Conditions and injuries of the finger, hand, wrist, forearm and elbow: what they are, how they behave, and when they stop being minor.
Carpal tunnel surgery recovery takes 3 to 6 months for grip strength and scar comfort, while night tingling usually stops within days. Pillar pain, a sensitive scar and a weak grip at week 4 are all normal; here’s the week-by-week.
A sprained or dislocated middle finger joint usually needs 3 to 6 weeks of buddy taping, with most movement back by 6 weeks. The swelling takes 6 to 12 months. What ruins these fingers isn’t the injury, it’s resting them still.
Jersey finger is the deep flexor tendon torn off the bone at your fingertip, so the tip won’t bend on its own. It needs surgery, ideally within 7 to 10 days. The finger still working is why people wait, and why they lose the repair.
Dupuytren’s contracture is a thickening under the palm skin that slowly pulls a finger into a bend. You don’t treat the lump; you treat the bend, when the hand fails the table-top test, the knuckle reaches about 30 degrees, or the middle joint starts to bend.
Skier’s thumb is a torn UCL ligament on the inner side of the thumb knuckle. Partial tears heal in a thumb spica splint in 4 to 6 weeks; complete tears often can’t heal alone and need repair, ideally within about 3 weeks.
A boxer’s fracture usually takes about 6 weeks for the bone to knit and 8 to 12 weeks for full grip strength, and most heal without surgery. A finger that scissors or any cut over the knuckle changes that, today.
Finger osteoarthritis can’t be cured, but the painful phase usually settles over a few years; the Heberden’s and Bouchard’s nodes stay. Heat, daily movement, small splints and smarter grips do the real work.
Back to full use, gym included, in 6 to 8 weeks. A hand therapist’s week-by-week trigger finger surgery recovery: the tender palm, morning stiffness, work and driving, and what changes if the finger was locked before surgery.
Most mild wrist sprains settle in 2 to 3 weeks and are fully back by 4 to 6; moderate ones take 4 to 8. Tender in the hollow at the base of the thumb, or not clearly better by week 3, means it may never have been just a sprain.
A TFCC tear causes little-finger-side wrist pain with twisting and pushing. Most settle without surgery: 4 to 6 weeks in a brace, then strengthening, with normal use back by around 3 months.