Hi
I have pain on the upper left side of PIP joint on my left middle finger for a few years now. I found that taping the whole finger from the base to the base of the DIP joint allowed me to keep climbing with only very mild pain and without worsening the injury until now. now the pain is there even with tape and the finger is too painful to continue with the climbing level I want.
the pain is mainly localized on the upper left side of the left PIP joint on the left hand. I experience the pain when releasing from a crimp grip position not so much during the crimping itself. open hand grip doesn't seem to cause pain. the joint has never been swollen or painful to touch. when extending the finger , i sometimes feel some sort of click or rubbing on the upper left side of the left PIP joint toward full extension and sometimes it is painfull to fully extent the joint. I have full range of motion in the PIP joint
I have tried various hand strengthening exercises ( finger extension with elastic band, spreading and closing finger in rice bucket), self myofascial release of the forearm, massage of the joint with a spiky ring but the injury didn't get better. I saw a physiotherapist who thought that I had tight muscle in my hand and that massage and stretching would solve the problem but the stretching only made it worse. I saw an ostheopath who told me that I had a slight tear of the collateral ligament and so wear in the joint and that there was nothing to be done. I saw a hand therapist, she said that my ligament were all good but couldn't really tell me what was wrong with my finger, she thought that I had a mild hyperextension in my fingers so she gave me splint to wear for a month and told me to come back if it didn't get better. and finally i went to the doctor who told me that the splint was not going to do anything, that I didn't have hyperextension in the joint, and that I was going to have to learn to live with the injury. the doctor even told me to look on climbing forum to try to find a solution because traditional medecine was not going to help.
so I decided to reach out to Dr Volker Schöffl and he said without seeing the injury that I likely have an inflammation of the joint synovial membrane, capsulitis. I am reaching out to you guys to find out which diagnosis would confirm that and what kind of treatment option are available?
[Hi sorry about the holiday break. Wow, you have seen a lot of people and have had varied diagnoses. Unfortunately the more medical people you see this is often the case. It is always difficult to comment precisely without looking at you but it seems very linked to specific holds i.e. Crimping.
As you know a crimping hold puts more of a load through your finger joints, ligaments (pulleys) and tendons than any other manoeuvre. In my opinion don't chase a diagnosis as I would be more interested in why you have this and how you need to go about changing it. It could be related solely to the load you are putting through this area and although it may or may not be a capsular irritation or a ligamentous injury this should settle. Often when a joint and soft tissues are loaded it is painful on the release. The fact that taping did help makes me think you were taking the load off the area slightly and helping support the joint/ tendons.
I would suggest that you back off any crimping for at least 2 weeks and stick to the holds that are pain free. Then start to add crimps that you can control i.e. Lesser grades that you can vary the load. The idea would be that you slowly add the number of crimps over a 2 to 8 week period and start to creep back up the grades. You need to load the area in a controlled way to enable the tissues to adapt otherwise you will overload that area again. Be patient and if it becomes sore back off to the previous level. Basically control your training intensity and have easy recovery days. Let me know how you get on.
Kind regards Matt]uote author=adrienbaudouin link=topic=27513.msg540717#msg540717 date=1482859251]