If a dog bites your hand...

[faa2010]

Last week, my dog bit one of my hands, there was no blood nor bones broken, hopefully, but I couldn't take the pain and I couldn't move my hand because it got swelled.

In those cases, what should I do if I want to play piano?, should I rest for 24 hours?, put a bag of ice?, do hand exercises either with the piano or not?

[visitor]

you have suffered hand trauma. you should see a doctor to check it out and follow their advice. pain during execution is indicative of underlying injury and inflammation or possible nerve damage. you can focus on rehab and practice after you heal or during the process if under the guidance of a qualified physiotherapist.

stay away from strange animals with the potential to hurt you. generally it's sound advice for most hoomans.

[iansinclair]

There may have been no blood or obvious bones broken -- but there is likely to have been a good deal of subsurface injury -- tendons, nerves, bone sheathes, even some internal bleeding are quite likely.  You really need to see a good doctor to get it examined -- thoroughly, possibly even an MRI -- and then find a good physical therapist to work with you and your doctors to get things back right.  It may take quite some time.  In the meantime, don't aggravate it -- this is not a "no pain, no gain" situation.

[bernadette60614]

I would say definitely rest.  If your hand is that swollen, then it is definitely time to rest.

I think as someone who has had dogs her entire life, you might want to also consider what triggered the biting.  I have been bitten 3x by our dogs (which are fortunately small dogs)..always over giving them medications which were uncomfortable and the perception that I was going to take away a favorite bone.

I don't know how large your dog is or his/her history, but I would think after you feel better, figuring out why you were bitten would be a good step.

[outin]

Won't help the op now, but generally many animal bites are best treated with antibiotics right away. Severe infections and blood poisonings can happen with bites and those are a pain to treat and can leave permanent damage. Cat bites especially can be nasty. Open wounds aren't infected so easily, but deep puncture wounds with little blood flow are difficult to get clean enough and there are some nasty bacteria in the mouth.

If the swelling and pain is considerable the same day or the next morning, it's best to visit a doc asap. I tend to wait and see a little if the bites are not in the very delicate areas of the hand, but sometimes I've started medication right away after the incident.

I am not bitten much anymore, since I have started to worry about my hands more, but before I did not hesitate to handle aggressive animals, so it happened every now and then...

[timothy42b]

Ice, rest, motrin, compression for 48 hours.

If it still hurts but mobility returns, you're probably okay.

If no improvement in 48 hours, you need to see a doctor.

Was it a serious attack?  It sounds like a typical warning nip, the dog giving you an unmistakable message you'd done something that he couldn't tolerate, and that if you didn't back off the next one would be a real bite. 

If so, you may need to take some steps to become the alpha again.  A bruise will heal, even a hematoma, it's hard to put the hand back on successfully though.

[nastassja]

I remember breaking my finger years ago... it was sO painful it was impossible to play with my left hand! So I practiced for one month, right hand only. And eventually little by little I would play with my left hand again. I think that if the pain is unbearable you should not practice with your injured hand. Playing with 1 hand  felt weird to me (in terms of balance) but I could still learn things! Even some concert pianists could play interesting works with a single hand  

[ahinton]

Very wise advice here but the wisest is to visit a doctor as soon as possible and to act upon his/her advice, again as soon as possible, in terms of treatment, specialist visits, &c. Other procedures such as rest, ice et al might be helpful and might even be recommended by the doctor, but the injury should not be left without professional medical examination and untreated for a moment longer than necessary, not least because of the risk of infection and its possible outcomes.

I'd also suggest not keeping a dog, but that's only a personal opinion and wouldn't in any case protect you from the risk of being bitten by someone else's dog!

Best,

Alistair

[piano6888]

Omg, if that happened to me and ended up with permanent/long term injury, I'd flip the sh*t out and raise mighty hell!   Granted I don't rely on piano as a living, but I take piano playing very seriously and is a big part of my life, so I like to enjoy playing difficult and acrobatic/athletic pieces, ones that are often fast tempi, medium loud to loud. My philosophy is that there is always time later in life (presuming that one's mind is still in tact) for the slower, lyrical pieces in the future but you are only young for a finite amount of time, therefore one may as well take advantage of the prime years/decades. This is because the physical body degrades/declines out sooner (even much sooner and more so for athletes) than the mind itself.  

Anyways, back to the topic, yeah I'm very protective when it comes to any upper body part of mine, especially my hands, fingers (fingertips especially), arms, and wrists. I can take punishment in the legs and foot, but I wouldn't trade my upper body for an injury, not even for $100M!   Call me crazy, but there are just some things that money can't replace, such as the experience and joy from playing at a highly technically advanced level or the experience and thrill of the activity itself. (Yeah people can hire a pianist but said pianist is not the same as another nor do they have the same interpretation or vision!  )