfully stuck into the nail bed underneath. Uncurl a paperclip or similar. Heat the end to red hot in a lighter. Push red hot end through nail slowly - it burns it's way through and is then cooled by the blood underneath so you won't even feel it go through the nail. Repeat if you're too slow the first time and don't get right through! Cue satisfying spurt of blood and relief from the throbbing. Do it as soon as it throbs and there's clearly blood under the nail - if you do it soon enough you'll keep the nail. If you just leave it you probably won't.

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So the worst of the cuts (index / main plucking finger) is healing quite well. I’ve let the air at it and haven’t done anything with it since Thursday’s rehearsal. It’s still a bit sore but if I can keep it out of trouble until tonight I’m hopeful it shouldn’t be a problem. 

(Our wisecracking drummer suggested we play something by Badfinger. That was quite good for him...)

 

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Interesting!  Well, I think it is.

 

Some of the innovations that emerged out of World War II are well-documented, ranging from the microwave to the atomic bomb. But there's one small tool whose WW2 heritage is lesser-known: superglue. 

Superglue was first developed by scientists at Eastman Kodak who were trying to design gun sights for the military after they found that some of their failed attempts had other useful properties.

While the adhesive has become known for fixing pottery and clothing, during the Vietnam War, it became life saving. "If somebody had a chest wound or open wound that was bleeding," inventor Harry Coover once told the Kingsport Times-News, "the biggest problem they had was stopping the bleeding so they could get the patient back to the hospital. And the consequence was—many of them bled to death. So the medics used the spray, stopped the bleeding, and were able to get the wounded back to the base hospital. And many, many lives were saved."

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About five years ago, I cut a fingernail-sized piece off the tip of the 1st finger of my left hand. I played a gig a few days later with the finger wrapped in bandaging the size of a golfball, and had to play everything without using that finger, which is obviously the finger I use most. Bear in mind my bass style in the band is kind of Squire / Entwistle-esque, so let's just say it was an interesting challenge. 😉

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I had a run through the set earlier. Fingerstyle is out unfortunately. I can now hold a pick between thumb and index finger so it’s going to be all pick tonight (usually 70/30 favouring fingers). 

Fingers crossed (excuse the pun)...

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14 hours ago, SICbass said:

So, how did your gig go?

It went very well thank you. Having avoided doing anything for 48 hours and allowing it to dry up somewhat I managed to open it up again lifting a PA speaker up on to it’s stand. From that point on it bled for a while, not heavily, but enough to get it all over my white bass. Great for the punk credentials but not very good for trying to hold a pick. A few songs in though it’d stopped and I forgot all about discomfort. We ended up playing a blinder. 

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1 hour ago, Count Bassy said:

Obviously didn'tbhurt that much if your first thought was to photograph it rather than bandage it up! - Sign of the times I guess.Sign of the times

If you mean covering one’s derrière in the event of possible time off work, potential loss of earnings, and subsequent accounting for my whereabouts to my boss, then yes you probably could say it’s a sign of the times. Twice. 

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1 hour ago, BrunoBass said:

It went very well thank you. Having avoided doing anything for 48 hours and allowing it to dry up somewhat I managed to open it up again lifting a PA speaker up on to it’s stand. From that point on it bled for a while, not heavily, but enough to get it all over my white bass. Great for the punk credentials but not very good for trying to hold a pick. A few songs in though it’d stopped and I forgot all about discomfort. We ended up playing a blinder. 

Yeah, it's sometimes surprising how that is. I don't know whether it's the andrenaline or what, but after 10-15 mins of playing, injuries that have us wondering if we can make it through the gig, miraculously stop hurting. I've had monster huge blisters that I got from playing upright bass (which I don't do often) burst mid gig and within minutes become painless.

Glad to hear you had a good gig.

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