I am not exactly sure why I remembered this recently, but when I was 16, I broke the scaphoid bone in my left wrist, which is situated at the base of the thumb. I know that I was in plaster for six weeks and because the broken bone was at the base of my thumb, all but the top joint of my thumb was immobilized. While I couldn’t use my thumb, I still played the piano with the remaining four fingers in my left hand. I don’t remember that playing the piano with a total of 9 fingers was particularly painful, it was just weird and awkward.
When the plaster came off my arm after 6 weeks, I remember that life got back to normal, except for playing the piano. I do remember being in a lot of pain trying to play the piano normally again because I was moving my thumb quite a lot. I remember being in such pain that I would have tears streaming down my cheeks as I was playing because I was in that much pain. I also have a clear memory that when it came to my next piano exam, my teacher and I agreed that the best option for me was to have my wrist brace in my pocket and subtly slip it on for playing my scales and then take it off for playing my pieces of music, as I found it too constrictive for playing my pieces accurately.
If I remember correctly, it took an entire year for me to get back to normal and not feel pain while I was playing the piano.
Then in my twenties, on two different occasions, I severely damaged the tendons in the left wrist and then the right wrist. These injuries had a significant impact on my day to day living as well as playing the piano. Again, playing the piano was the most painful thing I could do at the time and it also was about a year that each injury took to completely heal.
In some ways I can’t believe that I went through all that pain and difficulty within a 10 year time frame. Fortunately, once I was out of pain I have remained pain free ever since, which is more than I can say for other body parts that got injured when I was younger.
The point of sharing this story is that you can come back from injury to play the piano again. I did it 3 times. If you injure your hands or wrists, it doesn’t necessarily mean that playing the piano becomes impossible. It might take a while and you might need medical intervention and help but it is possible to fully heal from most injuries and be able to play the piano again. Injury isn’t always the end of playing the piano, its more like a delay.
So if you have an injury or acquire an injury, know that you can likely recover and you can still play the piano.