Bizarro finger pain (not pulley)

I’ll start by saying I’ve had my share of pulley tweaks and this is different.

I’m having a fairly constant, dull ache on the palm-side of the last joint in my ring finger and it gets sharp almost every time I move it, but that pain is momentary. I’ve been prodding away and can’t find any tender spot at all. No swelling, no limited motion, doesn’t hurt to stretch lightly in any direction, no pain isolating joints and bending individually. I’ve even lightly weighted different grips without pain, but then every damn time I move it, it hurts.

Haven't been climbing, but during the day I tried taping it with a straight ring for compression/immobilization, and it felt good for a bit, but then started aching worse. So then I tried to H tape around the joint with the same results--good at first, then got worse. Wasn’t particularly tight where it was restricting circulation. Experimented with short ice sessions with no noticeable difference, but recently found that a hot shower or a microwaved rice sock does seem to make it mostly go away temporarily.

The pain seems too localized and with too sudden onset to be tendinitis. It’s seems to be right on the bend line at C3 territory, maaaybe A4, but like I said, no pain point with pressure. Wasn’t doing anything tweaky, just running laps up and down easy, juggy climbs working on endurance and got tired. Finger felt sore when I was resting on the ground later.

It’s baffling me, can’t decide if this will disappear in a week or if I’ve really done something bad this time. Anyone got any ideas?

If you can afford it I'd see a specialist for that one.

Constant throbbing and sharp pain from simple movement isn't the best sign and if you're unable to find a way to rest it pain free the healing via rest likelihood is questionable.

But it never hurts to give it a full week of zero activity first.

If I could just get that specialist to chop off all my fingers and install some metal ones I think I'd be better off at this point.. One day

It seems to step down a bit each day, but definitely still there from the moment I wake up.. I would say it feels like light pressure most of the time now and hurts when I move it but not as sharp. Still no particular movements making it worse than others. I've studied a lot of hand anatomy over the years and would love to know what I've done. Doesn't seem like there's much there other than the C3 pulley, tendon, and bone. Can't imagine I fractured anything running laps on jugs (also I'd probably feel that if I put pressure on it). 

You're asking climbers to diagnose a medical condition, over the Internet, rather than a doctor, in person? You get what you pay for.

I'm just trying to see if anyone's had a similar experience cause it's a weird one to me. If it persists, yeah, I'll go to a doctor, but in the meantime, maybe save $2-300 for a specialist visit where they tell me I can pay another $1000 for an MRI to see if anything's wrong, but otherwise try not to use it. 

As a follow up for any future readers.. I've had similar symptoms on several different fingers over the last few years. If I give them a break for a few weeks to a month, it typically just goes away. Definitely not a tendon or pulley tear, just inflammation would be my guess. I'm increasingly suspicious I have some early onset arthritis cause my fingers are often angry these days and that may have been at least part of the cause. If you did something particularly intense or heard a pop, you may have bigger problems. Otherwise, if you have similar symptoms, just suck it up and give it a couple weeks to recover—continuing to climb makes it worse and will only drag out recovery. Heat helps temporarily, maybe some light stretching or opposing muscle training, but otherwise just take it easy and it'll go away even if it is super frustrating.