Prior to mid December, I had been dealing with pain in my middle finger presenting in the middle joint for over a year. I was pretty sure it was some sort of strain or ligament damage. It would come and go with actively. It was very noticeable if the finger got bent to the pinky side. Varied between nothing, to annoying to preventing me from doing stuff.
Asked my Shoulder ortho surgeon about it when doing preliminaries for my shoulder surgery last year and he kind of blew it off (not a hand guy) and said it was probably a strain. Asked my PT about it during shoulder PT and he was unsure.
In December, having reached our out of pocket max, I went to a hand and wrist ortho. He x-rayed and came in and said he was pretty certain the cause was actually a bone spur in the first joint (closest to the wrist) on the pinky side of the joint. He pushed and prodded and made it really hurt to prove his point, saying the problem was there and for some reason the pain was presenting in the middle joint more than where the spur was located. . He suggested a cortisone shot, to which I agreed. He also suggested getting bloodwork to check for Arthritis and gout and couple other things that all came back normal.
The shot made things worse for 3 or 4 days, then the pain went away completely. It has been great!!! I skipped the 2 week follow up because I was busy and figured I would be going back whenever the shot wore off anyway.
Today i noticed just the tiniest bit of achiness in the finger. I know the shot is not a long term fix. Was hopeful for longer than 6 weeks.
I know I will be asking the doctor, whenever I go back. But I am wondering what other options there are for this type of thing. Can they go in and remove the offending piece of bone? Doesn't seem like that would be a huge deal compared to something like the shoulder surgery I had. Are there other injection options that help? Googling didn't provide a whole lot of information. Thought I would ask here for my curiosity until I go back to the doctor at some point.
Asked my Shoulder ortho surgeon about it when doing preliminaries for my shoulder surgery last year and he kind of blew it off (not a hand guy) and said it was probably a strain. Asked my PT about it during shoulder PT and he was unsure.
In December, having reached our out of pocket max, I went to a hand and wrist ortho. He x-rayed and came in and said he was pretty certain the cause was actually a bone spur in the first joint (closest to the wrist) on the pinky side of the joint. He pushed and prodded and made it really hurt to prove his point, saying the problem was there and for some reason the pain was presenting in the middle joint more than where the spur was located. . He suggested a cortisone shot, to which I agreed. He also suggested getting bloodwork to check for Arthritis and gout and couple other things that all came back normal.
The shot made things worse for 3 or 4 days, then the pain went away completely. It has been great!!! I skipped the 2 week follow up because I was busy and figured I would be going back whenever the shot wore off anyway.
Today i noticed just the tiniest bit of achiness in the finger. I know the shot is not a long term fix. Was hopeful for longer than 6 weeks.
I know I will be asking the doctor, whenever I go back. But I am wondering what other options there are for this type of thing. Can they go in and remove the offending piece of bone? Doesn't seem like that would be a huge deal compared to something like the shoulder surgery I had. Are there other injection options that help? Googling didn't provide a whole lot of information. Thought I would ask here for my curiosity until I go back to the doctor at some point.