Artificial hand finger joints

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 18 Apr 2011 3:14 am

Hello family,
I have severe osteo arthritis. Bone on bone in many joints in my fingers. Impossible to make a fist. I'm only 60. Of course this is very heart breaking. Had to give up my hot tele lead playing that I loved. Pedal steel, which has always been my close second love, is having to fill the void. I'm concidering joint replacement. Has anyone got any artificial joint stories or advice?
Thanks much ,Ron

Bobby D. Jones · Post by **Bobby D. Jones** » 18 Apr 2011 9:30 pm

I have been rolled on by a horse. Kicked by a 1000 lb. steer. I picked fights with thunder storms and ran into too many trees when young. HA HA. I had a lot of trouble with both my knees, my hands, One shoulder and elbow. A friend of mine (who down hill skied when she was young) said take OSTEO BI-FLEX. I was mad and hurting when I reached in the head of the bed and turned the alarm clock off every morning. It took about 40 days for it to mend my joints enough to really show help. That was about 7 years ago and I still take it every morning with breakfast. Some people say it does not help them, but if you are one it helps it will be well worth taking it. I am 67 now. GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY STEELIN.

Chris Dorch · Post by **Chris Dorch** » 19 Apr 2011 5:14 am

Glucosomine can be your friend... You can get them in large abundance for quite cheap at Sam's or Cosco, etc. Sorry to hear of the pain.. All my joints are pretty bad and I'm not yet 40.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 19 Apr 2011 5:55 am

Along similar lines, I've recently developed a problem with the middle finger. The second knuckle joint and the big one at the palm are pretty bad at times. I'm noticing it somewhat straight on back to the wrist. I hope it's not carpal's.

Anyhow, I've not yet found anything to relieve the discomfort and slightly reduced motion. I've tried many of the OTC remedies, hot treatments, exercise regiment and of late, fish oil which helped my shoulder joints a few years back.

Lucky for me, it's my left hand so it doesn't interfere too much with my bar manipulation, still the discomfort is a constant reminder.

Fingering on the 6 string is another matter.

Tom Mnich · Post by **Tom Mnich** » 19 Apr 2011 6:32 am

Ron, I also had severe osteo-arthritis problems, however hand-wise so far it has been limited to my thumbs. Needless to say the bone-on-bone grinding and fingerpicking don't mix well. Last year I had surgery on both thumbs that is called LRTI. There's lots of info about it on the web. So I won't go into detail. It is basically a joint rebuild of the base joint of the thumb.

I had my right thumb done in August and my left done about the 1st of November. The right was ready to pick after only a couple months. Nice and smooth, no more grinding, no more "hitches" in the motion. No more swollen aching thumb at the end of an evening. The left has taken longer to be guitar-ready. There was some residual swelling in the wrist that was slow to go away which made it difficult to arch my wrist for guitar playing. Also the constant squeezing of fretting was difficult.

I'd have to say my experience with this has been very successful so far. My constant thumb pain is a thing of the past and I'm regaining some grip strength. Don't know what this means to you, as it does not involve fingers at all. But, it is an option you may not have been aware of.

BTW, I'm turning "only" 55 this year.