Swollen finger joint

Hello Yolanda, I`m not the doc, still my advice might be useful for you. It is obviuous that you should stop climbing at the moment in order to let the injury heal up to a full extend, even if it takes quite a while. How long did you pause? Considering your description, I don`t think that it is a pulley injury, this however can only be found out via a sonography. I rather think that you have either developed a servere and chronic tendovaginitis or caused trauma to the joint, resulting in internal bleeding-the more bleeding, the bigger the swelling. I personally have never had complaints in my joints-they are not hyperthrophied either-because of an advice german climbing specialist Doc. V. Schöffl gave me...use Qi-Qong balls...they are great for a number of reasons: they encourage blood flow and massage the fingers and the joints because of their weight. You move the fingers a lot but without force. This should definitely help, they are really cheap, mine cost like 5 Euros and you can`t do anything wrong with them. You could also try out sulphur baths...just use a bowl, fill it with water and one portion of sulphur bath (should easily be available at your local pharmacy, normally used by elderly people suffering from arthritis). You could also apply a Diclofenac based cream to reduce the swelling. Hope I could help you, I however think that you should really go and see a doc to get a sonography or further treatment. Hope your finger gets better, Chris

Hi Yolanda Based on the description you are giving this most likely is an overloading of the cartilage in the joint. you may even have triggered a process resembling reumatism if you continue pushing to hard. Taking a cortison injektion in the joint might help you stop the inflammation, following up with heat terapy, masssage and foam ball squeezing will improve the cirkulation and prevent it from reappearing when you start climbing hard again. Taking suppplement with Glukosamine should also help to calm this down. I would however most strongly recommend you to let a skilled reumatologist or ortopedic port medicine doctor examine this. Icing a joint is couterproductive except in the acute injury phase and then only to serve to take down swelling and pain. Pease also browse through more of my answer on this forum and you will get a better bearing on how to generally take care of you important climbing tolls=hands Good luck with healing Björn

hi there, I got exactly the same problem described by Yolanda. It can get really bad after climbing but gets better afterwards. I've been to a doctor and fisio because another injure (did my thumb on the same hand on a fall) but he said he couldn't do anything, it'd be probably a pulley and I just had to wait until it gets bad enough to do an operation!! Not kidding!, crazy german doctor! Even after a 4-month-break it just got worst (a real break forced by the thumb injure) so i just kept climbing. That's been happening for years already, and this "break" was also 1 year ago. Do i risk losing my finger or something like that? I'll try your heat therapy and let you know. and Glukosamine in gel has the same efects or are tabs better? Thanks a lot! Henrique