possible legament damage

[grifter721]

In early or late Novemeber i struck my left hand upon a hard surface by accident and my pinky ring and middle finger hurt. Soon afterwards teh pain in the middle and ring figer went away, but teh pain in teh oinky resided. I thought that it would go away just liek the rest but natch, I went to the doctor and it isnt broken but he hypothesised that there could be ligament damge, how do I go about healing this o finding out for sure what the heck is wrong?
I plan on going to a chinese acu and a chiropractor..

[fa_jing]

Don't know, sorry. But it might take longer than you'd like to heal.

[PLCrane]

If you didn't break it, then you hurt the soft tissues. That would include ligament and joint capsule, and maybe the tendon and muscle if your fingers were forcefully bent. You might also have bruised the bone.

I think you're headed in the right direction for treatment. If you're really lucky, you'll get hot needles. Go for it, if it's offered.

[TigerJaw]

I dislocated my thumb and put it straight back in yesterday and was in the ER till three this morning. It was weird, my thumb joint became hyper mobile and i could bend my thumb backwards without pain. Freaked me out a bit, I can tell you. Apprently I have a strained Ulner Collatoral Ligament or game keepers thumb. So now, I know all about ligament ruptures.

There's bad news and there's good news.

The bad news is that when you rupture a ligament, the first 24 hours is crucial.

For future reference, you need to treat it the way we all know and love with rest, ice, elevation, NSAIDs and to immobilse the joint. The trick is, apparently to imobilise the joint in a neutral position. I made the mistake of taping my thumb to my hand and the bones have apparently become misalligned. I only hope they align themselves as the ligaments recover.

The good news from your POV is that liagments can take up to a year to recover fully. This means you've still got some healing time left and can expect further improovement.