Rubber Thimbles for Playing Guitar?

You mentioned that the condition is progressing.
Sorry to hear that.

One idea I’m keeping in my back pocket if my body insists that a guitar is not to be is to learn to play a Dobro where the fretting is done, primarily, with a bar.

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That can be done with any guitar. I injured a finger on my fretting hand and for 2 months while it healed I played blues guitar with a slide. Had the action raised a bit and fitted thicker strings. It worked well.

another option to consider is the nylon string crossover guitars - Yamaha NX series is one.

slide is the way, especially with an open tuning.

you can hold it like a guitar and use the type of slide you put your finger in or play it this way in your lap with a bar. finger picks are pretty common with this style of playing (which might help given your finger issues). On a square neck resonator (Dobro being a brand commonly associated with the style - a la tissue) YOU CANNOT FRET because the action is so high. The frets are visual reference only.

On a roundneck you can play it with a “regular” acoustic action and fret notes as well as play slide or you can run the action a little higher and play slide only. I am currently shopping for a metal-bodied roundneck resonator guitar. Gotta be patient because the features I want are uncommon. fwiw, it seems common to run heavier strings on these. I haven’t seen any that come with less than 12s and heavier jazz 13s are not uncommon.