Hand Therapist Nigel Chua 
A superficial hand burn heals in about a week, a blistering one in about two, and a deep one takes three weeks or more and scars. The first 6 months of splinting, stretching and pressure decide how much movement you keep.
If a ring catches and pulls your finger, go to the ER now, even if it only looks like a graze: the hidden arteries fail first. Recovery runs from 2 to 3 weeks for skin-only injuries to 6 to 12 months or more after microsurgery.
If one finger joint is hot, swollen and too painful to move, a whole finger is swollen and held bent, or red streaks run up your arm, go to the ER now. Cellulitis with a finger that still bends needs a doctor and antibiotics today.
Hypermobile hands hurt because the joints rest at end range on ligament instead of muscle. The fix is strength in mid-range, fatter tools, ring splints and pacing, not more stretching.
Psoriatic arthritis in the hands shows up as a sausage-swollen finger, swollen end joints and pitted or lifting nails, often with negative bloods. How it’s diagnosed, how it differs from rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, and what splints and exercises help.
Carpal tunnel numbs the thumb side of one hand and wakes you at night. Neuropathy numbs both hands in a glove pattern and usually started in the feet. Here is how to tell, and why it matters before surgery.
Thoracic outlet syndrome squeezes nerves or vessels under the collarbone, giving ring and little finger tingling and a heavy arm that worsens with arms overhead. Most nerve-type cases settle in 3 to 6 months; a swollen, blue or cold arm needs the ER today.
Each finger has three joints: the MCP knuckle, the PIP middle joint and the DIP fingertip joint. The thumb has two plus its base. What each does, what injures it, and why the middle one is the one to protect.
Your elbow is three joints inside one capsule, where the humerus, ulna and radius meet. Here is what each joint, ligament, tendon and nerve does, why the elbow stiffens so fast, and how much movement you actually need.
Your thumb has 3 bones, 3 joints and 9 muscles, and impairment guides rate it at about 40% of hand function. How it works, what goes wrong where, and which thumb injuries can’t wait.