Bill Evans following thumb joint replacement surgery (7/16/26)
At this point, I think we all are aware of joint replacement surgery, which has now become routine, where a person with a debilitated joint undergoes a procedure and the bone joint is removed, with a metal replacement installed. Most of us know someone who has had hip or knee replacement, with nearly universal success.
Here’s a story from lifelong banjo player Bill Evans, whose arthritis is threatening to rob him of his passion, and his livelihood. But a new thumb replacement joint is available, and this morning he had one installed in his left hand.
Here is an initial report before heading to the hospital. He promises to keep us informed of his recovery, as this surgery offers tremendous possibilities for relief among musicians.
Here’s Bill…
About three years ago, I started to experience pain in the lower part of my thumb, first in my right hand and then soon after in my left hand. A year later in May 2025, came my first steroid injections, which brought some relief for about six months, and this was followed by a second round of steroids in April of this year, which kept the pain away only for a few weeks. The X-rays in that first session showed that in both hands, this joint was grinding bone-on-bone with the joints above and below. It had reached the point where guitar playing was extremely painful and after a day of teaching or playing, both hands were too painful for me to gain much motivation to pick up my banjo again.
When I talk to folks about this upcoming surgery, they often ask, “Is it carpal tunnel?” And it’s not. The CMC thumb joint is a small bone at the base of the thumb, and deterioration of the support system around this joint is one of the most common arthritis conditions in the world. It’s much more common among women than men, and there are a variety of surgical methods used to ameliorate the pain. And my doctors have indicated that the arthritis is not related to banjo playing. No, it’s much worse. It’s a condition of getting old (I’ll be 70 years of age in September of this year).
Do you have stiffness or pain at the base of your thumb? You might have what I have – and the good news is that there’s a new treatment with a much shorter and less painful recovery.
Enter “Touch CMC 1” in an Internet search and you’ll quickly find out more. The actual medical name is “Dual Mobility Trapeziometacarpal Arthoplasty.” Luckily, no hammer dulcimers are involved (inside joke there…). One of the older surgical repairs involved taking a tendon from your arm and stretching it across the space created by the removal of the thumb joint – and apparentlyl, recovery was sometimes long and painful. Until I heard about this new surgery, I had decided not to do this older repair method – it just seemed to take too long, especially with first one hand and then the other (and if you’re the kind of person that is asking, “Why not do both hands at once?” then I bet you’re a banjo player like me.)
There was a big part of me that did not want to make this upcoming surgery public by posting to Facebook, but when I came to realize that people need to know about this new procedure, there might be interest from folks who are experiencing the same discomfort that I have.
I’m so fortunate to be close to the University of Virginia, one of only six US medical institutions that is performing this surgery. And good news for you older Nashville cats: Vanderbilt is another medical center offering this treatment, along with the University of Denver for you aging jam grassers.
I was overwhelmed when I made this news public on Facebook on July 13 – not only by the amount of encouragement and support I received from so many friends that I personally know, which is tremendous – but from so many folks, including a few well-known musicians, who have this same problem and want to learn more.
So here we go…I arrive at the UVa medical center Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m., surgery begins at 7:00 a.m. and lasts one hour and 40 minutes. I’ve been told that it takes two doctors to perform the procedure, to which I replied, “Is that so one doctor can remind the other doctor what to do?” Gallows humor helps, and I’ll also see if I can wear some banjo socks into the operating room. No fingerpicks allowed.
Am I nervous? You bet! It’s really strange to think about how you are unaware of the passage of time under anesthesia – you drift off to sleep and you then wake up, not knowing if it’s been five minutes for fifty years. And in this case, I’ll look over at my left hand, and there will be a hard cast and a totally numb arm. Just plain weird, this stuff. The discomfort apparently begins when this wears off about 18 to 24 hours after surgery.
But I have a fantastic support network, headed up by my amazing wife Babi, who not only is an incredible banjo and guitar player but is also a physical therapist. Yep. Who could ask for more? I’m the most blessed man in the world.
I’ll check in on the other side with all of you and let you know how my recovery is progressing in the coming four weeks. And I always keep in my prayers those who have much more significant medical challenges than this – mine is a First World Banjo Player’s problem. Friends like Larry in Berkeley who just had a heart transplant four weeks ago, and my two friends undergoing cancer treatments, are among the folks who give me my inspiration.
Thanks for reading, friends! Send up a prayer if you’re reading this early on Thursday morning and if you know of anyone with these thumb joint issues, have them check out “Touch CMC 1!”
Following surgery, Bill reports that all is well, he is back home, and that he hopes to begin using his left hand again in as little as two weeks!
