Need advice

A few weeks ago I was climbing an easy warmup boulder when while reaching for another hold, I violently slammed my hand into a giant protruding hold, making contact with mainly my ring finger. What followed was intense pain whenever I moved my finger, so out of a abundance of caution, I went home early. Later that day my finger recovered and like an idiot I decided that I was good to climb and went back to the gym and completed a session. When I woke up the next day I found my finger swelled pretty dramatically. I decided to take a week off, and now have been climbing ever since. I can climb pretty much normally, but I have a lingering and nagging pain whenever I move my finger through a full range of motion. 

Can someone here tell me what the heck did I do to my finger, and how to recover? I really don't want this to turn into a long-term injury that comes back to haunt me. 

Edit: This is my finger now, I still think there is a bit of swelling remaining. 

Get a lot of sunlight. Rub some holy water on it. Hang up some garlic and crucifixes. 

Gloweringwrote:

Get a lot of sunlight. Rub some holy water on it. Hang up some garlic and crucifixes. 

not very helpful 

Elie, can you be more specific about where the injury is on your finger, and where in the range of motion there is pain? There are a lot of pieces and parts, and location along the finger as well as the front or back would help get more useful responses.

I'm guessing based on your description you just smashed your PIP joint against the rock (hold) and it is bruised. If you want to be fancy, you could say you have acute capsulitis. Stretching and compressing the joint capsule is causing pain, probably when the knuckle is approaching fully flexed (such as when making a fist). 

I smashed that joint between some rocks while trail building in April, and it took about two months to heal, but didn't really affect climbing after a week or so. If it's convenient see a PT to verify nothing strange happened, but frankly, if it continues to improve and nothing feels unstable while climbing, I wouldn't be concerned.

Elie Gwrote:

not very helpful 

Okay, don't blame me if you have a craving for blood.

Joe Nuttingwrote:

Elie, can you be more specific about where the injury is on your finger, and where in the range of motion there is pain? There are a lot of pieces and parts, and location along the finger as well as the front or back would help get more useful responses.

I'm guessing based on your description you just smashed your PIP joint against the rock (hold) and it is bruised. If you want to be fancy, you could say you have acute capsulitis. Stretching and compressing the joint capsule is causing pain, probably when the knuckle is approaching fully flexed (such as when making a fist). 

I smashed that joint between some rocks while trail building in April, and it took about two months to heal, but didn't really affect climbing after a week or so. If it's convenient see a PT to verify nothing strange happened, but frankly, if it continues to improve and nothing feels unstable while climbing, I wouldn't be concerned.

The pain (I think) is around the A1/A2 area. But I think you’re right, i’ve been doing tendon glides and light loading on hangboard to help recover and I think it’s helping. Thank you for your reply! Very helpful 

Gloweringwrote:

Okay, don't blame me if you have a craving for blood.

Is this a reference i don’t get? 

Elie Gwrote:

Is this a reference i don’t get? 

He is referring to vampires.

Could this be just a simple soft tissue injury? 

WF WF51wrote:

He is referring to vampires.

Could this be just a simple soft tissue injury? 

Yes I think so. 

Fingers, the wrist, toes and ankles have a lot of small joints each with a soft tissue joint capsule. Perhaps you have injured the joint capsule which will then fill with fluid as the bodies injury response. With a little time the fluid will naturally "drain" and the swelling will diminish restoring "normal" function to the joint.

Healing happens with blood flow .. unfortunately fingers (and toes) have limited blood circulation, and often heal slower than other parts of the body.

Yer gonna die!