UKC

Hullo

Sorry if this is the wrong forum - happy for it to be moved. Interested to hear from others who have had reconstructive surgery on their pulleys.

I was climbing (march) indoors, and without a major foot slip heard a loud bang and lost strength. Followed the various rehab procedures - reading heavily into the different journal articles about heat / cold, rice buckets, taping - dave mcleod was a help but only the start. Tried this for about 2-3 months and there was no improvement - I couldnt even pick up a shopping bag and I had about 40% ROM.

Saw a plastics surgeon and opted for pulley reconstruction - and when opened up my A2, A3 AND A4 were - whilst not fully ruptured - were so loose you could fit a small biro under. Rebuilt the whole lot using the flexor tendon.

It's now 3 months post surgery and, after most recently speaking to the consultant, I'm worried that it'll need further work. I still have limited ROM - I can't close that finger actively, only passively by using my other hand. The finger is still swollen (people look at it and wince) and hard to use - puffy unless I wear compressive bandage on it 24/7. I can work the finger to straighten it out and to improve the ROM (to a point) but the next day (or even by the end of the day) it's gone back to little ROM. Most importantly, when I try and use a slightly crimped grip (not to climb, but just to hold onto something or test it) I get a lot of pain in the joints.

Can anyone who has been through this offer some advice? How long did it take you to get to climbing? The surgeon has suggested I should just "go road test it", but watching Molly Tompson-Smith's recovery, her first image of surgery to "my first climb" is like 5 months and she just had one pulley fixed.

Considering contacting a third party hand surgeon for a second opinion - worried the reconstruction did not go perfectly and/or was not tight enough to allow me to regain full ROM.

Cheers for any advice!

See a proper physio. I saw one for around 10 times after my surgery. 

They’ll know the score. Basically, it’s different kinds of stretches (both passive and activities) also strenght excersices. 

Not super helpful. Have seen a physio (nhs) 5-6times so far and she seems to be clueless and not talking to the consultant at all.

Hence I said proper physio. Mine was just that. 

Sadly not really helpful, but then again so would every else suggestion without a proper consultation and all the paperwork from the surgery. 

Hema - wasn't calling you unhelpful, just that Physiotherapy had been so.

If you had the reconstruction, could you give me an idea of how long your timelines were post-op? How many pulleys did you have rebuilt? Swelling e.t.c? Rom?

I was back to easier climbing around 6 or 7 months post op.

Was a bit lazy in the rehab. So can't get it as straight as my good fingers. Doesn't bother me much though. Same thing when forming a fist. With assistance, same ROM as good fingers whilst curling and nearly the same for straight.

Complete reconstruction of A2. Also messed up A3 and A4. Can't remember if they did anything with them.

And yes they swelled in the beginning. Was in a plaster for 2 (or 3) weeks, and support for around 1.5 months. As soon as I was off from cast, started to see the physio.

Ok. Thanks for that. Also makes me suspicious that he's suggested I go and climb "road test it" (his words) about 3-4 months post.