Hand Therapist Nigel Chua 
A fused joint usually knits in 8 to 12 weeks and most people are back to full use in 3 to 6 months. You lose movement at that one joint only: a fused wrist still turns palm up and palm down, and the work afterwards is keeping every neighboring joint moving.
Expect about 3 months of hard work after elbow release surgery: movement starts within 1 to 2 days, and the daily range work and splinting in the first 6 weeks decide how much of the operating-room range you keep.
Most people are back to light everyday use 6 to 8 weeks after wrist plate surgery and to heavy lifting and sport at 3 to 6 months. Move early, load late, plus the thumb tendon check to do weekly for a year.
Desk work in 1 to 2 weeks after a simple cubital tunnel release, 2 to 4 after a transposition. Pain goes first, tingling next, numbness over months, strength last and least reliably.
A repaired nerve in the hand regrows at about a millimeter a day, and the final result takes 12 to 24 months to judge. Here’s the tingling sign you can track monthly at home, and the sensory re-education that decides how usable the hand ends up.
Most people are back at a desk 1 to 2 weeks after scaphoid surgery and back to heavy work or contact sport at 3 to 6 months, once a CT scan confirms the bone has healed. Here’s the week-by-week timeline, exercises and red flags.
Tennis elbow surgery recovery takes 4 to 6 months, and grip can take up to a year. The surgery removes degenerate tendon; loading is still what rebuilds it, which is why the rehab looks like the treatment you had before.
Cut off a fingertip? Press, raise the hand, wrap the part in damp gauze, bag it, put the bag in iced water, and go to the ER now. Most fingertip wounds without exposed bone heal in about 3 to 6 weeks; sensitivity takes months.
A PIP fracture-dislocation takes 6 to 12 weeks to heal, usually with 4 to 6 weeks in an extension block splint, and needs surgery if the joint won’t stay lined up. It only shows on a true side-on X-ray of that one finger.
A Bennett’s or Rolando fracture needs 6 to 12 weeks to heal and at least 6 to 8 weeks in a cast or thumb spica splint. Most need surgery, and pinch strength is the last thing to come back.