I did many cakes this week including a wedding and must have rolled out hundreds of pounds of fondant (ok, I'm exaggerating. A little). Friday nite, when I was finished with them all, the back of my left wrist had a sharp constant pain. It only got worse and woke me up TWICE in the night. Still have the pain and am in a splint since. My husband, a firefighter and paramedic, has diagnosed it as tendonitis. Never have I experienced anything like this. Anyone else had cake injuries??

I don't do a lot of cakes but my back is always sore and my hands are stiff by the time I am finished!

I have. I was doing my first large sheet cake and piping a shell border. I did a smaller shell. My thumb had a muscle spasm and I couldn't move it. I ran it under very warm water and just worked it out. It was sore for a couple of weeks. I do not use small shells on larger cakes now and just take plenty of breaks when my wrists and hands are getting stiff.

DH calls it my "cake gimpies" my feet and legs take the brunt of it.

I dont know what movie DH watched, but some guy said, "I got the gimp" and well ..... that was all he needed.

I am so sorry that your wrists hurt. Are there exercises you can do to alleviate the pain? I have exercises I have to do for the legs. I hope you feel better soon.

I have a bad shoulder, a bad hip, a bad right forearm and a jammed forefinger, all thanks to cakes

I suffer from gout, mainly in my right ankle. After standing forever when working on cakes I have to take ibuprofin to get to sleep.

As for injury... let's see:

Sore palms from rolling fondant
Burns on my hands from "grazing" the oven and pans
Fingers smacked by my KA
Dropped supplies on my head
Rubbed peppermint in my eye

Do any of those qualify?

I'm a klutz sometimes.

OMG! Ya'll have me laughing out loud! But it's because I know what you're talking about. I think I actually spit at the 'peppermint in the eye' one. I could swear my legs balloon to the size of telephone poles at the end of the day. For the wrist, it's 1) Immobilization 2)Icing 3)Anti inflammatory meds. And a day on the beach with a rumrunner didn't hurt either. =:0) Thanks again, ya'll. I don't fell so bad now!

I totally feel your pain! I had wrist/hand trouble before cake decorating became my obsession. Now I get shooting pains in my hands/wrists from kneading fondant, esp when I overdo it (more than 2 cakes a month). And I am only a hobby baker! I have found that Sharon Zambitos tip (standing on a stool) to knead has helped me a lot. You are then using the strength of your body instead of just your hands/wrists. This has reduced my pain. Oh, and cutting back helped too, but many do not have that option if it is your living! Hoping for a quick recovery for you....

I to have tendonitis and get the same pain from fondant. I always wear a firm elastic wrist support (and a glove so the edge of the wrist support doesn't touch the fondant) and I find this helps.

I have sore wrists/fingers after piping endlessly or kneading way too much fondant! Also, I have had bruises on my arms from trying to roll my fondant all the way across to not leave lines. (Gotten better about this as I've learned how to more properly roll out fondant!)
The most recent cake injury was a broken toe. That slippery fondant roller dropped directly on my toe, and I am convinced that I will have a throbbing reminder for the rest of my life! I still love cake decorating though!

DianeLM - I can't believe I missed that "Pun Intended" with 2)Icing! Thanks for pointing that out.

Great tips to use a stool so your body weight works for you and also to wear wrist support to help prevent the problem. Thanks ya'll.

Aeropanda is the winner with a broken bone!!

AFter several hours of standing at my counter, which is honestly a little low for decorating, my back is killing me. I purchased one of those gel mats you see at Bed Bath & Beyond. I stand on that now for any lengthy cake work, and it's helped a lot.

I think my worst injuries haev been from when my Agbay attacked me. No, really, I swear it did. I was being all nice and kind to it, and it just attacked!

I was leveling a cake today and now have my index finger on my left hand tightly bandaged... Actually had to call my husband to ask how deep of a cut constitutes stitches... boy was it BLEEDING!!!

Back and neck pain from tensing up during detail work... aching hands from kneading color into fresh fondant... etc. etc. etc....

And sleep deprivation...

Ooooh, yes CakeInfatuation. Sleep deprivation works.

WHOA! the things we do to ourselves for the love of cake. I have so many burns on my hands & arms it's crazy. I can't beleive I still have fingerprints. Can those be burned off? LOL!! I usually hurt from sheer exhaustion. My feet start to feel like my arches has fallen then my knees get weak from standing and when I start to leap from laughing to crying out of frustration then I know I've worked to long on the cake. That's usually about the time I starting making silly mistakes & dropping things. Pure madness I tell ya!

Last weekend I dropped my KA Mixer on my toes! I was pulling it up from the bottom shelf that I store it on and it slipped right out of my hands onto my two big toes. I swear I thought I broke them both. A week later they feel better, but they are black and blue!!

The weekend before that was a big baking week for me. At the end of it all I was so proud - I told my husband "I only burned myself once this weekend!" He was amazed at that statement, thinking it was ridiculous that I even had ONE burn at all! I was proud though!

Day before yesterday I was cleaning a cake board and sliced my knuckle on my first finger. . paper cuts SUCK!! it was so sore last night that I couldnt do ANYTHING!!

Today, I was leveling a frozen cake with a 10 inch knife. cake slipped on the table, and I sliced through my finger, ON the tip kinda with the nail and strait in. to the bone. I didnt think it would EVER quit bleeding!! and its on the OTHER first finger.

Plus the cake turned out looking like CRAP!

For all of you with back, leg & feet pain...I swear mine improved 10 fold when my hubby bought me some crocs!!! I always thought they were ugly but now I won't decorate a cake without them on!

Besides that...the burns, something gets sliced EVERYtime I use myt leveler and oh...the hand cramps...not from fondant but from all this typing on CC and clicking on pics all day! LOL

I have 2 burns within an inch of each other on my right arm as we speak, from putting my arm in the oven & touching the top rack w/that part of my arm- ouch!

Worse than that, when I was a newbie (started out in a grocery store) & all our equipment was new too, I was trying to cut through a 1/2 sheet cake that was still somewhat frozen in the middle (um, yeah, grocery store cake)- using my right hand to wield the large, serrated, brand new (= razor sharp) knife with my left hand on the cake board holding it steady. Well once that knife got through the center it kept going & sliced right into my left thumb! 18 stitches later... I still have a huge scar there & weird nerve sensation every now & again. Didn't even make a WC claim!

Okay, I cannot top a broken bone or dropping the KA on my toes. However, I have matching burn marks on each wrist at the base of my thumbs from where I can't get it thru my thick head not to reach into a hot oven between racks!

Just had to add my two cents...only because if I had 1/2 a brain, thats what it would be worth.

Trying to open a new "toy" that came in one of those secure packs...Had one of those nylon ties...Rather than grab a scissor or box cutter, I grabbed a letter opener that I've had for more than 30+ years. You know, the ones that never break or bend. Since it had a serrated edge, I thought for sure it would snap that flimsy tie. Besides, it was sitting in my gumpaste tool kit and it was right there! (great for tight areas that the quilting wheel cant reach)

Well, I punctured the artery and severed a tendon in my index finger. Six months of therapy prior to hand surgery and another six months of therapy following the surgery; I can now predict the weather better than any dopler radar.

Cake decorating should come with a hazard warning!

the cake i just finished making didnt seem to like me much at all..

baking it, i burnt me knuckles, yes me knuckles.. so i couldnt really flex my hands.. lol, lucky i was freezing it so i had time for it to heal a bit before i decorated. then my hand mixer decided to die on me, so me in a frazzle, decided to check it out by popping the beaters off and gripping the end ( that was in the machine) to inspect. baaaaaad idea. burning hot!!! lol, lucky that burn wasnt too bad and just left a nice red mark on my palm..

and then, washing up mybest pyrex bowl...it smashed in the sink and before i noticed i had sliced the top of my finger open. niiicee. heavy pressure for 5 hours eventually stopped the bleeding.. but now i cant touch anything with that finger because it hurts so bloody much.. i think i should go get it checked out today...

and yes, i do consider the loss of my beater and pyrex bowl a personal injury.

I think the worst I did was, when I was pushing my kitchen aid back in the corner on my counter, one of my fingers was at the top of the base. Well, the head of the mixer fell down on my finger and smashed it between the head and the base ...I still have part of my fingernail black, and this happened in Feb. At least I didn't lose the nail though.

Last year I decided that I needed a new bigger, higher table for my cakes to help with my bad back & shoulders. So I brought the wood & conned my husband into helping me to make it. During the construction I tripped & fell breaking BOTH my elbows!! It was the week before I had a 3 tier wedding cake, 2 2 tier 21sts & a 18th. Oh what fun that was!

After reading all of this, I am afraid to get up and go bake the cakes I need to.

I can't really remember hurting myself that bad while I have been working on my cakes. I hurt myself on my bicycle instead.

About 10 weeks ago my husband wanted to go for a ride just to get in a few more rotations on his bicycle before he went in to have a knee replacement 3 days later. We left and went a different route which had a down hill with a turn at the bottom of the hill. I was coming around the turn and was trying to slow down from the downhill run braking as I came around the turn and didn't see the sand in the road. My husband said that by the time he heard my scream he knew it was to late to warn me of the sand. I hit the road with such force that it literally tore my knee open all the way across my knee cap. After he looked at it, he had to take his t-shirt off and stuff it into my gapping wound to stop the bleeding. 30+ exterior stitches (not sure how many inside) and several hours later, I was on my way back home from that bicycle ride. A few weeks later my daughter asked me if I thought I would be able to do a small cake for her for a friend at work who was having a birthday. I worked on that cake really hard, my knee hurt so bad by the time I got done with it. The next week my husband was taking me to dinner to celebrate my birthday when we stopped at her house and I discovered that it was a surprise party for me all the way to the cake I made for her just the week before for "a friend at work". It was great. I am scared to death that I am going to open the oven door and hit my knee with it or open a cupboard door into it. The doctor says not to bump it or kneel for a year, can't ride the bike either.