[k2ted]

not another finger injury! done a pretty good search on here & google but not found one similar so please dont shoot me down!    Its proximal interphalangeal joint (from piccies on go ogle) on the back of the hand. I cant clench my fist or crimp, but can (I think, not tried it!) hang/ pull open handed. Only noticed it following a finger board session when I'd cooled down with no POP/ pain or anything noted during session. The joint is still swollen after 5 days also...

its not a pulley so do I use the ice/cold water for 30mins??

I think its just a case of rest a few weeks, tape it and take it easy but has anyone else done similar?? how long till 100%?? though do understand all injuries are different but think the docs wont have a clue about this...

[k2ted]

should add. Middle finger, 2nd joint on back of hand.

[carefultorque]

do understand all injuries are different but think the docs wont have a clue about this...

hey, my sympathies.  Talking as someone who has self-managed a number of finger/wrist injuries, I think you're on the right track with that treatment idea. I'd say you should try to up the icing sessions to  4 times daily for best results.

I'm not a doc, but I think that it may not be quite fair to say that a doc 'won't have a clue' about this.  I know what you mean: as climbers, we kind of expect a gilt-edged fix-it service, a bit like a walk-in
old-skool motor mechanics' workshop, but for our fecked bodies.

A couple of times in the past noticed I did notice the nonplussed reaction of a GP when faced with an injury like this, and I wouldn't present such an injury to a GP any longer.  It's not because I don't think they understand such injuries, but because they don't understand the obsession with the injury.  Conservatively, the protocol for an acute soft-tissue injury says complete rest.  But we don't want to hear that.

So what we're after is really rather self-serving: a recipe for fixing the finger as quickly as possible on the one hand, but carte-blanche to carry on training on the other.   That level of close management of an injury would cost several orders of magnitude more than our fair share and certainly more than a poor old primary care trust has at its disposal.  The only real option is to pay a physio, especially one specialising in finger injuries induced by climbing, but of course that's going to cost.

It's easy to not see it at the time, but we all develop these huge blind-spots when we're injured, refusing to see that only worsened inflammation, extended injury time and mental anguish result from prolonging training during the acute stage of an injury.  The only reason I know this is that I've done the same thing, perhaps five times now. Each time I do show incrementally more patience and common sense, but it's always a struggle.  If your symptoms are as severe as you say, up to two weeks days' patience now (laying off all training) could save you a ton of woe later.

Hope it's a quick heal. 

[Reprobate_Rob]

Best go get it checked out. Preferably get your GP to refer you to a consultant.

I had some pain and swelling on the back of an index finger about 18 months ago, and it turned out i'd ruptured an extensor tendon (central slip at the PIP joint).
Google 'Boutonniere deformity' for an explanation.

If you can't straighten the finger fully, or if there's pain when you push down on the back of the knuckle, then there's a chance it could be this. Could just be a strain, or something completely different though.....

Had an op to reconstruct the central slip using bits of the lateral bands. 12 weeks splinted, 12 weeks re-hab and it works fine now, except for a bit of lost flexion, but it's not noticable, and i'm climbing a lot harder now than i was when i did it.

Here's hoping it's not that nasty anyway!