Well, Mole,
I'm a thumb pick user and addicted to the Herco pick that is like a flatpick that attaches to your thumb. The thin ones -- the thumb-holding part -- bend and break when I back strum, so I try to get the heaviest ones. I wish someone had a Herco type pick with the thumb support part very heavy but the pick part light!

Ian,
Yeah, I guess I should use a Cuisinart!
BTW, the violinist Nadja Solerno Sonnenberg said that she did the same thing a while back, but to the tip of her left pinkie! She was afraid her career was threatened, but somehow she got her fine fingering form back.
I wish I knew more about medical treatments for osteoarthritis of the hand, fingertip reconstruction, etc. My primary care physician at Kaiser Permanente and other MD's I have talked to don't seem to think anything can be done.
Is there a weblink or a thread dealing with patching up musicians?
Some of may have to revert to our first guitar chords eventually, if modern medicine can't catch up with Father Time!

Genie