any success stories from a MCP joint sprain?

Hey all,

In April I was bouldering when my hand made contact with a hold while doing a dynamic move and I sprained my MCP joint of my pointer finger pretty bad. I went to urgent care and they diagnosed it as a general sprain, told me to take 3-4 weeks off and wear a splint. I did and when I came back to climbing it immediately hurt and against my better judgement I climbed for a month before seeing an orthopedic surgeon. He had me on a pretty aggressive splinting for 3 weeks + buddy taping for 2 plan and it felt significantly better and I gained my full ROM so I tried climbing again at the 6 week mark (saturday) and it immediately felt strained. I went back today and he said my collateral ligament is stretched pretty bad so I'm back in the buddy strap device and was told to take and additional 6 weeks off if not more to heal it, then injections if it continues....

It sounds like this injury can drag on forever and always causes lingering pain with climbing. Any success stories? I guess I just want to be realistic. This is pretty heartbreaking. I'm not a professional or even a good climber, but it is a very passionate hobby for me so losing access to it is pretty devastating, as I'm sure many understand.

I smacked my hand against the rock pretty hard two months ago resulting in an extremely swollen and painful index finger for a month afterwards. I slowly started getting my range of motion back in most of my finger, but still have pain in the MCP joint when bending it to my max. Climbing with it buddy-taped to my middle finger doesn't really hurt while climbing, but it does hurt the next day a bit more. Anyone else go through this? I got an x-ray and confirmed that the bones aren't broken, then I went to an ortho and he told me to see a PT which I haven't done yet. The biggest problem is that I'm supposed to be leaving on an extended climbing trip in a week or two and my girlfriend and I have already quit our jobs...

Sorry for the late response! If it gives you hope I’m fully healed though every now and then I get a dull pain. Rest is key though, I had to take 6 months off to get there :( best of luck!