Knuckle middle finger year long injury

Hi everyone. I'm here because i'm stuck with this injury and it's literally ruining my life since april 2015. No acute pain, a day after a really hard training (crimping) i felt as my finger would crack in half as i crimped or half crimped (at the level of the dip) and also pain when crimping or half crimping in the dorsal side of my pip joint. Absolutelly no pain in flexing or extension in fact i soon stop climbing and went for some bodyweight exercise (pull up dips and that low traumatic exercises). After a month nothing changed and i decided to see a specialist. Without xray or any other imaging exam he diagnosed me arthritis. I went on another 2 weeks of body weight exercises then came back to climbing....at the time i was really strong and very unexperienced (i'm 19 now btw, injuried 18). As soon as i came back i went really hard without a proper comeback time since the injury wasn't that drastic....i went on like this until december 2015 where tbh i didn't had more pain but i was just tired to be limiting myself and i wanted to be ok with myself and my body. I then stop climbing or any other activity for 3.5 months. I did xrays (everything ok, distance between bones was right) and MRI. I went to see a climb ortho which said it was impossible that i had arthritis and that i had synovitis confirmed by MRI (probably both at pip for sure and maybe also dip but could not ser dip at mri) and something at the oblique retinacular ligament. I kept tape on finger day and noght for 2 weeks. Now i'm coming back climbing really slow.... I can see things changed since i don't have anymore the sensation of a fragile finger when doing the crimp moviment (i crimp my desk at uni not while climbing) but i can tell the finger is not really that ok....sometimes i still have sharp pain in my dip joint and happy climbing crimping and pushing feels light years away. Doctor and phisio said i HAVE to climb and not to stop but i don't know if i will ever come back to full power or i just have to manage the pain forever while climbing and living with it instead of get rid of it (slight pain both crimping and hf crimping but no pain with taping)...if anyone has ever had this type of problem and want to help me i'll be grateful for the rest of my life....thank you if you everyone, have happy climbs!!

I have what seems to be something very similar in the same knuckle. When your first doc said arthritis, my initial reaction was "oh, that must be what I've got" but I think your situation is more persistent than mine. Anyway, I've been climbing through it, and it hasn't felt like I'm at risk of injury. This may sound counterintuitive, but hangboarding with an open crimp grip may help. If you really ease into it, it will strengthen the tendon while helping you recognnize where your breaking point is (i.e. how hard you can pull without feeling like you're going to break something). Take this with a grain of salt because yours sounds worse, but the difference may actually be that I think climbing through my injury has been beneficial. I feel the same way about my decision to climb through tendonitis

Hi jon thank you for your answer! unluckly mine isn't a tendon injury but a joint injury which makes it harder to treat...openhand crimp is quite difficult now for me because it can give me pain as soon as i release the grip which i think it's not good (if you search synovitis climber there will be a video which explain exactly how i feel and all the symptomes). I'm now climbing on jugs and it feels ok and maybe it can progress in months...When you came back climbing after your tendon injury could you do all sorts of moviments without pain? like crimp pinch or open hand crimp because atm i can't (i don't feel safe) and i don't know if i should climb on it or rest a bit more.