UKC

Hey - has anyone got any experience with a tendon injury in the hand rather than a finger?

I'll be going to see a physio next week - and I'm doing the usual rest, ice + heat, some mobility exercises in the meantime.

The injury happened a couple of nights ago when working a route - it was a funny little crimp for my left hand that I was trying lots of different ways to pull on and couldn't figure out the best way to do it. On my last attempt there was a slight pop and then pain, so stopped then. It was sore and I assumed that it would be a pulley injury. Now the soreness is actually in the middle of the palm of my hand - could be an A1 pulley maybe but I think it's even lower than that.

I've got pretty much full range of motion in all my fingers. What is quite painful though is and open handed grip in my ring finger - and the pain shoots right down my tendon past my wrist. So assuming it's something to do with the tendon. 

I guess my questions are:

1. Has anyone done anything similar - or can you point me in the direction of anything online - cos I can only find info on finger injuries.

2. I'm worried about the point where I feel it's safe to start climbing gently - given that most advice would be to open hand everything at first - and it's open hand pulls that hurt - should I crimp things instead, or wait even longer?

3. Can taping help with the palm of the hand? I'm assuming not?

Thanks!

Similar thing happened to me in January – went for a weird left hand crimp at the bouldering wall and felt the dreaded pop. Hurt in my ring finger first, then radiated through my palm right down my elbow for a week or so. 

I'd say as long as there's no major swelling it'll just be a case of rest and gentle range of motion / mobility work (loads of climbing-specific videos for this online) for a few weeks, then a bit of progressive loading. I was back to low load climbing after about 5 weeks I think.

Good luck with it. It's such a bummer being injured, but the most important thing to do is admit it (just like you have done!) and don't rush back. 

Thanks for this - so annoying as this is the second left hand injury (first one wasn't caused by but impacted climbing) this year!

Hopefully a few weeks is all it takes.

Someone else suggested that it could be an FDP injury as described in this video: youtube.com/watch?v=ub_ttbKcGvc&

The single finger flexion tests cause the shooting pain right down my forearm - so fear it might be right!

Actually with further investigation it might be a lumbrical injury youtube.com/watch?v=lKuidJ9QTMU&

Will obvioulsy confirm with a physio next week but hopefully this means climbing easier stuff is possible.

Hopefully these links are useful for others as I certainly had no idea about these kind of injuries before today!