[ghisino]

Hi,

i have this small injury at my left ring finger that has been going on for a while now...starting to look seriously at it but i'm just not really sure what it might be.

symptoms :

-main symptom is ache when squeezing my fist, pressing my fingertip into my palm. Normally this doesn't hurt at all, or it only hurts the synovial capsule, but one day after a couple of laps on a crimpy boulder, it did hurt in a weird way. There was no sudden shock such as dynoing or cutting my feet loose. I might have been dehydrated since it was pretty damn warm and humid conditions.
-when squeezing/massaging my finger, the hot spot seems to be on the second phalanx, closer to the PIP joint, slightly to one side (towards my pinky). This is what puzzles me, it seems to be where the C2 pulley or the beginning of A4 are, but both seem to be very rarely occurring alone, and my a2-a3 seem fine.
-no evident bowstringing
-it hurts much more in the morning, especially the first 1/2 hourafter waking up. One evening i might think i'm fine, and when i wake up i try to squeeze my fist or massage or gently crimp something, and i get depressed...the pain isn't gone

i tried to climb through it at a gentle level and probably made it worse...small sessions on big jugs with well-taped finger seemed to be ok, then roughly two weeks after the beginning of the affair i re.introuduced some fingery stuff (though not extremely intense) and the pain reappeared...

what could it be?

[DaveyDave]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I've got the exact same thing, and a trip to malham on friday. Pain isn't that bad at all, just don't want to bust it any more! Anyone wise as to what this is now? And maybe how to treat it in time for / during my trip?

Cheers

[TobyD]

finger injuries of this sort are very diffficult to diagnose; but essentially, it doesn't matter that much anyway, as far as climbing goes in my experience you want to manage them in roughly the same way.  It could be an injury to any part of the ligament or tendon structure to be honest, and most climbers put pretty consdierable loads through their hands, so chances are it may bw bits of more then one structure anyway.

If it doesn't hurt too much easier climbing is likely to be beneficial, dull ache is probably ok; any sharp pain / tweaky feeling then STOP!
Be extremely particualr about gradual, specific warm up, and being hydrated, not climbing when tired, or fatigued physcially. Increase intensity VERY slowly! Stretch after climbing.
If you have a tweaky finger, Malham is pretty bad really i'm afraid; unless you are going tradding - Wombat etc are pretty finger friendly as far as i recall!