[Richie Crouch]

Basically:

I had a 5 hour session in the cave 2 Tuesday's ago and tried Clyde for about 30 mins which involves pulling on a right hand mono in a roof.

I climbed at churnet the next day and had quite tight fingers on my right hand.

I had a cave session on the Saturday (after 2 days rest where my fingers had eased off) and didn't have any pain whilst climbing.

It then took a week of rest,ice and ibuprofen to be able to straighten and close my right middle finger without pain. I then spent a day squeezing a soft ball with no pain.

Had a tentative session on jugs last night and then iced and ibuprofen in evening. It was ok this morning but is now quite tender again and slightly swelled at the PIP joint.

I'm thinking of taking another full week off to see how it goes? Does anyone have previous with PIP joint injury - I basically try and close a fist and it feels swelled/pressure around the top of the joint - I'm thinking it's a strain/slight tear that is becoming angry when I try and climb.

Is there anything urther to do than ice/ibuproen and continual stress with a squeeze ball once full range of motion is restored?

[roddersm]

Injured my PIP joint of my index finger back in March. Did the same as you basically tried a 8 or 9 days with not climbing and then started back with really easy stuff on jugs with my finger heavily taped around the PIP Joint.  I found I was able to climb but my finger would hurt and flare up after climbing particularly after crimping hard. After a day or two of no climbing it would calm down again. Tried another week or so off and repeated the process.
Decided that the rest didn't help so decided to keep climbing and managed to climb and boulder as well as ever. Tried using neurofen cream, ice, cold water treatment, stretching etc.

Basically after 5 months its basically the same. Luckily I can climb at my best with it really heavily taped but if I overdo it flares up again after climbing.

I think I'm just accepting its a long term thing that hopefully will go away in time and thankfully it hasn't impared my climbing too much. So I suppose based on my experience another week off probably won't help but you could try it.

[Richie Crouch]

Cheers for the reply.

I was thinking continual low level stress should help keep it active but not tear it further? Just unsure of the period of rest necessary to be able to pull on holds rather than squeeze a soft ball without causing more damage (i guess this is dependant upon how injured it is). Sounds like you might be re tearing it too much which will build up scar tissue hence it still getting swelled a lot but I am obviously no expert!

Kind of keen to avoid it being perma crooked/bowed like the ring finger next to it from heavy scar tissue build up (doesn't hurt to climb on unless I am pulling hard on pockets for a while). Will do another week off and see how things go I guess.

[lagerstarfish]

In 1989 I left my middle finger (LH) in the pocket at the crux Captain Crochet whilst the rest of me fell off with a lot of slack rope out (complacent). The PIP joint got trashed (ligament damage mostly). I didn't get any worthwhile treatment and just taped up to keep the joint crooked and padded. Several years later I stoped taping up and climbed on comfortable holds and generally avoided tweaky shit. It got much better, but still hurts after climbing.
The shape of holds seemed to have as much effect on the comfyness as the size.

The best treatment was to spend 7 months in Thailand cruising overgraded, steep, juggy sport routes in between diving and beach antics.

[Monolith]

You need to have a word with Matt lad. Hope you fix up fast.

[Richie Crouch]

Matt had a look and did some tests on it last night and narrowed it down to the extensor hood and some of the stuff beneath it being overstressed by using the hole on Clyde as a 1.5 joint mono instead of stacking. Basically It's safest to hang a Mono on the first or 2nd joint ala beastmaker and not inbetween at a funny angle putting a lot more strain on the area I have strained.

Going to be more of the same rest/ice after low levels of stress until it stops swelling up. Bit worried the August bank hol will be too soon to go bouldering but would rather miss out on that, than be reinjured in Sep.