recovering small pulley injuries : how much rest?

Question for Dr 8a. Once a year, more or less, i seem to suffer some sort of pulley injury. Not necessairily something big : after a session i might notice some discomfort, then making pressure in different points of the finger i localize it, realize it must be a pulley, and decide to take some rest and maybe try some diy therapy (strapping the finger so that it can't bend too much, ice-and-warm baths, massage, diclofenac gel). Usually most of the pain goes away in 4-5 days if i'm strict on the strapping-ice-diclofenac thing : it might feel totally ok apart from the early morning (first 30 minutes awake). But if i try to climb at this point, there seems to be a 50% chance that i get back to where it started (even if i'm careful and don't crimp too much). In the end it seems that i usually try climbing too early and my recovery takes longer than it should. Is there some rule of thumb for how much rest is enough in these cases? A fixed time like one week or two weeks or three weeks? When i have no pain whatsoever even in the morning? Second question : i've heard/read some things about squeezing a foam ball. How many minutes a day? How can i empirically know when to start doing this and when it's enough? thank you