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Finger injury 2-Jan-2011 At 12:03:14 PM Elaine Stevenson

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Hiya Dale

Advice to contact Julian for a consultation over skype is sound and worth serious consideration. Discussion I've had with others (outside this forum) re his skype consults is entirely consistent with what Dougal and Wendy have said. It's been a good few years since Julian was practising in Vic, so if you're not familiar with him, you'll find contact etc details here: http://www.athlon.com.au/consulting.htm (and on the chocky links page too).

Unless you're trained in medicine and/or one of the manual therapies, then formal diagnosis isn't something you can do yourself, though granted you may be able to make a good guess. A good guess is just that, and good guess or not, determining which structure/s you've damaged and what state they're in is vital to developing an effective treatment plan and also to reducing the chances of subsequent re-injury.

For what it's worth, while I reckon an A2 pulley injury may well be the culprit, it's not the only possibility, and unless you want to find someone locally who works in the area, then Julian is probably well placed to give you the opinion you're after. He works in the Blue Mountains these days (out of Blackheath). Like many people on this forum, I'm well happy to vouch for Julian as a clinician. Furthermore, when it comes to finger injuries in climbers, I doubt you'll find anyone in this country who can match his experience and knowledge.

On the ultrasound question, I've had a quick look at the literature and the paper that KP linked is well regarded, however many pulley injuries in climbers are evident on clinical examination and so don't require an ultrasound diagnosis. I don't know whether Julian uses webcam (ie visuals) in his skype consults (personally, I've only ever seen him in rooms) - I suspect he would - but even so he should be able to talk you through an assessment (if needed) to sort out where the problem lies. These sorts of injuries are his bread and butter - so to speak - and, and also the subject of his MSc thesis, and therefore I'd trust his judgement (via skype) long before I'd talk to my GP about referals for ultrasound/MRI etc.

The other point to be made about Julian, is that he's also an exercise scientist (in addition to being an osteopath) so as far as advice etc goes re technique, training, rehab, and climbing whilst injured, he's appropriately qualified in that regard also.

Re taping - yes, there are things you can do, and as Wendy indicated above, opinions are somewhat polarised. You can read up on it here: http://www.athlon.com.au/articles/r&i_bumwraps-thetruth.pdf

As already said though, get professional advice on what the problem is first, especially as it's getting in the way of other things in life (ie carrying stuff) and then manage it accordingly once you know what you're dealing with.

Cheers!

Elaine.