Annual pulley tendon strain, musings

Yes, I do mean "annual" even though this year it also happens to be one of my annular pulleys.

Every winter I seem to strain one of my pulley tendons. This sets me back every year and I start off the season just about as weak as the season before (but with slightly better technique). I only ever seem to get injured climbing plastic. This year it was my right index finger (aka. the trigger finger).

The good news this time? I pulled it 4 days ago, and was able to climb a little today without aggravating it (in fact, I think it feels a little better). I think I'm getting better at having strained tendons. :eyeroll: Practice makes perfect, I guess.

What I did right this time:

Day of the injury:
-I immediately stopped climbing once it started hurting.
-I didn't keep poking it and messing with it to make sure the problem was what I thought it was.

Today:
-I taped my finger pretty heavily (partly to remind myself not to use it if I could help it). The method I used was a criss-cross that was comfortably loose, but tightened the more the finger bent.
-I climbed below my level (except for one which I was able to do without using the offending digit).
-I let go of the wall the instant I noticed myself relying on the finger.

Edit: I didn't crimp at all either.

I didn't use any ice or heat this time.

Now, if only I could figure out how to not get hurt in the first place...or is that asking too much?

Has anyone else out there had a similar experience?

Sorry I don't know enough to help, but maybe someone can deal with my ignorance of basic anatomy ...

Aren't these pulley things actually "ligaments" or something?

Pulley tendons are kinda weird things. Ligaments connect a bone to an adjacent bone and tendons extend from a muscle to connect a muscle to a bone. Pulley tendons do neither. They attach at both ends to the same bone, but provide a channel for tendons to operate through. So, they sort of connect a tendon to a bone which makes them functionally more like tendons than ligaments. This is my understanding, at least (I've had a lot of time to research this due to my extensive down time caused by my annual tendon strains...lucky me).

The main reason I posted this, though, was to maybe provide some help or guidance to those who lack my unfortunate experience on the subject.

Oh yeah, I've had my share of pulley strains, on rock and plastic. Who hasn't? Sometimes it's a little tweak and you can take a couple days off, then get right back to it...4 weeks down the road and it's a memory. Sometimes it's taken me 4-5 months to regain my previous level. I've heard horror stories about climbers who've had blowouts and can't aggressively crimp anymore. At all. Ever.

Some observations:

-When I'm mostly recovered I get in a strange situation where I can crimp moderately hard but direct pressure on the pulley from jugs f'in hurts. So, I've got to be careful even on V-stupid-easy moves at the gym. Less of an issue on rock.
-I injure my ring fingers the most frequently and they seem to take the longest time to recover. My middle fingers always bounce back quickly. Maybe it's all a coincidence.
-I've always hated wrapping injured fingers with tape. A tight wrap seems to press on the recovering tissue and aggravate it. A loose wrap doesn't do anything.
-It's been my experience that I could always climb through the injury at a reduced level. Cracks and slabs are easy on injured pulleys.