Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Broken blood vessel in finger?

Has this ever happened to anyone? It's happened to me a few times over the last few years and my finger will turn black and blue but within a day it's ok. I banged my fingers in August and had tingling for days in the fingers. It went away. Two weeks ago, while doing some not too heavy weight lifting, a vessel broke in my finger. It turned very black and blue and probably because I continued to lift, it took longer to heal. Now, almost 2 weeks later, my finger keeps getting black and blue as the day goes on, and starts to tingle. Is this normal? I'm a little freaked out. It doesn't hurt at all, but I'm concerned. Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this, esp. since we all use our fingers so much with playing our instruments. I play piano.

About 2 months ago I was placing a dumbbell back on the rack and I accidentally smashed one of my fingers. It turned black and was very painful for about 2 days. I didn't play the piano at all for those 2 days. I started playing again on the third day and about a month later I was able to safely peel the black part off.

Ouch, I can almost feel that pain. Thanks for the response!

Irenev - I too have frequently broken blood vessels in my fingers. This has often happened for no apparent reason - my finger will suddenly feel sore and I'll look at it and suddenly realize it's purple and swollen. The discolouration eventually goes away and everything is normal afterwards, however I have noticed that those fingers tend to very susceptible to the cold and will get numb quite quickly if exposed to the least bit of cold. As I live in a northern climate this does become a bit of an issue at times. I guess the broken vessels do interfere with circulation.

Hi, thanks for the info. I also live in the Northeast and my hands get really cold and stiff once the temp drops. I wear fleece gloves w/hand lotion or vaseline to keep them warmer. Doesn't work that well though. Maybe we have Raynaud's? Anyway, I'm not sure if it's normal for it to still be "acting up" 2 weeks later.

Holy crap! I would totally freak out if one of my fingers turned black/purple! I´ve never seen it, so I don´t think it´s too common among pianists.

My fingers are very thin though and get cold easily, so I soak them in hot water from time to time during practise and before performances.

Based on my non-professional medical knowledge, it sounds like you broke one of the larger vessels in your finger. After each time you get internal bleeding and bruising, you're getting clot formation, which is part of the process of healing. However, it seems that you aren't resting your hand enough and you are regularly breaking the clot again before sufficient healing has occurred. You really need to rest it (stop playing and exercising for a while - it's hard but just do it). Also, if it's ever swollen, ice it - swelling will result in increased pressure in the area and increased shear stress on the clot, breaking it down more easily.

In the long term, you have nothing to worry about, because even if your vessel is so damaged that it can't be repaired, you'll grow new blood vessels to circumvent the trouble spot and bring nutrients everywhere they're needed. But in the short term, it's possible you could do minor damage to the area if it goes too long without sufficient blood flow (ie. if you keep bruising over and over before new vessels grow). Rest.

Mark, that's pretty impressive for a non-professional and very helpful. I am not going to lift (actually, I haven't lifted weights in over a week) but I've continued to practice the piano, do yoga, etc. I will try to rest it. Thanks again.

Ouch!!!

And I thought that pulling my wrist and pinky finger was bad lol. Im fortunate to have never had this happen to me.

There's no pain or swelling, but it is very scary to look at. I keep thinking the finger will fall off.

My pulls and twists make my hands better once they recover though

An exercise that could help prevent this in the future is to run your hands under water and alternate between warm and cool water.

No problem. Glad to have helped:)

Over the years, I have broken many. Seems not to be a problem, although the worst ones can ache for a day or two, and because they are scary-looking, I've tended to ease up on practice until the discoloration goes away.

LOL, it's not that bad. Doesn't hurt. However, when I would have to perform, I would get very anxious, and my hands would get ice cold, stiff and well, you know what that does to your piano playing. Used to make me crazy. I'd wear gloves until I went onstage, but they hardly helped.

Broken many what? Fingers????? How????? My finger didn't swell, so I didn't even consider that I broke a bone. Did you have swelling? How did you know it was broken? I haveno pain.

Sorry if it was unclear that I was referring to the subject of the thread when talking about broken things.

Anyway, I usually didn't have swelling when I broke a blood vessel, but did have a little a couple of times. And yeah, I had a minor ache from some of them, too, although not enough to really cause serious concern.

chasingrainbows...I hope your worries didn't cause you too lose too much sleep...I had a similar situation. I just started playing the piano, but when I first smashed my fingers I was really into the guitar. It was a real pain. Luckily everything healed up nicely and I could jam away again.

If all else fails and you can't use your fingers, there is always the bongos I guess LOL

-Sara