[i_a_coops]

(Disclaimer: I've searched and not found anything on this.)

About 3 weeks ago I foolishly went climbing after about 2 hours sleep the night before. surprise surprise, all my fingers felt like they were going to snap so I sacked it off fairly quickly. One of them kept niggling a bit, so I stopped crimping entirely and only went climbing once or twice in the next couple of weeks. It was definitely getting better, but still a bit ropey last week so I decided to have a week off to speed up the recovery.

Strange thing - after several days of doing nothing other than cold water treatment, and pullups on a bar (the idea being to avoid scar tissue building up), it was getting worse, and I woke up this morning to find it properly swollen up and painful  I had a good go at it with ice and ibuprofen and it's gone down a bit but is still swollen round the knuckle. I have a pretty awful family history of arthritis, is this something I should be worried about? Or is delayed-onset swelling just something that happens sometimes?

Cheers, and apologies for yet another bloody finger injury thread!

Ian

[Omar15]

[Baldy]

Yet another stunningly insensitive post Omar, Stirling!

Dont worry, one day you might look as hench as Mr. Akon...Get back on the beastmaker for some more one armers.


Fraid I have nothing positive to add to this thread Ian,
My advice would be to keep icing and playing it safe...The thing I try to remember is the Macleod link which references the elite french climbers who nearly all got to a reasonable standard again in 45 days of following this advice. I'd find the reference but it is not far from 1am and I can't really be arsed.

I think it is in here somewhere (I did a quick search but couldnt find the mention...pretty sure I havent made it up though...)
http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/2010/05/a2-pulley-injuries-review-re-posted.html

if nothing else you can at least while away the hours reading the whole thing...
Maybe bother a physio friend or your GP?

[iain]

From your description it might be a PIP or DIP joint strain? Something like this and this might be relevant.

I'd echo camear's suggestion of getting some professional advice though. If you see your GP emphasise how much it's affecting your day to day work rather than the climbing, should help them refer you to a specialist.

[Three Nine]

Sadly, Ian's knuckles are now the least of his worries.

[i_a_coops]

 

Thanks for the serious answers iain and camear..... Omar you have actually just brightened up my day.

The knuckle actually sorted itself out fairly quickly with some progressively more intense climbing on it. The 'progressively more intense climbing' did unfortunately lead to bed E6 in the Huntsman Ward of Northern General (looking across at bed E7..... oh the irony!)

[i_a_coops]

Ok, so after 5 months I can pull hard open handed and the swelling is almost gone. However, following a 3 month layoff, when I flex my finger I get a gristly squelch/creak from my PIP joint. It was diagnosed by a physio as minor damage to the collateral ligament in the PIP joint, is the squelching probably just due to a massive build up of scar tissue? Or could it be something worse?

My plan was to do loads of easy mileage for a couple of months and up the intensity very slowly until the scar tissue sorts itself out. Any advice on rehab welcome!

[Baldy]

Could try some tough massage to break it down and promote bloodflow?

(I cannot be held liable for you ripping your finger in half though - go see the physio again if you are properly concerned)