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tradmanclimbs
Apr 5, 2004, 4:22 PM
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:( A week before I am supposed to fly from VT to Vegas with My girlfriend whom I have been telling fo 5+ years how great the place is I am pulling on the basement woody with the ring and middle fingers of my left hand, a sharp pain shoots through the palm of my hand into my wrist. i crash to the floor pads and know instantly that our climbing vacation is doomed. Non refundable tickets. I am 42 years old, no insurance. The most serious pain is in the ring finger. I move the finger fairly smoothly but even slightly pulling on it causes sharp pain. the pain shoots up the finger, through the palm of my hand into the wrist. Pulling on the middle finger agravates the ring finger severly but dosen't appear to cause paine directly in the middle finger. Considerable pain in the notch between the 2 fingers. I am a guitarist so this is doubely frightening. the real question is is this somthing that medical attention will help (no insurance, no money) or will rest do the trick?
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drrock
Apr 5, 2004, 4:46 PM
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That sucks man! Right before Vegas too. The shooting part of the pain is concerning, can you still flex the finger normally? (ie. are the tendons still intact?) If it feels funny to flex or the flexing mechanism seems disrupted I guess I would make an appointment. If not, I might consider waiting and seeing if it heals on its own. If it is just a tendon strain or possibly pulley (seems less likely because of the shooting nature of the pain) then of course time and lots of it will be needed for healing.
If you know any physical therapists or sports med doctors you could ask them to take a look at it without paying too, I have had good luck with this approach.
You can always gamble in Vegas!
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tradmanclimbs
Apr 5, 2004, 4:58 PM
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I can freely move the finger. Straighten and contract. It does hurt though. Pulling even slightly hurts a LOT. the whole hand was pretty stiff this morning. Not much of a gambler. Might be able to belay so The woman can spurt climb but that will be a letdow> She is a real climber and we were stoked on doing some big rt's I might be able to vigerously tape my hand to the point were I can Jumar? Chances of seriously injuring the finger are pretty good with that approach > Cleaning a traverse might force me to over use the hand? At this point holding a coffe cup is painfull. :( :( :(
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tradmanclimbs
Apr 5, 2004, 5:01 PM
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How much rest will promte the best healing? I can do basic chords on the guitar. will the light activity and keeping my fingers moveing promote better blood flow and speed healing or should i totaly immoblize the finger?
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pk
Apr 5, 2004, 5:23 PM
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Tradman,
Sounds more like an a1 pully tear or complete rupture to me not a tendon. If you had seriously hurt your tendon in that area you would have some noticable swelling in that area most likely.
A a1 pully "tear" depending on the severity of it will usually take a month of no climbing on it at all and then climb on it gradually after that. Keeping it moving without putting enough pressure on it so that you do NOT feel that sharp pain is good. Without a doubt take a WEEK off without putting any sort of pressure that will cause the sharp pain. The sharp pain you are feeling is the pully's sheath that your tendon is running through. The sharp pain could also be the pully slightly tearing a bit more as well when you feel that. Take some time off it to promote the healing.
If you have a complete a1 pully rupture most hand specialists will reccommend surgery to re-fuse the pully back together as it is very unlikely it will heal correctly on it's own.
I'm 3 months out of a a1 pully tear (bad one, 3/4th's tear) and am just now starting to try and pull hard on it again. I will keep the a1 area taped untill 4 and a half months than climb without tape after that to promote the healing of the pully. Climbing after that period of time with tape might be doing you more hard than good as the tape will be supporting the pully and it will not be getting stronger.
Sorry to hear of your injury! In most p0ully injuries only time will hear it which sucks and theirs not much you can do about it other than keep it moving and so light mork outs with it if you don't feel sharp pain.
P.K.
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fallingapart
Apr 5, 2004, 5:54 PM
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The other day DRRock, you said that the tendon or pulley cannot sense pain. In this guys case it seems that the pain is directly related to the flexor TENDON, hence the pain streaming down into the wrist. So you are contradicting yourself by distinguishing between pain in the tendon and pain due to inflamation. There could not possibly be any inflamation in the instance of the injury and that would rule out a pulley tear and leave only the flexor tendon.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56542
Get your story straight. I think that this guy just strained his flexor tendon in a particular finger which can carry over to the surrounding tendons. In this case, he should take it easy (stop using your hand with any effort) if you want it to heal, but you can certainly still use it, which will only cause the pain to linger a lot longer and could possibly do more damage.
I am just getting over a pulley strain in my middle finger which I made severly worse by mtn biking and going to the gym 3 weeks after the initial injury. Doctors can't help but I use Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM and cod liver oil. It's been since the beginning of Feb. and the re-injury 3 weeks later and I know I'll be back on the rock by May.
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tradmanclimbs
Apr 5, 2004, 6:07 PM
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Pretty sure it's not a pully. I had a loup pop and a pully tear a few years ago and I taped vigerously and climbed right through the season. It took a few years to heal but eventualy did. This hurts a lot more and affects the rest of my hand. It hurts much moe inside my hand and wrist.
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pk
Apr 5, 2004, 6:13 PM
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Unfortunately the only way to know is to get an MRI and inless you know a hand specialist you need to go through your normal phisician to get an appointment which you will probably not have enough time to do before your trip.
P.K.
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drrock
Apr 5, 2004, 6:14 PM
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Don't sidetrack tradman's thread with your personal issues fallingapart. PM me if you want more information or to know why I disagree with your statements. I am sure nobody else on this forum cares however.
PK that is pretty interesting about the A1 pulley injury. I haven't seen anyone with that injury. Does the pain from that site radiate up your arm too? How did you injure that one? What were the circumstances and how was it diagnosed? Did they recommend surgery? That is a pretty rare one, much more common to injury A2 and A4. The management guidelines for these tears of these are pretty straightforward, but I haven't read much on A1. Any info much appreciated. Thanks!
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pk
Apr 5, 2004, 6:23 PM
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In reply to: Don't sidetrack tradman's thread with your personal issues fallingapart. This is the second thread you have hijacked with some cr@p about my supposed errors. PM me if you want more information or to know why I disagree with your statements. I am sure nobody else on this forum cares however. PK that is pretty interesting about the A1 pulley injury. I haven't seen anyone with that injury. Does the pain from that site radiate up your arm too? How did you injure that one? What were the circumstances and how was it diagnosed? Did they recommend surgery? That is a pretty rare one, much more common to injury A2 and A4. The management guidelines for these tears of these are pretty straightforward, but I haven't read much on A1. Any info much appreciated. Thanks!
I was training on a 35 degree wall pulling hard! my ring hand was in a two finger sloping pocket. Let me see if I can actually try to create a picture.
The pull started a couple of inches above my right shoulder and ended by my right hip approx 12 to 18inches away from my body. As you pull the pressure on the fingers goes from a direct upward pull to a rotating pull on the bottom of the right ring finger.
Put your right hand out in front of you thumb side up bottem of the ring finger is where the pull ends up. So it starts with a straight forward pull and ends up rotating the angle of pull through the entire move. The a1 pully tore when it was by my hip trying to pull up AND sideways on the finger.
Anyways The pain that I had is similiar to the post here which is why I opted to share some of the things I did and went through. I have about 60% of the strenth back in that finger now a little more than 3 months later.
P.K.
I hope I could get a picture painted on this it was a very odd pull and I do not describe things well.
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tradmanclimbs
Apr 5, 2004, 6:24 PM
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I have no insurance so an MRI is out of the question. What i really need to know is since i have allmost full range of motion in the finger with pain will NOT seeing a doctor cause permanant dammage or do I have a good chance of healing provideing I rest the hand, take anti inflamatories. How immobile should i make the finger? Should I splint it? shoud i mildly exercise it? (no climbing)
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drrock
Apr 5, 2004, 6:25 PM
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pk
Apr 5, 2004, 6:31 PM
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In reply to: I have no insurance so an MRI is out of the question. What i really need to know is since i have allmost full range of motion in the finger with pain will NOT seeing a doctor cause permanant dammage or do I have a good chance of healing provideing I rest the hand, take anti inflamatories. How immobile should i make the finger? Should I splint it? shoud i mildly exercise it? (no climbing)
I couldn't hold onto a coffee cup the day after I injured mine which is why I opted for seeing someone about it. They wanted to do surgery but that would put me out for this season (It's healing ok now) but I'm not sure I'll ever get FULL strength back into the finger.
If it is REALLY painful, sharp pains all the time I would really see someone about it. Take a week off period! do not put pressure on it all all for the first week, after that start felxing your hand alot. If you still feel pain in the hand after repeated useage I would see someone.
Bottem line though is to not use it much at all for a week. Don't splint it as you want to keep it moving even a little to promote healing in it. Move it as you can but don't push it at all for a while you can end up hurting it more than it already is.
P.K.
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