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Please, look after yourselves !


musicbassman

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So, I've been doing a few gigs (remember them ?) with a soft jazz rock band over the last few months. Very nice. We were due to do 2 gigs at a restaurant (semi outdoor) just before Christmas. All fine, and any gig is a rare event at the moment.

But yesterday the drummer, an excellent player and good friend who I've known for many years, sent me a picture of his arm.......  not a pretty sight. Apparently he was trimming off some floorboards with a hand held circular saw and it kicked back. The saw landed on his bare arm......... my wife nearly threw up when i showed her the picture.

He is having emergency surgery today as he has cut through a couple of tendons. It's quite possible he may never have proper use of his hand again, so his drumming days might well be over.

Please guys, don't be like my drummer friend. I know he always had a habit of charging into things without stopping for a brief moment to plan his work out carefully. The thought of having an accident like that fills me with horror -  being unable to play properly ever again is almost unthinkable.

So, spare a thought for my dear drummist friend today, and please, please, look after yourselves!

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That's a horrifying thought - I really hope that the medical team (who can perform wonders) manage to retain as much use of his hand as possible so that with time, patience and physio your drummer continues to be able to play.  When I think of the daft things I've done on motorbikes, snowboards, and mountain bikes I'm stunned that I've never had a serious injury.  It does make you wonder!

 

Edited by DaytonaRik
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Sorry to hear that. Here's hoping for the best.

My brother works in a pattern shop and over the years there has been a number of hideous accidents, usually involving mangled hands, most of which had a much better outcome than the initial carnage suggested. He himself had to have tendons reconnected after an incident the left his fingers curled uselessly into the palm of his hand. That didn't look good for a while, but after the surgery and a period of recovery (ie, doing what he was told), everything is largely back to normal, with no significant loss of function or strength. He's a climber, so finger strength is important, and he still kicks my a$$ when we climb together.

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Whilst I’ve never been massively into DIY, since I went pro in the 90’s I’ve always been overly careful about damaging myself, on the basis that if I couldn’t play then me and my family couldn’t eat! Although my mates and brother often take the mick about me having ‘artist’s hands’, I’ve always got help with stuff that may be dangerous or run the risk me not working. My brother has just done his back in lifting paving slabs - he’s retired but had he been still working then he would have needed weeks off. It’s amazing when you are self employed how much it focuses you on being able to carry on working whatever happens, and the older I’ve got the more important it is. 

Sorry to veer OT musicbassman, really hope your friend manages to regain full use of his arm and hand, all the best.

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12 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

A case of "this thread is better without pictures" methinks.

Best wishes to your drummer and lets all be careful with our musical bits.

I think much better without! 
 

A friend who works in A&E said that first lockdown they expected uplift in COVID patients, instead they saw uplift in DIY patients. Some of them arrive looking like they’ve been in a road accident apparently. Combined use of ladder and power tool appears to be an especially effective formula :( 

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Best wishes to your drummer, sincerely hope there's no long lasting damage.

I've got a circular saw and I really don't like them to be honest. I'm massively cautious using it. If it doesn't cut with just gentle pressure applied I stop. The power tool I hate the most are those large angle grinders. Used one when we built our extension, awful things. 

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An update -

Steve (drummer) was sent to East Grinstead Hospital today where they apparently specialise in reconstructive and micro surgery.

He had a two and a half hour operation which was apparently fairly successful. Obviously only time will tell, and there will be 3 months of heavy duty physiotherapy also to follow. And, because of it's impactive nature, playing drums will be out of bounds for even longer than this. Poor guy, he lives for his drumming. 🙁

Thanks for all your BC kindness and good wishes, and, don't forget to take care!   :i-m_so_happy:

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There’s a guitarist I know on Facebook actually sliced through his hand with a power saw, cutting his hand in half across the palm. Just for a very split second his attention was distracted. They managed to reattach the severed part - though I think the little finger was too badly damaged. I’ve always hated power tools, I can’t even bear to watch other people use them.

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Sad and horrible to read. 

I have a tree surgeon live next door to me who does all my tree work for me and a few years ago he made an error of judgement.  He was lightly pruning a tree, holding small branches and cutting them off, at the time roped up about 30ft into the canopy.   However he misjudged how heavy a branch he was cutting was and once he'd cut through it the weight pulled his arm into the chainsaw.  He had already taken his pressure off the throttle so the blade was braking - it only went through skin, fat and muscle but no further - but it made a mess of his forearm and kept him off work for several weeks.  Made worse, of course, by the fact that he was way up in the tree and his buddy had to try and get him down.  And that is a guy who spends all day every day using a chainsaw.  Luckily there was no permanent damage other than some slight nerve damage.  Mrs S won't let me anywhere near power saws.

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1 minute ago, Paul S said:

Sad and horrible to read. 

I have a tree surgeon live next door to me who does all my tree work for me and a few years ago he made an error of judgement.  He was lightly pruning a tree, holding small branches and cutting them off, at the time roped up about 30ft into the canopy.   However he misjudged how heavy a branch he was cutting was and once he'd cut through it the weight pulled his arm into the chainsaw.  He had already taken his pressure off the throttle so the blade was braking - it only went through skin, fat and muscle but no further - but it made a mess of his forearm and kept him off work for several weeks.  Made worse, of course, by the fact that he was way up in the tree and his buddy had to try and get him down.  And that is a guy who spends all day every day using a chainsaw.  Luckily there was no permanent damage other than some slight nerve damage.  Mrs S won't let me anywhere near power saws.

Wood, as every bass player knows, is a very unpredictable substance! I made the same mistake cutting down a dying tree in our garden; what seemed a small branch came down like a ton of lead and pinned me to the ground. Comical, yes, dangerous, hell yes :(

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Funny how tree branches always look so much smaller when attached to trees.  We have an ancient Lombardy Poplar in the corner of my place with lots of 'small dead branches'.  One of the 'small dead bits' blew down earlier this year in a storm and it was 30ft long.

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43 minutes ago, Paul S said:

Funny how tree branches always look so much smaller when attached to trees.  We have an ancient Lombardy Poplar in the corner of my place with lots of 'small dead branches'.  One of the 'small dead bits' blew down earlier this year in a storm and it was 30ft long.

Trees. Yes, deadly beauty. I’ve been crown-lifting a large silver birch. It’s always a surprise how heavy the branches are when they start coming down. I guess it’s the water inside that adds to the weight.

Interestingly, I was recently talking to an acquaintance who is a hand surgeon (our kids socialise). He told me that one of the commonest non-trauma related injuries he deals with is related to dog walking. The dogs lurching and pulling on the lead causes chronic hand and wrist injuries.  I must say I’ve noticed a recent trend for people to buy one (or more) expensive dog and seemingly not do any training whatsoever. That’s a different topic though.

Hope the drummer comes back strong. Not rushing it will be important.

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