[Tully Mars]

Curious if anyone out there has had this issue. In March I jammed my index finger in an accident at work. I have played sports for years and figured the old rest, ice, compression and elevation would fix it in a week or so. Months later still no luck.

So I visited a hand specialist got x-rays no broken bone. Was told to soak in hot water and bend the finger slowly to reduce the swelling and to keep some 3M sports tape on it to compress the swelling in the finger.

It’s going on almost 6 months and I still can not bend the finger fully. Its flexible to a bit above my palm to form a C like pulling a trigger. Not comfortable and pain in the ass while working out.

Are there any other forum members that have had such an issue? I am thinking there may be some tendon damage or the possible diagnosis of trigger finger where the tendons are damaged or inflamed. I plan to revisit the hand specialist after my vacation to get more professional input. Any input or feedback is appreciated.

[Zep]

(07-21-2018 02:10 AM)Tully Mars Wrote:  

Curious if anyone out there has had this issue. In March I jammed my index finger in an accident at work. I have played sports for years and figured the old rest, ice, compression and elevation would fix it in a week or so. Months later still no luck.

So I visited a hand specialist got x-rays no broken bone. Was told to soak in hot water and bend the finger slowly to reduce the swelling and to keep some 3M sports tape on it to compress the swelling in the finger.

It’s going on almost 6 months and I still can not bend the finger fully. Its flexible to a bit above my palm to form a C like pulling a trigger. Not comfortable and pain in the ass while working out.

Are there any other forum members that have had such an issue? I am thinking there may be some tendon damage or the possible diagnosis of trigger finger where the tendons are damaged or inflamed. I plan to revisit the hand specialist after my vacation to get more professional input. Any input or feedback is appreciated.

I have something similar going on with my thumb, "Gamers Thumb". It just won't heal. I've read that this is tendonitis, or a membrane that surrounds the bone is inflamed? I don't know exactly what's going on, but initially it was too painful to brush my teeth.

After researching a bit I found conflicting statements from "stretch and ice" to "don't do anything, rest".

It sucks. It's your hand.

This guy sums up most of what I've read, along with 'doing exercises made my problem worse'.

At 3:50 he gets into it. (I've heard some people recommend Chondroitin also. But you have to take more than is recommended on the bottle.)

Let me know if this helps, I have to figure this out also.

[redbeard]

I jammed my left middle finger about a year ago, pretty bad, while playing basketball. It's now functional and it isn't interfering with my gym work, but its nowhere near 100%. Sometimes if I'm not lifting, but I'm typing a lot, it can get painful.

Here's the tl;dr of the video above, if you fell asleep from this guy's talking like I did:

https://healingtriggerfinger.com/get-rid...er-finger/

Quote:

Begin taking a P5P supplement – 100mg to 150mg daily.
Splint the finger – this allows the finger to rest and inflammation to decrease.
Rub the nodule on the tendon firmly. This location is on the palm below the base of the finger – by applying pressure, this can decrease the size of the nodule allowing the affected tendon to glide freely through the sheath.
Apply warm, wet heat and help sooth an aching finger, applying ice after using the hand repetitively can help reduce inflammation.

Any other tips would be appreciated.

[birthday cat]

I had a similar situation with the middle knuckle of my middle finger.

I think your diet will play big role in this. Perhaps do a google search about nutrition and reducing inflammation. I think the TLDR is going to be to avoid processed foods and sugary foods altogether, avoid bad oils like cooking in vegetable oil, more water less caffeine and alcohol, more fish less red meat, plenty of vegetables. Fish oil is supposed to be anti-inflammatory and there seems to be experts on both sides of the fish oil debate, so I don't know if it works but it might.

When you pop a knuckle, the sound you here is a bubble bursting in the synovial fluid as the joint shifts positions. One way to pop a knuckle is pulling or stretching out your finger. This next part is a little bro-sciency so follow it at your own risk.... With my middle finger, it was jammed for a very long time and the slightest push in the wrong direction would agitate it and cause the inflammation and swelling to persist. This would happen a lot when I washed my hands. I think the swelling was holding the bones in a position where it was easy to agitate the injury. One time that the swelling had gone down a bit, I pulled the finger and was able to pop the knuckle for the first time. It was a strange feeling but the injury healed within about a week of that happening. I think it was all of matter of the positioning of the knuckle.

If it happened to me again I would be diligent with diet, ice the injury a lot to reduce inflammation and depending on the circumstances I might try to pop the knuckle into a better position.

[Zep]

(07-21-2018 02:10 AM)Tully Mars Wrote:  

So I visited a hand specialist got x-rays no broken bone. Was told to soak in hot water and bend the finger slowly to reduce the swelling

<snip>

He told you to soak in hot water to reduce the swelling? that doesn't make sense.

Maybe soak your hand in hot water to warm up the tendons and muscles to make them responsive to manipulation ( stretching, myofascial release ). After the the exercises in hot water, I'd submerge the hand in ice water. Think of a bladesmith, he heats the metal, pounds it into a shape he wants it to go, then submerges it in water to keep it in that shape.

[Zep]

I've decided to go for it with regards to the exercises. I had stopped after hearing people say it made them worse, it did me too, but maybe there's a reason for this. My theory is that leaving the thumb alone and not aggravating the injury will allow it to heal naturally. Problem with this is, what if it doesn't? what if you are unintentionally forming a new but limited range of motion by not getting uncomfortable and pushing into a little bit of discomfort?

I'll try exercising for a week and see what happens. After three days my thumb is the same. I do the exercises at night before going to bed.

1 - warm-up the affected area, I do hand exercises for a minute, just to get blood flowing
2- get a spikey ball and push it over the hand area, and thumb, and wrist ( Small Spikey Ball)
3- pain time! move the thumb into the position where it does not want to go, I'll push up against the pain to about twenty percent, no heroics, just dip into it enough so that I wince, and hold it for ten seconds at a time. Do this three times, then ice.

It's not any worse so far, so this is good.

[balybary]

I am in my forties and I have a swell joint at one little finger. It has appeared after a small injury, and 6 months latter is still here. The size of the swelling is decreasing very slowly.

When you are younger, your joints can recover quickly from small injuries. If you're over 40, take it easy on your joints. It's easier said than done, because if the injured joint is in the hand, you are using it a lot.

https://www.healthline.com/health/osteoa...dens-nodes

Quote:

What Are Heberden’s Nodes?
Signs and symptoms of Heberden’s nodes

If you have Heberden’s nodes, you can clearly see them by examining the end joints on your fingers. Tiny bone outgrowths may extend from the knuckle closest to your fingernail. In many cases, your fingers may twist or become crooked as the nodes form.

Are you experiencing pain or stiffness in your fingers? Such pain or stiffness could represent symptoms of osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. Sometimes osteoarthritis can affect your hands. When you have it in your hands, you may develop Heberden’s nodes. This condition is usually one of the most obvious signs that a person has osteoarthritis in their hands.

Heberden’s nodes
Heberden’s nodes are bony swellings that form on your hands as a result of osteoarthritis. They were named after physician William Heberden, Sr., a doctor in the 1700s. He came up with an explanation for these swellings.
These bony growths generally occur on the finger joints nearest the fingertip, also called the distal interphalangeal joints. Similar swellings located on the lower joints, or the proximal interphalangeal joints, are called Bouchard’s nodes.

How Heberden’s nodes form
Osteoarthritis typically occurs in the spine, knees, hips, or fingers. These locations in particular have cushiony cartilage in the joints that protects the surface of your bones. Osteoarthritis may occur due to the wear and tear of cartilage in these areas that comes with aging or as a result of an injury.

In the case of Heberden’s nodes, swellings and a general crookedness occur in your finger joints as the softening cartilage begins to disintegrate or wear away. The cartilage eventually becomes coarse and can’t protect your bones, which begin to rub against each other. This process destroys the existing bone and often causes significant pain. As the cartilage continues to break down, new bone grows alongside the existing bone in the form of nodes.

By the time the nodes appear, your fingers may have become stiff, and the pain may have lessened. Heberden’s nodes occur after obvious and serious joint damage, so they’re often viewed as a marker of advanced osteoarthritis.

Symptoms include:
loss of motion
pain
swelling
stiffness at the location of the node
Some cases of Heberden’s nodes may be asymptomatic, or only cause mild or few symptoms.

If you have Heberden’s nodes, you may have difficulty performing some tasks that require gripping or pinching, like turning the key in your car’s ignition or uncapping a soda bottle.
You may feel limited in your daily activities, and it may be hard to complete tasks for work or household chores. This may cause you to experience mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

Risk factors
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. It affects more than 20 million people in the United States. It’s more common among the elderly, but it can sometimes occur in people in their 40s or even younger.

[Tully Mars]

Thanks for all the valuable information and replies I have received. Just a quick update. I have been travelling fairly intensely so my diet, workout schedule and sleep patterns have been thrown to the wind. The jammed index finger has somewhat improved. However I cannot fully straighten the finger or curl the finger to touch the palm of my hand. It still feels very stiff but I would say there is a mild improvement.

My take is rest and doing as minimal stress to the finger as possible will help in the recovery. I will continue to ice, wrap and use heat to try to alleviate the swelling. It has been now exactly 4 months since the injury and I would say it's far from even 50% better.

I do feel this might be a nagging injury for sometime but will continue to follow doctors advice and the information you all have provided.

Thanks again for the help....and I will keep this thread updated hopefully as this nagging injury progresses.

[Zep]

My injury is five months old now. It is about fifty percent better. I started a physical job three weeks ago, the thumb seemed to get about ten percent better quite quickly. I sweat buckets doing what I do. I'm guessing the sheer amount of blood flow of a physical job for eight hours a day is what's helping.

However, I still want my thumb back. There is definitely something wrong, I'm a guitarist and I cannot play.

This video nails it. The "Snuff Box" or 'Entrapment Zone' at forty six seconds is exactly where my pain is. Dammit, I do not want to have to get surgery

[Zep]

I played guitar for the first time in seven months since my injury. Played for an hour, the next day my thumb was fine.

Next day: again an hour, no problem

Next day: again an hour ... tiny problem, felt a hot pinch in the affected area, so took it easy.

Overall, the problem ( Quervains Syndrome) is getting better, I think this is due to completely stopping the activity that caused it in the first place and that was playing guitar. There's an artist named Feist that was told by a doctor to not sing or do anything with her vocal chords for a whole year, she took the advice and now she has a great career. Miles Davis on the other hand probably didn't rest his vocal chords and ended up with that distinctive whisper-voice.

I also got trigger finger from work, I'd wake up with my middle-finger locked into place. I found out what caused it, a movement I was repeating several times a day. I found another way to do the movement and it's slooowly getting better.

I was thinking about expansion and contraction, and how often these two forces are found everywhere in life/nature. Some people think icing is bad, not sure, I'm thinking about a hot then cold treatment for a tendon, the heat for expansion and blood flow, then ice to put the tendon to sleep, so to speak, to make it rest, then normal activity the rest of the day. Maybe a hot/cold treatment three times a day.

For sure an absolute must for tendonitis seems to be complete non-use initially, but this is almost impossible when it's your hand and you need to work.