More Pinky Details

I saw the hand doctor and OT yesterday.  About the swelling they pretty much said, "Yeah, it will do that.  Wow, it did swell up, huh?  I could take up to a year for all the swelling to go down."  They didn't seem very worried about it, so I guess it's kind of normal.  Range of motion progress was pretty minimal from last week (partly due to the swelling I think).  The range of motion is about 90 degrees on the MP joint, 85 degrees on the PIP joint, and 55 degrees on the DIP joint.

I have another new torture device to help improve range of motion.  It's called a buddy strap because you can use it to "buddy tape" a finger to the one next to it.  However, it's also used to help stretch things too as I demonstrate below.  It's a pretty slick little invention.  It's mostly a loop of Velcro with a tail.  The inside of the velcro is really grippy so that it doesn't slide around on your finger.  And the very end of the tail has the opposite kind of Velcro so it can stick to itself.

I'm still doing exercises six times a day with DIP Blocking, PIP Blocking, The Claw (bend, stretch and hold), and The Full Fist (bend, stretch, and hold).  In addition, I do The Claw and The Fist with the buddy strap on.  I still use the "naughty putty" three times a day to make fists and do finger rakes.  10 reps each on all those exercises.

I have two more weeks of playing sports with the splint on, and then they said I should buddy tape the finger to play sports for a couple months after that until the finger feels back to normal.  One of the ligaments or tendons on the side of my finger still felt "spongy" the doctor said and needs a little more healing time before getting any big jars.  And of course this finger is more susceptible to dislocation in the future.

Using the buddy strap

The naughty putty behaving - it's really more of a bright pink color, but here it looks orange.