Slight pain at base of middle finger, should I stop climbing?

Here is my predicament. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So I'm doing school in NC but I'm from Utah. I've been training pretty hard the last couple of months, since I will be going back to Utah in the summer. Recently I have developed some pain at the base of my middle finger. I have heard that it might be a partial tear in the pulley but I am not sure. It does not hurt when I am climbing, but only slightly afterwards and definitely when I massage it. I don't want to stop climbing and then go home weak, but I don't want to keep climbing and further injure it. Any advice?

Greg

Climb straight through the pain but I have no medical background so my advice is purely off of what I would do. Hope you find a solution!

Safe to say that "climb straight through the pain" is bad advice...

Sent you an email describing my experience. Climbing through without a treatment plan is probably not the best route. Good luck!

It will be necessary for you to be more specific and thorough in describing your symptoms if you want to receive the highest quality of armchair medical advice from amateurs over the internet.

Sounds like a pulley injury. No closed hand crimping, open hand only. Keep climbing.

Monomaniac wrote:It will be necessary for you to be more specific and thorough in describing your symptoms if you want to receive the highest quality of armchair medical advice from amateurs over the internet.

Ha, well I don't know what to say other than my finger hurts. I've done some research and I'm pretty sure its a mild a2 pully injury.

I am not a doctor, I have no experience with finger injuries, and I have no business giving anyone medical advice. So... I would take a week off from training and hard climbing. One week isn't going to make you weak. If you are absolutely set on keeping at it then just work on power (avoiding crimps and small holds) or hit the trail and work on the cardio aspects that so many of us prefer to slack on.

Of course one week is not enough time to heal any injury, but it's a start and will give you a better idea of the extent of your injury/pain.

when that happened to me, it popped. i was on overhanging though on a two finger pocket. if it pops on you your gonna have to go down a number grade, maybe two, but you can keep climbing. advice i have is to stay more vertical and keep the crimps open handed. this article helped me out: onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

Someone had to say it- You don't need to stop climbing. You need to stop flipping the bird so much!

Serously though.. I'm no expert either but I had the same thing a few months ago. When you climb wrap some tape around the base of that finger between your second and third knuckle. It will keep the pulley from over-flexing. As also mentioned, you need to kick back a couple of grades and try and stay off of the crimpy type stuff. Climb some jugs and cracks for a couple of weeks.

All in all, your body is trying to talk to you. If you listen, you could prevent an injury that will ultimately prevent you from enjoying your time in Utah.

Kyle Purcell wrote:when that happened to me, it popped. i was on overhanging though on a two finger pocket. if it pops on you your gonna have to go down a number grade, maybe two, but you can keep climbing. advice i have is to stay more vertical and keep the crimps open handed. this article helped me out: onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

So are you all healed up now? How long did it take till you were back to 100%?

did it last august in rifle, i think i was 100% pain free while climbing in october/november. i only took one week off after the injury to ice and rest. it wasn't necessarily THAT painful, just annoying more than anything. it popped when i took someones advice and tapped it around the base before the climb. im not saying that tape doesnt work, but if your going to tape, tape the middle knuckle to keep the finger as straight as you can without cutting circulation. that way you are forced to open hand everythang. i have done it three times already.

ajs.sagepub.com/content/28/…

Crimping from the grave.

pretty creepy/interesting article. i wonder if the cadavers we climbers previously.

Wow... I can't believe the people that are suggesting you climb through the pain.

If you are feeling consistent pain while climbing, its a no brainer that you should take some time off to let it heal, lest you tear it completely.

Do you want to take two weeks off now, or half a year off later?

I have what sounds to be the exact same injury. Pain at the base/side of the middle finger only hurts when massaging it or warming up. During climbing it feels fine.

I took off about 1.5 weeks from climbing and 80% of the pain went away, but is still lingering. I am currently on a 2 week break to try to get it back to 100%. Id recommend just staying off of it until it doesn't hurt while massaging then double that time to be sure its 100% back, its not worth it to re-injure it like I did,and be out longer than need be.

Have you read Dave MacLeod on the subject of pulley injuries?

onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

JulianM wrote:Have you read Dave MacLeod on the subject of pulley injuries? onlineclimbingcoach.blogspo…

Good info here! Do not keep climbing on a pulley injury unless you want to really hurt yourself!

Phil Lauffen wrote: Good info here! Do not keep climbing on a pulley injury unless you want to really hurt yourself!

But that's exactly what is confusing me. My finger doesn't hurt that bad, and Dave Macleod seems to say that I should be climbing on it, just juggy and controlled.

I had the same symptoms as you (i.e. pain at the base of my middle finger after climbing) and thought it was an a2 tear. I went to two hand specialists and it was diagnosed as a ganglion cyst. Before I had the injury diagnosed I wasted a lot of time resting my finger hoping it would recover. But, if it is a cyst no amount of rest will help. Surgery is the best option. I just had my finger operated on today: picasaweb.google.com/f360dr…

Moral of the story is get off the internet and go get the injury properly diagnosed so you can treat it.