Who has ever....

[T-Man007]

Jambed or bent back (hyperextended) one of your finger joints. I was playing football two weekends ago and a got my fingers bent back trying to catch the ball. The worst im my middle finger on my left hand. It was bruised all along the inside so iced it and imobilized it. Well, it's beem 1 1/2 weeks and the joint still wont bent very far and it's still really big.

I don't have a lot of post clinical experience so I'm asking to see if any of you have done this and how long it took you to regain full ROM of the joint again?

I don't think it's broken but the joint is still pretty swollen. Any comments are welcomed. I'm trying to decide if I should go to the Doc or just keep it immobilized longer.

[Phreak]

Re: Who has ever....

if you have insurance it can't be a bad thing to get it checked out...

[TestRip7]

Re: Who has ever....

If it is jammed, sometimes it is hard to tell. I always pulled the finger and you can feel a light pop like it is goin back in place, pulling it hurt like hell but when it pops back in it feels like new x-cept for some soreness for a few days. I would probaly go see a doc just to see what he says cause it might be something more serious

[space mountain]

Re: Who has ever....

yea and it hurts like f@#k!

[T-Man007]

Re: Who has ever....

Thanks guys, I just got off tyhe phone with a buddy of mine who's a former physcial therapist. I've been trying to reach him without any luck so that's why I put the ? up here. Anyways, here's what he said:

"When you hyperextend a joint the joint will collect and encapsule fluid as a defense mechanism. Try to imagine putting a full water balloon behind your knee and flex it. That's basically what you have, a small water ballon in your finger joint. Unless there is sharp pain then more than likely it's just fluid build up. It can take a couple weeks to a couple months to reduce. The best thing is not to immobilize the joint 24/7 or else it will be really stiff. You want to try bending the joint on it's own power. Go to the door of pain, but don't go through it. Just enough to get your attention. At this point ice is useless but you can compress the joint. Apply external compression to the joint to to help speed up the fluid release. You can wrap it tightly with stretch tape or something for an hour a day."

I thought this was worth sharing with everyone so they would know how to deal with such a common thing like this.