[Omar15]

Hello,

I progressively twatted my little finger back in early December (the board had no heating, my fingers were often really cold). It came on quite slowly,  but got worse and worse. I kept climbing on it, then saw a physio in Feb who said the tendon was pulling away from the bone a bit and I should rest it. I didn't rest it until a few weeks later when I stopped climbing completely for 5 days. Since then its got better, I've had some acupuncture, spent  a good few weeks dropping it off whilst climbing and I can basically climb on it now without it really hurting at all.

However, when I wake up in the morning it's really stiff, even if I haven't climbed the previous day. Why is this? After getting up and moving it around it loosens up a lot, but is still a bit stiff, slightly swollen and sometimes clicks when I make a fist. I can feel a fair amount of gristle and what I imagine to be scar tissue along the tendon which I've been massaging myself. Taking ibuprofen doesn't really affect the swelling which has led me to think it might be something to do with scar tissue.

What else can I do? I'm really keen to get it sorted out, and if I could go back in time and rest it properly in the first place I would. But now it's just really not getting any better and I'm at a loss as to what to do. Will it ever go back to normal?! Its got a lot better since seeing the physio in Feb, but still only feels about 65%.

Any help appreciated!

Cheers

Omar

[Sasquatch]

Not sure how I missed this earlier.  Probably wallowing in the pity of my own twatted finger.....

Anyhow.  I've been finding pretty much the same thing you describe from an a2 pulley rupture.  Thickened tissue around the rupture, and stiffness in the morning getting progressively better throughout the day as I use the finger.  What I'm finding is that with a really solid and thorough warm-up, my finger feels great, maybe not 100%, but pretty damn close.  I've also taken to missaging the scar tissue twice a day(in the shower in the AM, and before bed at night) trying to break it up a bit. Plus doing some light finger work in the morning and finger stretching in the morning really seems to help. 

[tomtom]

My pinky is the same, but I've been taping it up alot so it only takes a little weight when climbing. It hurts/aches at the beginning of a session then loosens up... sometimes aches in the AM. Iniital swelling went down after 4-5 days, but now its 'thicker' than the other hand.. (scar tissue?)
Had the same with an A3 on my index a couple of years back and its fine now..

[ducko]

fingers eh.. they suck!

any how, ive had problems with a2 pulleys on my ring finger since starting, i also have the scar lump on the tendon,
from what im away of its normal after damage can be reduced with massaging,
as said by other warms up slowly i use a squeezy ball, get your fingers nicely loose before pulling on then climb steady start easy and work up, i find dong this its feels fine but if i just pull on without the warm up it aches straight away.

id like some clever git to do some scientific study on climbing and finger injuries to give us a decent protocal for these thing but ultimately take it easy to start off! good luck

[Lund]

I've had some acupuncture

Some advice: stop getting people to stick needles in you.  It's a waste of time.  (Scientifically proven to be so, a thousand years of tradition can indeed be wrong.)

[Omar15]

Cheers for the replies! Nice to know I'm not the only one suffering.

I've had acupuncture a few times and when it seemed to work best was when the needles were literally shoved into the scar tissue or old injury site. Where it didn't work was where it was more Chinese based and they put needles at seemingly random sites to manipulate the chi or whatever.

I think before people dismiss it out of hand they should try both approaches. Also, as far as I know there is evidence for and against the benefits of acupuncture. There certainly isn't any proof that it doesn't work. Proof simply doesn't exist in science.