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Post by jcm on Jan 29, 2017 12:11:18 GMT -7
Last Saturday (so 1 week ago) I strained the inner collateral ligament on my right index finger PIP developed tenosynovitis in my right index PIP. Some minor swelling for a few days, which has since died down. No pain, really, when loading it or poking at it, just a swollen and "unstable" feeling at the joint. I've responded with my standard finger injury protocol: drop the climbing intensity down to light ARCing on jugs, contrast baths for bloodflow, and maintain gneral body fitness in ways that don't strain the finger (rings, trx etc). Normally, I'd just do this for a month or so and treat it as a base fitness / recovery phase, and once the finger is feeling better start phasing back into higher intensity strength work.
Problem: I am scheduled to go on a climbing trip shortly. I have plane tickets for next Thursday (Feb 9th) to go to Mexico for 2.5 weeks. At this point, it is hard to say how the finger will be by then. It seems overall like a pretty low grade strain, but the healing timeline for these sorts of injuries is unpredictable. So the correct response with regard to the trip is uncertain. The decision to make now is whether to go forward with the trip or cancel.
Reasons to go: - Collateral ligaments are funny; often you can still climb through an injury so long as you are careful about torqueing - A number of the routes I'd like to do are steep juggy enduro affairs, which would be more finger friendly - I have plane tickets booked, and if cancelling I would potentially have to eat the cost. - It might start to feel signficiantly better in two weeks. If so, then it could be a great trip still.
Reasons to cancel: - Conservative/cautious approach with regards to healing. Taking the long term view - My vacation time is pretty limited at this point, and I can really only get one international trip like this per year. I don't want to blow 11 days of vacation time on a trip where I can't climb as much or as hard as I'd like. The vacation time is worth a lot more than the plane tickets, and I could use that time to scchule a different trip in several months. - I wouldn't want to be on a trip and bored because I was unable to climb, or could only climb 5.10. - It might not start to feel signficiantly better in two weeks.
Thoughts/ideas/advice/experience?
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Post by tedwelser on Jan 29, 2017 18:50:48 GMT -7
Last Saturday (so 1 week ago) I strained the inner collateral ligament on my right index finger PIP while limit bouldering. Some minor swelling for a few days, which has since died down. No pain, really, when loading it or poking at it, just the standard collateral injury "unstable" feeling at the joint, especially if any sort or torque is applied to the finger. I've responded with my standard finger injury protocol: drop the climbing intensity down to light ARCing on jugs, contrast baths for bloodflow, and maintain gneral body fitness in ways that don't strain the finger (rings, trx etc). Normally, I'd just do this for a month or so and treat it as a base fitness / recovery phase, and once the finger is feeling better start phasing back into higher intensity strength work. Problem: I am scheduled to go on a climbing trip shortly. I have plane tickets for next Thursday (Feb 9th) to go to Mexico for 2.5 weeks. At this point, it is hard to say how the finger will be by then. It seems overall like a pretty low grade strain, but the healing timeline for these sorts of injuries is unpredictable. So the correct response with regard to the trip is uncertain. The decision to make now is whether to go forward with the trip or cancel. Reasons to go: - Collateral ligaments are funny; often you can still climb through an injury so long as you are careful about torqueing - A number of the routes I'd like to do are steep juggy enduro affairs, which would be more finger friendly - I have plane tickets booked, and if cancelling I would potentially have to eat the cost. - It might start to feel signficiantly better in two weeks. If so, then it could be a great trip still. Reasons to cancel: - Conservative/cautious approach with regards to healing. Taking the long term view - My vacation time is pretty limited at this point, and I can really only get one international trip like this per year. I don't want to blow 11 days of vacation time on a trip where I can't climb as much or as hard as I'd like. The vacation time is worth a lot more than the plane tickets, and I could use that time to scchule a different trip in several months. - I wouldn't want to be on a trip and bored because I was unable to climb, or could only climb 5.10. - It might not start to feel signficiantly better in two weeks. Thoughts/ideas/advice/experience? [Hey Hey- I say go on your trip. I injured my collateral ligament a year ago and, basically it improved a bit and stayed the same for the last 12 months. It is not clear if there are good rehab strategies but in my experience if you avoid tweaky pulls you will not make it ant worse.
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Post by MarkAnderson on Jan 31, 2017 14:23:47 GMT -7
I would go. The key will be to avoid torqueing the finger, which means no finger cracks and no pockets (or if you have to use the odd pocket, make sure the angle of pull is aligned with your finger*). But if you can find routes with straight-down pulling you should be able to climb at your limit. Note I have not been to EPC, so can't really judge the climbing style. Another thing to consider is that overseas travel will be much more difficult once the apocalypse is fully implemented (we're only 11 days into the first 100). One in the hand is worth two in the bush.
(*another danger with pockets is that you quickly yank your finger out of a pocket and throw your arm towards the next hold, as for a dyno, but you do the throwing before the yanking is finished. I've tweaked CLs a couple times doing that)
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Post by jonfrisby on Jan 31, 2017 15:50:50 GMT -7
I would go. The key will be to avoid torqueing the finger, which means no finger cracks and no pockets (or if you have to use the odd pocket, make sure the angle of pull is aligned with your finger*). But if you can find routes with straight-down pulling you should be able to climb at your limit. Note I have not been to EPC, so can't really judge the climbing style. Another thing to consider is that overseas travel will be much more difficult once the apocalypse is fully implemented (we're only 11 days into the first 100). One in the hand is worth two in the bush. (*another danger with pockets is that you quickly yank your finger out of a pocket and throw your arm towards the next hold, as for a dyno, but you do the throwing before the yanking is finished. I've tweaked CLs a couple times doing that) That's how I did mine
To echo several folks, it's fine as long as you're cognizant of your limits and don't climb finger cracks!!!
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Post by jcm on Feb 1, 2017 11:25:30 GMT -7
Thanks for the input everyone. The final deciding factor may be going into the gym this weekend and pushing it a bit harder in terms of crimping, etc., to see if it could hold up to a climbing trip.
I'll post up when I have a verdict.
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Post by jcm on Feb 7, 2017 8:13:01 GMT -7
Update/edit: It seems I misdiagnosed this at first. The swelling has remained generalized around the joint, instead of getting more targeted with time. Seems like it is classic tenosynovitis. Maybe from too much crumping during PE. Swelling goes away with a few days rest, and comes back if I push the return to climbing too much. It was feeling pretty good as of Sunday, and I pushed a bit harder to make sure it was ready for the trip. Swelling returned. Shit.
Thoughts on path forward at this point? Planned departure is Thursday. We can still cancel and get airline credit, though we get dinged $200 by the airline for late cancellation. This is fine. It would be nice to go on the trip if possible, but longer term healing/health is more important. Is it possible to achieve both?
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Post by MarkAnderson on Feb 8, 2017 17:35:28 GMT -7
I can see an argument for either option. If you go you probably couldn't/shouldn't climb at your limit, but I've never not had a great time on an international trip, regardless of how well/hard I was climbing. If it were me, I'd go anyway and just (try) to take it easy climbing-wise. Case in point, I tweaked my left middle finger 3 climbing days into my Germany trip (sending Ghettoblaster). I still kept climbing, I just monitored the tweak and moderated the difficulty/rest to keep the injury in check.
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Post by jcm on Feb 8, 2017 17:50:11 GMT -7
Thanks for the replies. As of 2 hours ago we cancelled. The end decision was based on the risk of pushing the finger too hard on the trip, and ending up with a lingering problem. I've decided to play it safe and nip the issue in the bud.
Program now: 10 days full rest. Then really light hangboarding for February for rehab. If all goes well, resume legit training sometime in early-mid March to time for spring season.
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Post by daustin on Feb 8, 2017 17:55:19 GMT -7
Sorry to hear about that, always a big bummer when you have to cancel a trip! Good luck with the rehab.
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Post by jcm on Feb 8, 2017 19:53:50 GMT -7
Disappointing, and it was stressful as hell trying to decide, but now that it's done I'm OK with it. Worst case scenario, I think, would have been to fly down there, make the injury worse on the second day of the trip, and then spend two weeks not being able to climb. So we decided the avoid that.
Also, any vacation time I don't use now I get to use later this year. And its now looking like we can fully recoup the flight cost. So this ended up being a no-loss proposition. Now I just need to rehab this silly finger tweak and start planning a trip for later this spring. I also have some ideas for some non-finger training to work on in the interim.
Thanks again to everyone for the input. This forum is a really valuable resource, and, unlike elsewhere on the internets, I really trust the advice given out here.
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Post by B2Math on Oct 11, 2017 11:01:34 GMT -7
Hey jcm, have you had any progress rehabbing your finger injury? I've been deeling with a troublesome index PIP joint that seems to share a few simlar symptoms as yours. I initially thought it was a colateral ligament strain, took about a month off, and then began rubber band and light hangboard rehab. Sinse then I am back to full strength in my finger with little or no feeling of instability. However, the general swelling around the joint is fairly consistent and moderately painful. I've tried stretching, reduced crimping as much as possible, and ice to reduce swelling but can't figure out how to produce any lasting recovery. Any thoughts?
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Post by jcm on Oct 12, 2017 12:48:48 GMT -7
Looking back, I'm really not sure what the injury was. In any case, it doesn't matter much since the best treatment for most finger injuries is the same; a short initial rest followed by gradual progressive reloading.
The finger injury I had this past winter stuck around for several months through the spring season, though I was able to do a decent amount of moderate crack climbing as it gradually improved. I was finally able to crimp hard-ish again by sometime in May, and by sometime in June it was fully healed. It's 100% healed now, and the only lingering effect of the injury is s surplus of vacation time from the cancelled trip.
Not sure how this translates to your injury, other than the general message that these things can take a number of months to heal.
I've also found that initial healing to get to the point where you can use the finger can feel quite slow. But once you hit that "I can climb again" point, the healing accelerates.
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