About 18-24 months ago at work I managed to do myself a fairly hefty back injury which put me out of action for quite a while. I slipped 5 discs, complete with nerve compression and a fractured vertebrae (L1-2, L2-3, L3-4, L4-5 and L5-S1 herniated, for those of you that know the lingo). As you could probably imagine it didn't tickle. There was a point where walking up and down stairs was totally out of the question and even rolling over in bed just about had me in tears. It impacted a fair bit in my life but drumming was probably the most frustrating thing! I couldn't really do anything on the kit. It was a decent excuse to hit the pad more than usual, but you guys dont need to be told it's not the same thing. I left my band, had to turn down some session opportunities, and playing in general ground to a halt.

Fast forward to now, medical interventions and lots of rest and blah blah blah long story short, it's still giving me grief but I'm at the point where I can drum for decent amounts of time again, which to me feels pretty miraculous! But that period of time where it seriously impacted me to the point of not being able to drum at all wasn't something I'd wish on anyone. Anyone else had an experience with an injury preventing them from drumming? I'd be interested to hear it, and if/how you recovered.

Lift with the knees and not the back, ladies and gentlemen!