DIP joint is always sore

The DIP on my left hand middle finger is painful and sore all day.  When I climb, it warms up and doesn't hurt at all, but after I get home, it's sore again.  

I decided I wanted to start hangboarding, and that I should take some time off until my fingers are pain-free, but this DIP joint is still tender (unless I exercise it, like squeeze a putty ball, then it's fine).  I have taken 1 week off thus far and I'm willing to rest as long as needed until it's better, if that's the best option.

Would you (a) go ahead and just ignore it, (b) wait another week, (c) see a doctor?

John

P.S. Age 55, redpointing about 11a, climbing 3 days a week

How long has it been sore like this?

kenr wrote:

How long has it been sore like this?

On and off for about a month

Lots of joint injuries just take more time to heal. Especially when most people your age don't have as much HGH and other quick-healing chemicals flowing any more.

I'm hearing you say that a little exercise of the joint seems to help. That's normal and good.

Sounds like you've done more than enough "rest".

Usually the key is regular "normal" use with careful progressive increase in intensity load.
Might need clever design of your training exercises to avoid sudden unexpected load on that joint -- but presumably you want to be including some sort of actual climbing moves.
Might need to rig controllable assistance force for using a hangboard.

Pain is part of the process -- learning what level of pain you can push into without doing more damage than good is the new game.

Your body knows how to heal minor joint injuries. Pre-human mammals were doing it successfully for lots of millions of years before fancy drugs and treaments were invented.

Ken

kenr wrote:

Of course this is the hard part (for me at least)...

Knowing when it's ok to "push through" the pain and when your body is telling you it's time to stop for a while.

And of course, with age I worry that I'm more susceptible to injury. :(

@johnRB did you ever figure out what was going on with your finger? did it heal on its own?

Yeah, somehow just climbing consistently but with pretty low volume for a couple of years has caused my fingers to thickened noticeably and (presumably) become more injury resilient.  I'm current in Rifle on my 5 day on with no finger issues.

My partner (who climbs 13+) is also 5th day on with no issues (he's been climbing for 11 years).  Seems like patience and consistency help a lot.  Who knew?

My elbow issues are gone as well.

Thanks for letting us know! When you say low volume, did you climb less frequently but pushing hard routes? Or did you climb frequently but the routes would be a number or 2 numbers lower in difficulty.

I climbed as hard as I could, but pretty low volume and at most 2-3 days a week.  I also built up a prehab/rehab routine for shoulders/elbows/fingers and stuck to it.  I spent almost zero time on routes below my top end, though any route at (say) 5.12 is going to be almost entirely 5.10 and 5.11 climbing.  But I wouldn't do any 5.10s except perhaps a very dialed warmup.  

Probably at most 80-100 moves in session, tops.