RRC Archives

A couple of months ago I noticed that the knuckles closest to the tip of my fingers have big swollen hard bumps on them. Slightly tender to squeeze after bouldering. Does anyone know if arthritis finally set in on these poor fingers after 14 years of plastic pulling? They look like they might be good for fingerlocks now though. Kind of like stoppers on the end of my fingers.

fucking cheater. those are the jewelries that i made for you and implanted in your fingers at night while you slept oh so beautifully. you were looking tight when i last gazed upon you.

Crazy! I thought they were little babies being hatched in the ends of my fingers from when we played finger-cram-in-the-pee-pee-hole last night at church! I will abort the growing fetuses by hammering the ends of my fingers tonight.

Not to interrupt the thread jack in progress, but I have the same things and I've only been climbing for a few years. In my case, it's very minor it's only really noticable in my middle and ring fingers, but I can already tell that my fingers are starting to turn towards each other, if you know what I mean. My grandmother had very bad osteoarthritis so that's not a good sign either. As far as the bumps, they're really not very pronounced anywhere except my right ring finger, but I believe this is because I injured the tendon there and didn't let it heal properly. On that finger, it's always tender there and it cracks sometimes when I close my hand. Also, I can pull it to one side laterally and crack it as well. I've been taking glucosamine/msm for awhile now and after all the research I've done that seems like the only possible help, and the research is only 50/50 on that. I've 23 and I have the hands of an 82 year old man, minus the leathery goodness. I'll probably lose the ability to crimp by the time I'm 25.

Vit I, y'all. If they are swollen and they hurt, it is inflammation. Take your Ibu prophylactically before you start your boulder sesh- 3-4 over the counter tabs- provided you don't have a bleeding ulcer, blood gushing from your anus, black poop, and aren't allergic to Ibu. (jump in anytime, Ho).

Relax, it's not arthritis.
You're just a freak.

Normally I'd be on board with the vitamin I preperation, but I just got back from a quick road trip where I bouldered pretty hard 8 out of 10 days. I took motrin every day before I started climbing. When I got back, after not taking motrin for about 48 hours, suprise suprise....my fingers started hurting. Now I have strains in two A4s and one A2 that probably happened while I was under the power of the vitamin I, and I never knew to stop because I couldn't feel it. It definitely works, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you like to risk further injury.

There's a medical supply place near me where you can get a walker. I think I've got some extra tennis balls to put on the legs.

Yeah, I've got permanently swollen knuckles too. The weird part is that a few of my fingers feel like they have a little pebble at the base of them. Fred Beckey who is in his 80's has some seriously mangled hands and fingers, yet he is still pulling down on them and climbing.

Vitamin I is not a pain reliever so if you didn't feel the pain, it was because of adrenaline not the pill. Don't blame the goodness of Vit I.