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Weird Question [message #91265] Wed, 10 October 2007 21:09 Go to previous message
Neil is currently offline  Neil
Messages: 1645
Registered: April 2006
Senior Member
I guess a little background is in order... for awhile now I've
had this (what I and three Dr.'s thought was) an infection on
my right index finger underneath the nail... tried a number of
things attacking both viral and bacterial possibilities - never
healed. Got referred to a different dermatologist last week &
he examined it & immediately wanted to take a biopsy - lab
results came back today: Squamus-Cell skin cancer. It's
confirmed - he got five different opinions on it. So now I have
to lose all or part of that finger.

Good news is, of course, this is nothing life-threatening or
anything like that - I mean, it's just a finger, and this type
of cancer is very unlikely to spread. Bad news is - well, it's
what you hold the guitar pick with, so SOMETHING's gonna have
to change there... i'm sure i'll still be able to play, but
probably not like I can now. Right-hand stuff on the keyboard's
gonna be even tougher, since that's not my main instrument
to begin with, but it's what I mostly write on. Anyway, it's
not like I'm losing a whole hand, I'm just a bit pissed (OK,
MASSIVELY pissed) that I'm not going to be able to play
anything at the level I currently am able to - in which case,
what's the point?

Anyway, here's the Weird Question part: I'm going in for the
surgical consult on Tuesday, and the Doc is going to give me
three different options, essentially (he gave me a run-down
over the phone) and what I need to decide is "How much of my
finger do I want to lose?" The least-invasive is a thing called
Mohs' Surgery, for which he has a specialist at his practice
(whom I'll get to talk to on Tuesday). It takes off the least
amount of tissue, and in the case of my particular situation,
wouldn't remove any bone, either. Two other options would
involve complete surgical romoval of a portion of the entire
section of the finger, down past the first joint, or even
further.
SO... the wierd question is: Do any of you know any musicians
with a prosthetic finger? Doesn't matter what instrument they
play at this stage, I'm just trying to get an idea of if I have
to make a choice of losing a small part of it or losing a
larger part of it, which is better when it comes to a
prosthesis, because I want to look into that, as well. The Doc
says any of these methods would work in my case, because of
where it's located & that it's still small in size & hasn't
spread much, so I don't really have to be concerned
about "which one will be most effective?" IOW, I need to find
out how much is not enough, how much is too much, and how much
is "just right" for being able to effectively employ a
prosthesis from a musician's standpoint. Might help me make a
more educated decision.

Anyway, if anybody knows of anyone, that'd be great; I'd sure
appreciate it. Lemme know!

Neil

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