my guitar injury?

The top knuckle* on my left ring finger is irritated, and I'm trying to figure out if it's because I have been playing the guitar incorrectly. I am asking for anyone who is reading this and either plays guitar or has expertise in orthopedic medicine to opine. Another possibility is that the irritation is due to a bug bite -- possibly exacerbated by my guitar-playing. 

I'll get to the bug bite theory later. But first, some explanation is in order. The A chord is one of the first chords I learned when I first took up the guitar. You make the A chord (first picture) by using your index, middle and ring fingers to hold down the D, G and B strings on the second fret. The B chord, which I didn't learn until later is essentially the A chord transposed by two frets. You make it (second picture) by holding your index finger across all six strings and using your middle, ring and pinky fingers to hold the D, G and B strings down on the fourth frame. And, of course, you can make other major chords by transposing this arrangement any number of frets up the neck of the guitar.

But I've gotten into what may be proving to be a bad habit. I now make the B chord using just the index and ring fingers (third picture). I'm using the index finger across all six strings, the same way I was taught. But I use my ring finger alone to push down on the D, G and B strings. I do it with the upper section, and bending that top knuckle backwards, in a way that it really wasn't meant to be bent. And sometimes (fourth picture) I use my ring finger in a similar fashion to make an A chord -- though I don't do that consistently.

Naturally, one may wonder why I started playing this way. The answer is that I find it easier. Most of the time that I play I'm using a ¾ size guitar** -- long story -- and it can be difficult to crowd three fingers on the narrow frets -- especially when I'm playing further up the neck. I also have a couple full size guitars, but the miniature one has the best sound of the three. I make the A chord the incorrect way (despite having enough room on the second fret) because of one particular song. In that, there's one place where I move from A to C#. It's easier for me to make that transition if I start with the one-fingered form of A.

Anyway, on Monday this week the joint was sore and red, and it hurt to play. So I've been laying off the playing this week, which is really annoying. When I'm working and I need a quick break I like to get up and play a song or two. But I pretty much like to stick almost exclusively to songs I wrote myself (or cowrote), and almost all of them (and all of the recent ones) involve this particular chord shape.

But part of me wonders if this is a bug bite. I was working in the yard on Sunday, moving some rotting logs. These were covered with ants, spiders and other creepies. On Monday I had several bug bites on my hands. And they were sore -- annoyingly so. The knuckle-sore was the worst of them, but it could just be a coincidence -- or it could be that that's the one bug bite that I further irritated with my guitar playing. I do note that the knuckle seems to be getting better just as the bug bites on the rest of my hands are getting better.

Opinions? Am I destroying my finger by playing guitar wrong? Will my finger fall off? Or is it a bug bite that will run its course in due time?

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*Fun fact: Researching the proper terminology, I learned that it's called the "distal interphalangeal joint." Woohoo!

**The Taylor GS mini, with koa wood

game over, man!

Does anyone else's company do this?

In order to encourage employees to be healthy, my company has signed onto a wellness program. We can get points for logging a variety of activities -- some active like walking or exercising, others more passive like reading or spending quality time with a pet. It included challenges, webinars, and all sorts of other ways to earn points. The points can be exchanged for gift cards -- each employee can get up to $300 worth, and we have until November 30 to do it.

My friends at work are varied in their approach to it. Some aren't bothering at all. Others are doing the various things to get points, but taking a leisurely approach since they have plenty of time. One friend isn't paying much attention, but he has some electronic tracker hooked up so he gets credit for steps taken.

Me? I turned it into a game and a challenge to get to the full $300 worth of points as quickly as I could. That meant a morning ritual to grab the daily points available, some extra activities every Sunday (for the weekly points), attending webinars, and more. There's a list online of things to do for points. And I really got into it, too. I created a spreadsheet to track what I did, with lookup tables to show the points. It graphed my progress -- as well as the decrease in points needed per day to reach the goal by the end of November. I even shared one day's graph on Facebook (and received constructive feedback from a colleague who -- I assume -- didn't know what it was I was graphing).

And, yesterday, I reached the goal. Once my points are processed, I'll get my $300 -- which I'll take in Amazon gift cards.

And, strangely, I miss it. Today was the first day that I didn't get up and say "I have to log in to the wellness portal and check my cards, and do a journey step and a ;whil' session." I asked the woman at work who administers the system. I can still earn extra points, but there's no financial incentive. I even asked if I could transfer extra points to a friend. No dice. It's gonna be a long summer...

scare...over!

At work my company provides monetary incentives to engage in health-related activities. We're not talking about get rich money, but enough that I don't want to leave it on the table. So I document exercises. And I document the screening my dentist performs. And I get a skin cancer screening in the office. Which is where this adventure begins.

I made an appointment to have a skin cancer screening in the office, performed by the dermatologist the company contracts for the purpose. I could, of course, go to my regular dermatologist, but that's less convenient and more expensive (the office screening is free from my perspective). I expected the usual result -- everything is fine. But this time the doctor found something that concerned her -- a small mole on right buttock. It wasn't big, but the color was uneven. "I would get this biopsied," she declared.

She offered to make an appointment at her office (which is near work), but I demured, explaining that my family already has a dermatologist we trust and have a relationship with. So I made an appointment with my regular dermatologist and had him look at the mole. He opined that it was probably fine, but since the color is uneven it makes sense to err on the safe side and biopsy it.

For some reason I was much more nervous in the week before I got the results than I had been between the original screening and the visit to my doctor.

A week later, he called with the results -- it was just a congenital mole I'd had since birth. B"H.

The only question: Is there any need to contact the dermatologist who did the original screening? Just to let her know the outcome?