Chronic Flexor Tendon Inflammation
If you injured a pulley in the past and managed to return to climbing but experience intermittent bouts with soreness in the flexor tendons on the palm side of your hands, you are in good company. The vast majority of climbers who have been climbing for a number of years have injured an A2 or an A4 pulley. Most did not have the opportunity to treat the injury properly (with a SPOrt) but simply gave it some time and went back to climbing. You may have heard the tell-tale pop (an acute high level pulley injury) or you might not have heard a pop (sustaining repetitive lower level pulley injuries). The anatomic consequence of either type of pulley injury is a stretched-out pulley that is prone to inflammation. (If interested in an example, see ultrasound pictures of my pulley with a TPD - tendon phalanx distance - of over 4 mm, where a normal TPD is 1.0 mm).
Managing Inflammation
I have this problem intermittently with my left middle finger in the A2 area after a pulley injury that was not treated correctly. From time to time, particularly with heavy training my middle finger gets sore on the palm side and aches a bit after sessions. (This is because the anatomy is altered and the tendon is not supported optimally.) If it resolves on its own by the next morning I leave it alone. But if begins to get more sore when I go back to climbing and takes longer to resolve, (starts to head in the wrong direction) I dig out my SPOrt and wear it for training sessions and for any heavy manual work for a few weeks. I taper out of it when the inflammation has resolved. This usually does the trick. I have found that if I get a SPOrt back on my finger sooner, when the finger is just starting to ache for more than one day, the inflammation quickly resolves within a week. If I have been overly optimistic (or stubborn) and the finger has gotten really flamed up, for a week or so, it can take several weeks of support with the SPOrt to calm down.
Taping your finger for this is popular but ineffective, (see Debunking Tape).
Give the SPOrt a try. Reviews by Leslee Warren, Tyson Schoene and Jake Hjorten show they have benefitted greatly, and you may too.
Climb on!