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Hurt ma finger

Wendy

20-Jul-2010
6:59:04 AM

Did the something involve hearing a pop? That's pretty typical of pulley tears. They will be incident onset. Climbers also get finger injuries that creep up on us from chronic stress placed on them. They also get treated differently, eg tendonitis gets rest and anti inflams, tendonosis get gentle workout and massage and no anti inflams. As it's been several months, you've still been climbing on it and it's still hurting, maybe it's time to go and see someone. Make sure it's someone who knows something about climbing for most usefulness. Otherwise they might send you to an OT used to working with repetitive stress from typing. If climbing is causing pain, it's probably a bad idea to do it. When climbing doesn't cause pain, it's probably a good idea to maintain what you can. Pick easy routes, big holds, cracks. I took about 5 weeks off completely when I did my pulley tendon, then climbed only cracks and slabs for and other 5 weeks, then only big holds then gradually testing out smaller ones whilst it's completely pain free 8 months later, I'm still super nervous of any serious cranking on small holds. And don't crimp. You've probably heard that before. Presumably it's for a good reason. Apparently it's mostly psychological that we feel stronger on a crimp then an open handed grip and if you train yourself out of it you're much less likely to injure the finger again.

Ejpauld

4-Sep-2011
3:41:11 PM

With the recent reopening of Burnley I've gotten over-excited and done my A2. I took 2 weeks off and went back today, with the resulting pain and inflammation suggesting it needs more recovery time. Whilst the talk of taking 2 months off is all very well, i have a trip to the Blue Mountains coming up in 3 weeks. Any advice for a more rapid healing process? Should i be massaging the joint to aid circulation/recovery, or will this do more damage? How about elastic bands and silly putty or those things long-haied guitar players use for finger strength?

Wendy

4-Sep-2011
4:53:13 PM

On 4/09/2011 Ejpauld wrote:
>With the recent reopening of Burnley I've gotten over-excited and done
>my A2. I took 2 weeks off and went back today, with the resulting pain
>and inflammation suggesting it needs more recovery time. Whilst the talk
>of taking 2 months off is all very well, i have a trip to the Blue Mountains
>coming up in 3 weeks. Any advice for a more rapid healing process? Should
>i be massaging the joint to aid circulation/recovery, or will this do more
>damage? How about elastic bands and silly putty or those things long-haied
>guitar players use for finger strength?

If you have actually done an a2, the sad reality is that you have buckley's chance of a decent blueys trip for anything but moderate cracks in 3 weeks. In the next few weeks, you could contemplate some seriously easy climbing on big jugs to keep you sane and get gentle exercise on the finger. Then cracks, jugs and slopers over the next 6 weeks. Blueys crimpfests are the worst thing possible for it. I would not be cranking on anything I couldn't wrap my elbow over at that stage. By 3 months, you could try some not too desperate thin holds, but chances are, it'll still hurt. i'd say 6-9 months before I'd try any hard fingery stuff.

Gentle massage (try comfrey or arnica cream if you want to spend money on hippy shit that may or may not work) is good. Ice baths are also good. Chuck a 5-6 ice cubes in a bowl of water and stick your hand in it for 10 minutes at a time. if you can stand it that long, it's pretty damn cold. I've probably said much the same thing earlier in this thread. Sorry, I can't offer any miracle cures!


mattjr

4-Sep-2011
5:12:56 PM

On 4/09/2011 Wendy wrote:
> Chuck a 5-6 ice cubes in a bowl of water and stick your hand in it for
>10 minutes at a time. if you can stand it that long, it's pretty damn
>cold. I've probably said much the same thing earlier in this thread. Sorry,
>I can't offer any miracle cures!

Check out Dave mcleod's site he has a video on something very similar and explains the science behind it. I have used it on pulley injuries previously and it has seemed to help.

climbingjac

4-Sep-2011
9:53:40 PM

Recovery time will be longer for a complete rupture versus a partial rupture. If it's a complete rupture, it's 6 months on the bench followed by a very slow careful reintroduction. I'm 3 months deep into the recovery of a complete rupture of A2. Most days now I don't even remember it is injured... until I try to get coins out of my purse which is a challenging exercise due to the way your fingers have to bend to succeed. For all other day to day activities, it's fine. But it certainly would not be fine to hang my bodyweight off it at this stage.


TheBerg

4-Sep-2011
10:24:42 PM

On 4/09/2011 Ejpauld wrote:
>With the recent reopening of Burnley I've gotten over-excited and done
>my A2. I took 2 weeks off and went back today, with the resulting pain
>and inflammation suggesting it needs more recovery time. Whilst the talk
>of taking 2 months off is all very well, i have a trip to the Blue Mountains
>coming up in 3 weeks. Any advice for a more rapid healing process? Should
>i be massaging the joint to aid circulation/recovery, or will this do more
>damage? How about elastic bands and silly putty or those things long-haied
>guitar players use for finger strength?

http://onlineclimbingcoach.blogspot.com/2010/05/pulley-injuries-article.html

This article is a must read for anyone suffering from a pulley injury. I've used the cold therapy (to great effect) to treat two of my own minor A2 tears. I also imagine it works just as well for the rehabilitation of ankle sprains. Depending on the severity of your injury, there's no reason you can't climb at the bluey's. You'll have to be careful with route selection, warm up slowly, stick to an open handed grip, and try not to be egged on by your buddies. I personally found climbing roofs indoor was a great way to still train hard whilst rehabilitating my pulley tears. Best of luck.

dmnz

5-Sep-2011
1:33:01 PM

A2s and other climbing hand related injury sites are small and have bad blood supply hence why they take so long to heal...it's pretty amazing how much stress they can take in the first place given how small they are

Re a more rapid healing, yes, rest and visualisation are about the best things you can do...and see a medical professional to get specific advice.

Petzl has some One Move Too Many book out there that is kinda climbing related anatomy/injury/prevention book that is enough detail but not too much for climbers. And it's specific enough that every rock climber should own a copy, or at least have access to one.

A=Annular, because it wraps around
and C=Cruciate cos it looks like a cross...no more confusion now.


ajfclark

5-Sep-2011
1:37:55 PM

On 5/09/2011 dmnz wrote:
>A=Annular, because it wraps around
>and C=Cruciate cos it looks like a cross...no more confusion now.

In picture form:

From Eric Horst's thoughts on pulley injuries: http://www.nicros.com/training/articles/finger-tendon-pulley-injury/


E. Wells

5-Sep-2011
9:47:25 PM

I think a4's must be from crankin on some tight shoes. I have an a1 on each hand, i dont rest and they dont heal. Improves the footwork I say, I just get other people to open car doors for me.

dmnz

16-Sep-2011
5:55:18 PM

On 5/09/2011 dangermouth wrote:
>I think a4's must be from crankin on some tight shoes. I have an a1 on
>each hand, i dont rest and they dont heal. Improves the footwork I say,
>I just get other people to open car doors for me.
>

that rules out soloing then, or a date


Sonic

19-Sep-2011
11:40:53 AM

On 4/09/2011 TheBerg wrote:
Depending on the severity of your injury, there's no reason
>you can't climb at the bluey's. You'll have to be careful with route selection,
>warm up slowly, stick to an open handed grip, and try not to be egged on
>by your buddies.

Have you climbed up here before? Everything at every major crag - including any warm ups - involves crimping. I agree with Wendy - Our crimpfests are not the best remedy for a bung finger. I'd be diverting to Araps or maybe even Nowra if you REALLY need to climb

There are 31 messages in this topic.