UKC

Hi,

I injured my finger about a month ago and still can't decide whether it's a pulley injury, or synovitis (sp?)..
The finger first flared up after a particularly hard session at the wall. It didn't go whilst I was climbing, but as I cooled down. The finger seems to lock at one of the joints then clicks when I try to clench, sending severe pain through the finger. It can be either the middle joint of the Middle finger, or the end joint.
Would a pulley injury cause clicking joints, or does this rule it out!?!
I also get pain if I tap the side of the finger, or twist it. The finger can take my weight if I pull down straight on it, with no pain. It's generally stiff now, but I can on occasion clench a tight fist.

If you've injured you finger/s climbing I'd really appreciate your thoughts! I'd like to get back climbing asap, and am thinking about just taping the fingers and seeing what happens, but really don't want to do long term damage, which could potentially put me out for even longer!

Thanks
Scott

In reply to ScottTalbot:
What ever you do don't just tape up and climb without a real idea of what you've done... that sort of behaviour has led to me having to stop any kind of training for climbing.

It doesn't sound like a classic pulley injury, but does sound tendon/ligament related. There's some pretty good info out there on different types of finger injury. start here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6193

From what you are saying about twisting causing the painI would suspect one or more of the "C" tendons in the diagram in the link probably c3

In reply to ScottTalbot:

I've injured my A2 pulley on both ring fingers (I wonder if the ring finger A2 injury is common, a friend did the same pulley on the same finger) and it has resulted in a mild case of trigger finger in both cases, but that goes away eventually. No clicks and not much pain, was just a bit sore for a while, and didn't like it when I pulled too hard.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Thanks for that link. Very interesting, and helpful, article!

In reply to ScottTalbot:

Pain down the side could be a Collateral Ligament injury. How did you injure it?

Possibly worth seeing a physio that is useful with climbing injuries (Not that I ever bother but I'm not a good example of dealing with injuries!)

In reply to ScottTalbot:

i have done pulleys a few times,maybe 4 or 5 times. it didnt seem to hurt when the finger was straight but hurt like hell when crimped.
i hurt a tendon once and that hurt straight and no problem crimped.

one thing,it seemed to take a min of 3 months for it to heel properly. i still climbed light on it.

In reply to bigdrew:



The side doesn't hurt to the touch, more the vibration from knocking the side of the finger. The pain is in/around the joints.