[alaan]

Hello,

Just had a few questions with regards to scar tissue/ 'thickness' of the A2 pulley after injury, which I hoped the fine folks of UKB could share their thoughts on. Seven months ago I badly tore the A2 pulleys in both middle fingers and after lots of denial (it happened just as I came out of a different lengthy injury period, so ignored it - duh  ) and then eventually lots of physio and self-control, I'm nearly tip-top - I can crimp up to, say, 60% and can open hand and half-crimp as hard as I could before (actually, probably much harder!) without any pain or swelling. I've stopped icing except after long sessions but have continued massaging. One finger, however, remains very 'thick' and only seems to loosen up after climbing or massage and has a hard band of scar tissue across the middle - is this something to keep an eye on or will it naturally loosen up in time? Is the scar tissue likely to be a weakness or, again, is this something that will dissapear in time or can it simply be ignored!? Thanks for the help!

Al

[alaan]

Nothing!? Oh well, perhaps the questions were a little ambiguous/ general or perhaps discussion of A2s is just tedious at this stage.

[Bubba]

Sometimes it takes a while to get an answer

[Kingy]

I have little experience of the kind of gnarly injury you refer to Alaan so may not be able to help much. Although no stranger to A2 problems, I tend not to get much build up of scar tissue in the way you describe. After an A2 injury, I usually get some swelling which then subsides after two or three weeks leaving very minor scar tissue. I can then do big hold rehab climbing and within a month to 6 weeks am back on the fingery stuff. Any scar tissue dissapates naturally with continued climbing. Most of my A2 injuries have not been as bad as your injuries though. Out of John Ostrovskis's categories of injury severity 1-4 in a recent Climbing article, the worst I have had is a 2.

I am sure John would give you a definitive answer. (He is Sheffield based, don't have his number sorry). His 'deep friction massage' may be the answer to breaking down you long term scar tissue. I must warn you it is painful though!!

[alaan]

Thanks, I've practically been dating John the past months and I'm no stranger to his 'massage' (or, worse still, his 'manipulation')! Apparently I'm meant to be climbing into mild discomfort every now and again and I presume this is to aid the break down of the tissue and remind the pulley that it needs to stop being lazy and work but I seem to have hit a plateau of sorts, so just wondered what others experiences were. Not that I really mind now anyway - I can climb (most things) again and just need to leave off any viscious bouldering (I haven't been to Raven Tor in aaaages)!

Cheers,

Al