Went to the hand specialist again this morning. He said my finger was healing up pretty nicely and his nurse took the stitches out (which was a minor ouchie). Afterwards, he asked me to make a fist with my hand and I could not, which was unnerving. It seems like the swelling, combined with having the finger locked in place by the splint for two weeks, is making it too stiff to close all the way. He said that I need to force myself to open and close the hand over the next few weeks to get it back to normal working condition. Forcing the hand to close hurts but fortunately I have some drugs saved up for that.
On the upside, I’m back to typing with 10 fingers again at about 70% of my normal blazing speed, which is really nice — not being able to type normally was really bumming me out.
Related posts:
I broke my ankle a year ago. I was in a cast for about 8 weeks. When I came out of it I still had some swelling and my calf had atrophied considerably. I could barely move my ankle around and I was completely unable to balance on that one foot.
However, after about 2 weeks I had gained back a lot of movement in my ankle and I was able to balance on that foot for as much as 15 seconds. It just took a while to get it all back.
Give it time and do your PT.
Suggestion: Fill up the sink with water and exercise your hand in the water. Ina