Hi everyone, I couldn't find any similar post on the subreddit so I said I would make a new one. I’m currently waiting on an MRI for a finger injury that has been going on for years. I had a stress fracture in my middle finger of my left hand approximately 8 years ago when I was climbing frequently. The finger was put in a splint and I let it rest it for the recommended period of time and once this time passed, I went back climbing. The finger always felt tender after this however I was so eager to climb I just taped it up and (stupidly) carried on. I had about a 2 year break from climbing between 2017-2019 however, if I were to open a door too aggressively or do pull ups, the finger would be sore for an hour or two afterwards. Since I wasn’t climbing however, I decided to leave it as it was not having much of an effect on me.

When I started back climbing a few months before Covid hit, the finger felt sore and weak no matter how much of a warm up I had and no matter how much I stuck to climbing on large positive holds. Covid came along and I stopped climbing again and didn’t do many climbing related exercises at home. Now after about a year and a half, the climbing walls are open again and I’m fully vaccinated so I decided to go climbing again and treat it like I was a complete beginner. As soon as I pulled onto the biggest holds I could find after a lengthy warm up, my finger started to get sore and feel weak as before. The pain was in the same place as always (under the PIP joint). I finished up the session early and that evening my finger started to swell and lose much of its range of motion, I couldn’t bend it through 90 degrees from straight. The swelling has since gone down and I have a full range of motion however if I bend it too much or put any pressure on the underside of the PIP joint there is pain. I finally said that I would go for an MRI and see if I could get this sorted as I’d like to get back into climbing. I know that the best advice is to get it checked out so since I’m doing that, it would be great to hear if people have recovered from a similar situation or if there are any ideas as to what is causing this injury (Pulley, ligaments, fracture etc.) I’m worried that since no amount of rest could fix the finger, there may need to be a more invasive solution. I’ve tried doing exercises such as finger rolls etc. however the level of pain from the finger suggested that I was doing more harm than good.

Thanks for reading and any feedback is appreciated!