Finger injury: questions and possible plan...

So first, relevant information....
I'm 21 climb around v5/5.12. v6/5.12+ at the hardest. I boulder, sport climb, and trad. I weigh around 160... Drink rarely, don't smoke.

Anyhow, I was yanking on an awkwardly angled crimp and several days later I began to notice a pain in my ring finger between the first knuckle and the base of the finger. (about 10 days ago)

Since then I have been climbing slightly less aggressively, staying off overhung crimp-fests... etc.

It ONLY hurts when I press in on the "pulley" (at least what im guessing that is) and when I crimp CLOSED-handed. No pain occurs on open handed holds even when campusing.

In the past I have dealt with this tendon shit by just resting a good 7 days (Ice and Ibuprofen) and easing back in. So that's my plan as of now.

I don't want to rest, get weak, then still be injured. (Enter shitty cycle of never getting strong) I also don't want to keep climbing half-assed and never get stronger. (always dodging pain never getting rid of injury) HELP!!!!

Any advice or from-the-hip diagnoses would be great!
Also, taping? buddy taping? How should I, if at all, tape for this injury?

TL;DR: Fucked finger up, want to climb still. pls help.

It sounds like a pulley injury. I sprained my A4 pretty bad in January on a slopey crimp in a closed grip position. It is still giving me issues on certain holds. I have been taking fish oil, and a joint complex (glucosamine, msm, chondroitin, etc) to help with the tissue recovery, and ibuprofen and ice for painful days.

If you have functionality in that finger and just pain, it is probably also just a sprain. If you couldn't move it at all or had very limited mobility, it could be a tear or partial tear.

I've spoken with a couple docs about it, the answer seems to just be: time. Unfortunately, they're probably right. Take a week or two off altogether. Then, just baby the hell out of it, and train yourself to avoid the closed grip like the plague. Some people recommend taping that digit up to remind you to go easy on it. Otherwise, taping is not proven to help very much. At least not according to anything I've read. I'm sure there are others who can chime in to disprove everything I've just said though.

TL;DR: Expect it to take a looong time to heal. Do what you can to expedite that process. But don't over do it!

Good luck.

Although it's not a sure thing, it very much sounds like a pulley injury. I had a pulley injury and a good friend told me it would be a 5-8 month recovery. I chose to take the light-duty approach and took it very easy on the injured finger. Mine happened to be my right ring finger so I just began leaving it off the rock when crimping. Definitely not an easy thing to do but eventually I developed the habit of sticking it straight up and not using it. Sure enough, 6 months later, it was healed and a few weeks after that I was back to using it 100%. My advice, don't tape it bc you'll be tempted to use it.. allow it to heal.

Ibuprofen will just reduce the pain and swelling; both bad ideas. I'm of the mentality that our bodies are the product of lots of evolution or Grand design (depending on your point of beliefs - take your pick). Either way, swelling is there to increase blood flow to facilitate healing and immobilize the injury so you don't use it as much while it heals. Pain is there also to stop you from using it as much. The whole ice and pain relievers thing have never made sense to me.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your injury. Hope you have a speedy recovery!

Sounds like a typical pulley injury...

Stay away from the crimpers for like 3-4 weeks...crack climb, or work slopers.

Ice, and massage the area after climbing.

Using half width pieces of tape - tape just below the joint, just above the joint (or) in an x pattern(where the middle of the x crosses over the joint itself.

For the first few weeks take more rest days per week.

Thats it...physical therapy and time heals!

Good luck, and go easy.

Dave

Good stuff. No snarky MP-esque replies yet... *Crosses fingers*

So I will take a WHOLE 6 days off. Keep icing, taking Ibu, and I'm gonna pick up some fish oil/glucosamine.

I'd save your money on the glucosamine, and buy yourself a beer instead ;-)

saveyourself.ca/articles/re…

Abram Herman wrote:I'd save your money on the glucosamine, and buy yourself a beer instead ;-) saveyourself.ca/articles/re…

Don't see fish oil on there. But ok fuck glucosamine then...

Even if shit doesn't work. It makes me feel better knowing that I'm doing SOMETHING that's SUPPOSED to help it heal...

There are ways to tape the right joint so that you actually can't use it in a closed crimp. Depending on which pulley you may have injured, I would look into taping to avoid using it accidentally. Good luck and I wish you a speedy recovery!

fOXEN wrote: Even if shit doesn't work. It makes me feel better knowing that I'm doing SOMETHING that's SUPPOSED to help it heal...

Glucosamine is not cheap! Just have a friend buy you some sugar pills; they can tell you it's morphine, and you'll get most of the effects via placebo.

There are things you can do to make it heal faster that are actually backed by science, so you might focus on those first ;-) Light cross-fiber massage may help, stretching, etc.

Abram, you sure hate glucosamine! And, yeah -- I've read similar debunk articles regarding that and many other supplements that seem to tote a good reputation within alternative health circles. I decided to give it a try anyhow as I was getting pretty desperate by the 3rd month of injury with little to no improvement. Couldn't say whether or not it's helped though.

They say it takes a couple months of regular use before you start to feel a difference. But maybe they are just saying that so you're stuck with paying for at least two months worth before you realize it's a hoax...

What about buddy taping? Any input on that. For those who don't know this is taping another finger of the same tendon-group together with the injured finger...

fOXEN wrote:What about buddy taping? Any input on that. For those who don't know this is taping another finger of the same tendon-group together with the injured finger...

I believe you mostly need to prevent yourself from using the affected pulley by stopping a crimped position. You might be able to buddy tape, but I think cross-taping over the affected joint is a better option. Google might be your best resource on this one.

Jon, I don't hate glucosamine specifically, I hate any pseudoscience that gets passed off as real medicine in an effort to turn a profit. Sure, it "works" for some people, but you know what they say: "The plural of anecdote is not data." I just don't like seeing people misled (not by you, I mean by the supplement manufacturers) into spending their hard-earned money on ineffective treatments, when there are proven methods they could be using instead.

Stay off Ibuprofen- it actually weakens or slows tendon growth. Really it's not a huge deal in terms of it's weakening power - but unless you're in great pain stay away from nsaid pain killers. Tylenol should be fine.
Ideally total rest for 4 weeks. That's real tough though. Buddy taping is not a bad idea. (I blew out an A2 and buddy taped for a while- but doc eventually made me stop for 4 weeks anyhow) IF you tape it- tape it HARD so that you really can't bend it much at all. But the knuckles you wanna keep from bending (starting from the palm) are really the first and second ones. The little knuckle at the tip shouldn't affect that pulley.
If you are taking 6 days off- take it off of EVERYTHING- don't even pick up stuff around the house with that hand- milk jug- whatever.

Dealing with a similar injury myself, most likely a Grade 2 strain of my A1 and A2 pulleys, involving also the cruciform ligaments around A2. Here's a great article about rehabbing it. I laid off for 2-3 weeks and I'm now returning to climbing.

onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

Also, for the record, glucosamine sulfate does work to strengthen connective tissue, despite what the narrow-minded naysayers out there say. There are lots of studies showing its efficacy. We have no source of cartilage in our diets here in the USA, as all our meats are stripped of any 'texture surprises', and people take ibuprofen which only delays healing. Arthritis doesn't just strike you when you're 65; it's happening right now if you don't have any glycosaminoglycans in your diet, and you'll begin to feel it once it progresses to a disease state.

John Johnson wrote: narrow-minded naysayers

Yeah, those darn narrow-minded, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies! ;-)

jama.jamanetwork.com/articl…

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/205…

You're right, there are studies showing its efficacy, and there are more carefully controlled—and independently bankrolled—studies that show it's not effective, but meta-analysis of the studies that are out there points to no benefit.
What's with the "naysayers" thing? I don't care if it is or isn't effective, I don't have any personal stake in it—if further research proved it worked, that's fine too. The research is out there, believe it or don't.

Sorry I said "narrow-minded", not a good choice of words. But we can cherry pick our research to further any point of view. The truth is there are over 700 studies on glucosamine and arthritis alone (see ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?te… ). Many of the positive studies are double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.

JAMA, which furthers the POV of the American Medical Association, has a lot of stake in pharmaceutical arthritis treatments. But glucosamine is a legal, unpatentable nutrient that supports tendon and ligament health. Of course they're not going to support a nutrient that can help prevent arthritis, or your need for arthritis drugs. Nobody makes any money until you get sick in the USA.

Best of luck to the OP on the injury!

I looked through the search you posted, and I couldn't find many positive studies on glucosamine... If you have one in particular that shows efficacy, I would love it if you could link me directly, as I'm having a hard time finding anything among the studies that are publicly available.

You are certainly entitled to believe that there may be outside interests in the JAMA or AMA's endorsement, but don't think for a second that there isn't as much or more of a financial stake from the companies that sell these neutraceuticals. It's basically unregulated, and they make a killing selling supplements, vitamins, and everything else. Follow the money, as they say, but don't forget there's just as much money riding on proving things like glucosamine "effective."

John Johnson wrote: Best of luck to the OP on the injury!

Absolutely! I know it sucks fOXEN, I busted something in my middle finger a month ago, and am going through the same right now. I expected the worst, so the reality really hasn't been half bad! I can still climb easy stuff without risking further injury, and it's given me the chance to focus on all the other things I love to do that climbing often overshadows, so try to look on the bright side :-)

Listen to your body. Take a month off and avoid a serious injury. All of your soft tissues will repair and come back stronger. By mid-September, you'll be super motivated and ready to roar into autumn. In the meantime, stay active in other projects: run, backpack, spend time with loved ones, read good books, build a shed, whatever.

fOXEN wrote:What about buddy taping? Any input on that. For those who don't know this is taping another finger of the same tendon-group together with the injured finger...

stay off that - it makes people think their bad finger is good so they crank too hard...kinda like beer goggles.

If you're not a pro athlete whose in this until you retire a millionaire at 32, you're probably in climbing for life - fix this thing...for good.