Finger injury, how to heal and still train?

[admonisher]

Hey guys, I am new to the forum and I love what is beign teach here.

I want to adress you guys about an injury which I wonder if somebody else have had the same injury or know if this is fixable.

I did see 2 doctors already and am still hopping something can be done

What I have is I injured my ring finger middle knuckle when training in capoeira. I was doing one of my sequances of capoeira with a parter. I was stress, and did a mistake I never did before which is doing a cartwheel on my finger tips, In all my years of martial arts and acrobatics I never did that but I was stressed. And I received a head butt in the stomach which is part of the sequence, this caused me too lose balance. Usualy I fall on the side. but now I fell backward. I should have roll but in stead my weight fell in my fingers, in particular the ring finger. and it was stiff and swelled up completly. I still continue to practice for the circle game because I did not want to show the teacher or anyone I gor hurt. When I got back home I putted ice. 3 days after I was given something to keep it protected. But I would take it of from time to time because I work in a very manual job. 2 months later things progressed but I am still swelled up.

The finger folded toward my palm when I injured the finger. Now it is very hard to straighten manually and it is also hard to close it completely, but I did a lot of progress.

2 months after I saw my doctor and she told me it is too late to put it straight( I did not know) she did a scan and she said the scan shows that there could be a small tear in a tendon, and that it could stay like this forever and what I can do is exercise my finger.From then I continue training capoeira after 2month break. I see another doctor who give me a x-ray again(a different doctor) and she could not see clearly in the x-ray and said she dont know what it is. she prescribed me a pill xyprofen something like that. I finished it in 1 month and stopped doing capoeira or manual stuff with my hands. it seems to have goten better but nothing good yet. The doctor made me do another scan again to see any difference in bone structure and stuff. I am waiting for the results this week.

What should I tell her, should I ask her if I can see a physiotherapist or a bone specialist or sport specialist ?

Do you guys know what is the name of what I have and how long can it take to get better. its been 3-4months now.

I can train doing handstands and carthweel but if I push too hard it can hurt and I am also afraid of getting injured again the same way even thought chances or slim. I would like to know how to prevent this kind of injury

how can I protect my self to continue practicing ?

I think I should stop sparring because getting hit on this finger is not good thing.

here is pictures and one video

and by the way this is my left h and and it is also my righting hand and strongest hand

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/56593928.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/691/97112736.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/38/84062015.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/52/86328868.jpg/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=349VZnfb5Rc

sorry if the texts is long I did not know how to make this shorter hope its clear, I fell doing a cartwheel/handstand with my ring finger going toward my palm and slightly diagonally also. Now my finger naturally stay s lightly bent and it hurts to straighten or bend and it is swolen and I put some oils and took pills, I saw 2 different doctors one said its a small tear and the other one did 1 xray and made me do a secound one. I am a poor student and dont have much money but will pay for physio if needed.

[admonisher]

heh I suppose finger injury is not very common except in ball sports hehe

[Blairbob]

A couple of years ago I dislocated my left pinky (my off-hand) as I flew off my bike seat in a bike accident riding how. My fingers impacted the curb with the pinky being dislocated in all of it's knuckles while my ring finger muscles merely were strained/sprained/etc.

When I got home, instead of going to a hospital I merely aligned them myself. I asked my friend about it and did some research online before.

It was a short while before I was able to grip fully and do kipping pullups (I was crossfitting at the time) or deadlifts though I was able to do a lot of floor work so long as I didn't touch it hard against anything and parallette/PB/ring work was doable for the most part.

However, my left pinky is currently far more bent than yours and is slightly curved. I am able to ball up my left hand into a fist and all the fingers have no space when they do so unlike yours.

For the most part it works 100% of the time. If anything I find my false grip on my left hand slips a bit at times but I'm sure all the grip strength is there for the most part. It can be a bit odd to grip just ever so slightly during rope climbs but it's still 95% (at least) functional.

I've met a few other people who set their fingers on the fly after a dislocation and have the same thing. I've heard it may be due to the tendon damage.

To note, about a month and a half after the injury, my friend and training partner grabbed it during a training session (grappling) and ended up dislocating it again. I straightened it after walking outside and uttering a slew of pirate like curses but it was more functional than the first injury.

I am more interested and concerned that you cannot curl your fingers into a tight fist with the finger trips touching the skin between where the finger attaches to the palm and the first knuckle.

[admonisher]

yeah its can be slightly painful to do a fist at first but when I warm up doing it like 20 times it fine, but then it will come back sore again. Mine is not a discocation, I believe its a sprain, and the doctor cant really do anything for it, they not event sure what it is. But they say its not the bone. What I would be afraid is only to get it worst with training, havent done capoeira for a mont now. its been 4 month I have this injury. Hope it wont reduce my chances to become very good hehe, especially I love hand balancing.

[EastWind]

I had a sprained finger after I felt on it when I was doing ski jumpings over a bench. It took two to three months to heal and I remember doing some physiotherapy afterwards. It's been months. Give your finger time and rest to heal. Also, you should check a physhiotherapist and hopefully he will tell you when you could start doing some moves and what these shall be.

Good luck!

[admonisher]

Gosh im poor. do you believe there is a way I can try to get treat for free or at least at reduced cost, knowing i go to college live with my parents and stuff. how much does physio cost usualy? I know that in my school there is one, i forgot the price, i know it was high thougt. the physio is free at school if your involved in a sport team, which unfortunately i dont have time for

In worst case scenario, ill have to spend money on physio if it is really nessesary ? cuz doctors did say much and i saw 2 of them.

If this is untreated cant it go really bad, and is surgary wrong in this situation

[admonisher]

I went to check at school and it says 55$ for evaluation of injury+treatment then its 25$ per sessions of 30 min and 40$ per sessions of 1hour of coaching/treatment/massage therapy. Its an athletic therapy clinic something like that, I know I have a friend who is in the rowing team and had shoulder problems and they helped him fixed them, it was free for him because he was in the rowing team. I wish I possibly apply for a team sport at school but dont have much time.

Do you think its a good price for treatment for students ?

[EastWind]

That's nasty. I didn't pay for a therapist because I was working and I had a health insurance at state hospitals / units, so I went to a public orthopedic clinic. I only went there once, the therapist saw the finger and showed me some exercices with a towel on a table. But I didn't do any training with my finger until it was completely healed. Don't you have free public health services for students?

[admonisher]

Well for free, there is the nurse, But I remember one day I thought I had a sprain on the foot, the nurse checked it and reffered me to the therapist which for students its cheaper but you still pay. Athletes of the school don't pay its free for them(rowers,volley ball, soccer, basket ball, rowing and cheerleeding.) But the actually nurse service is free but the therapist is not free unless your an athlete in the school which I am not. I will make research to know if there is something free but is there . I know my dr was free, I will ask her if she can refer me to a specialist, which might be free on a waiting list I guess?

I am from canada quebec province in montreal.

[admonisher]

Since I have a job now and that I am in summer school, I can only come to train capoeira once a week, so It should be to bad I suppose.

[admonisher]

I checked my diagnotisis it says, There is Mild soft tissue swelling around the left 4th proximital interphalangeal joint. No bone or joint abnormality.

Clinical information: Rule out fracture ?? rule out fracrture means, no fracture i suppose.

[admonisher]

i'll let you know what happen tomorow with the therapist. they will also check my left elbow. after 4 month of rest, I want to come back to training for sure, just need to find a way to not reinjure myself, while healing. such a bomer everything happens on the good arm , my left. Is the copy of the pictures of my x-ray useful, should I buy a copy ?

[EastWind]

I don't know if you should buy a copy unless a doctor asks for it. I didn't have any x-ray picture, I knew from the start it was a bruised finger, but I had a good doctor. Good luck!

[admonisher]

She checked the finger, she said there is a slight tear in the right side of the fingeron the ligament, making onese side slightly bigger and swelling. She maid some ultrasound on its. Suggested I can still train at intense level in capoeira and other sports but tape the finger to train and it could take 1 to 2 years to fully heal. So iM fine. For my elbow she said my bicept and tricept are too tight so I should do some of the stretch that she suggested plus the one I know, but keepng them longer ( I neglect my arm stretches) this should get the pain out of the elbow. and she did a massage on it to take out some trigger point but she did not feel any knots, was only tigh bicept and thight tricept.

Its a good idea to go see a sport therapist. Now I need to go next month for the knee. Yeah its costs money

I am now thinking wether or not I should join the rowing team To get free services. It would mean less capoeira training time but heh. And I would need to learn how to swimm too. I am not very good at team sports so I should not thing of volleyball. And if I fuck my finger again no more handstands. At least rowing would develop strengh and cardio.