[ElliotA]

Good evening!

On 7th January (I record my climbing in a logbook) I injured the tendon in my left hand middle finger while doing a dynamic move to a crimp. I read in Dave MacLeod's book that this can cause an A2 pulley injury. Nevertheless i went to a physio and she told me that i've torn the actual tendon, not completely, but partially. About 4 weeks ago (08/04/11 today) I stopped seeing my physio who said i could start climbing again but only like 4+ climbs/ V0 problems, and nothing overhanging.
I've been sticking to what she's said, but i keep getting a pain in my tendon. With prospects of me going to Bangor uni in September i want to make sure i'm back on form for the masses of amazing climbing, but this injury is incredibly demotivating and restricts my training.

So what i'm basically asking is does anybody have any advice or tips to speed up recovery?

Thanks,
Ell

[GCW]

Is the physio someone that specialises in hands?
If they said you had a tendon injury I'm surprised you haven't had some other modality of imaging.

[ElliotA]

Thanks for the reply. What do mean with the imaging?
Ta

[GCW]

If I thought someone had a flexor injury I would look into it with ultrasound or MR rather than giving exercises.

[Snoops]

If I thought someone had a flexor injury I would look into it with ultrasound or MR rather than giving exercises.

Just out of interest is there any sound evidence for ultrasound therapy and tendon/ligament injuries or is it a bit of a glucosamine (i.e some swear by it, others not)?

[Pebblespanker]

I use glucosamine for protecting my rapidly aging joints  on a thread of mine a while back it was stated by one of the regulars that there is no firm evidence for it helping with tendon injuries - to be fair it is sold as a joint supplement and I have no personal evidence to the contrary.

Have you tried icing the painful tendon a la Dave Mcleod?? Worked for me on a wierd tendon strain recently, that and rest, lots of rest and then training only using holds (open hand grips and slopers) that did not cause the tendon to twang

[duncan]

If I thought someone had a flexor injury I would look into it with ultrasound or MR rather than giving exercises.

Just out of interest is there any sound evidence for ultrasound therapy and tendon/ligament injuries or is it a bit of a glucosamine (i.e some swear by it, others not)?

There is evidence that theraputic ultrasound seems to do useful things to soft-tissue healing and repair if you look down a microscope at a Rat's paw (or similar) that has been deliberately damaged.   The evidence in people with real-life ligament and tendon injuries is that effects on pain and recovery of function are minimal to none.  Ultrasound should not be a major component of an injury treatment/rehabilitation programme.

Ultrasound imaging can be very useful in diagnosis of soft-tissue injuries like tendonosis.