Worst injuries or sickness you've had and you still played?

from what I have seen...

Screw. That.

my boss gets those real bad once a year. It puts him out for a week...
Yeah, I had them more or less yearly since I was 18 (I'm now 35). They're the worst. I've undergone lithotripsy (kidney stone surgery) 4 times. However since the last procedure, maybe 3 years ago, I have been stone free, knock on wood. I don't drink much pop, mostly stick to store-bought distilled water, my doctor says it's just my genetic makeup, I'm just predisposed.
 
I guess this post more belongs in this thread, so I'll just do a copy-paste... Sorry if it offends anyone :LOL:

About a month ago, I tried to do some warm up excercises and basic stretches with my hands and fingers right before we went to play. I kinda shooked my hands afterwards (imagine it like trying to dry off your hand if you get water on it, without a towel...), when someone yelled my name, I quickly turned, and smacked my thumb right into the edge of a table. So clumsy and foolish. It was bent quite a bit in the wrong direction. It got bruised pretty bad, but I managed somehow to play through the pain, it was way worse afterwards, and had swollen quite a bit the next day. I can still feel it if I bend it in a particular way today.

At my first european tour, I got very sick, most probably food poisioning, the same day as our first show. Not fun to do almost projectile vomiting along the way by boat from Oslo, Norway, to Cologne, Germany, then by train to Hamburg. All the way with all my equipment and trying to find out everything in a complete different language... Still managed to play the show, but just attaching the pedals was a big ordeal :sick:
 
In 10th-grade marching band I got a ganglion cyst on my right wrist. It was my first year getting to play snare and I practiced day and night, I ended up not telling the percussion director about it because I didn't want him to move my ass back to cymbals LOL. I went to a doctor who drained it. But it was some serious pain, any pressure on my wrist and it felt like my arm wrist was on fire.
 
Just flu and food poisoning, mostly. I really love taco trucks! Migraine once, that was daunting, but the pain evaporated while playing and singing, so I only had to contend with it between songs. Needless to say, I didn't do a lot of patter that night.
 
Once did a gig a few hours after getting home from Thailand.

Bad case of Jet lag and a case of ‘Bangkok Belly’ made it for a really rough gig.

Managed to get to London, do the show and make it home without any incidents though!

Which was nice
 
Maybe it was allergies, I don't know. I sing, and I can't sing with a runny nose. The show just sounds bad when the singer is sick.
 
Played a big show with the flu. Was miserable all day, was fine at the show, the next 3 days were horrible.

I tore my ACL and went to practice. The next day I tried to practice again but my knee didn't work. We had to stop. I couldn't walk at that point either. Saw the Dr. the next day.

When I was very first starting out, I had surgery on my big toe for an ingrown nail. I had it twice in about a month actually. I was told to stay off my foot as much as possible. I had a special sandal I had to wear. I wasnt supposed to play drums but I did it anyways. Like immediately.

When I broke my knuckle I was unable to drum for a couple weeks until i didnt need a splint or my fingers taped together.
 
geez y’all are die hards. I had a hangnail once, on my third finger. And my undies got bunched up once. But no f-ing kidney stones!
 
I've had to do gig's with the flu, high temps, the whole thing. I've also had to play with a super serious head cold, blowing my nose between songs (and making it very difficult to sing).

One time, I pulled a tendon in my right leg, and played the following weekend in a boot. I had to close off my hihat, and use my left foot for the kick. I'm not nearly good enough to do that on the regular, but I dumbed down what I needed to do, and got thru the gig reasonably well.
 
In 10th-grade marching band I got a ganglion cyst on my right wrist. It was my first year getting to play snare and I practiced day and night, I ended up not telling the percussion director about it because I didn't want him to move my ass back to cymbals LOL. I went to a doctor who drained it. But it was some serious pain, any pressure on my wrist and it felt like my arm wrist was on fire.

actually, my worst "gig" with sickness happened my sophomore year in marching band:

set up the scene: 90ºF day, with about the same humidity; full wool old school band uniforms; unknowing onset of a really bad food poisoning incident...

we had a contest about 2 hours away one Saturday. Showed up to school feeling ok, but a little "gurgly" in my stomach...which was sort of the norm for me back then b/c I ate like crap all the time. So, we got all packed up, got on the busses to go, and got about 45 minutes on the road, and now I am feeling pretty bad, and starting to sweat. Serious cramping and worse gurgling going on in my stomach.

Got to the show site, got off the bus, and by now, I was clammy, knees shaking and just squeezing the cheeks together for dear life, but had no time to go to the bathroom. Strapped on my 45 pounds of tri toms, whose carrier rested right on my stomach. Got in formation to march to the warm up site - for 45 minutes of warm up. My bowels were just screaming now, and I had a really bad headache from clinching my teeth so much. Try to survive warm up, adn the nthe march to the stadium....brutal.

Played the show...brutal...was just crying. soooo much pressure in my gut, and elsewhere. I had told my parents as we went to warm up that I was in bad shape, and that they would need ot grab my drums as soon as I got off the field. So the show ends. As soon as I cross the out of bounds line on the field, I literally threw my drum set at my dad and ran to the bathroom...but I didn't make it...just an explosion of nastiness all over my band uniform, the stall etc..."both exits" were used...

so there I am, stuck in the mess in that stall in some rural little football stadium...pre cell phone. After about 30 minutes, dad came in and checked on me. I told him he was going to have to go get me new clothes and hopefully some Wet Ones to "clean up" with. I alos told him to tell the BD that I wa NOT risding the bus home. There was NO WAY I could be seen after The Incident.

I ended up cleaning up as best as I could, and we got on the road. We stopped at a motel for me to shower for real. I did not know how I was goign to face everyone at school on Monday

Other than my heart attack, that was the sickest I have ever been. Missed 2 weeks of school.

But we won best drumline that day, so it was all worth it!!!!
 
Probably when I had food poisoning in Virginia when I was in the Navy Band 1980's. I played the job & nearly passed out from dehydration..
I sorta remember loading the truck afterwards only to wake up in Portsmouth Naval hospital-no clue how I was transported there.
I spent several days in bed with an IV saline drip feeding me through my arm.

I learned my lesson for life regarding food... "when it doubt throw it out."
 
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Eek! I just went through that last week! I was in the hospital in intense pain before they wired me all up. Even as I was coming out of it, my back was just SORE I couldn’t even move. I guess I’m a sissy!
Nah man, you definitely wake up feeling like you’ve been kicked in the kidneys for an hour. What’s worse is when they have to “retrieve” a stone from your urinary tract and there’s, uh…. only one entrance. I swear the first time they did that, I woke up and pissed a half pint of blood.
 
Flu....fever, body aches, the whole shebang. Fun stuff.
 
Other than the usual flu/cold/virus crap, I've had two memorable situations.

One was after surgery that repaired a ruptured tendon in my ankle and rebuilt the bones of my foot so it wouldn't happen again. It was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life, and that's saying something. I've had some major injuries. Anyway, I played the weekend after surgery wearing a boot. My foot was so swollen and throbbed so bad I sat with it up on the snare during breaks.

The other time was right after heart surgery. Yeah, I'm an idiot. Against Dr's advice I played an outdoor gig three days after surgery. The gig was okay, but hauling the drums to the stage made me doubt my sanity, much less my intelligence. I truly feared I was gonna have a heart attack.

But I'm still here. :)
 
Nah man, you definitely wake up feeling like you’ve been kicked in the kidneys for an hour. What’s worse is when they have to “retrieve” a stone from your urinary tract and there’s, uh…. only one entrance. I swear the first time they did that, I woke up and pissed a half pint of blood.
I will now endeavor not to let that happen! 3 liters of water a day from now on!
 
Sliced my thumb the night before a gig. Went to the hospital, and spent the next 6 hours in ER waiting room to see a doc and get stitched up. Got specific instructions NOT to drum after I asked. Got home at 5 am, got a few hours sleep and played the gig with a splint and bandage, while still bleeding through it.
 
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