Jersey finger is the deep flexor tendon ripping off the bone at your fingertip, usually the ring finger, usually grabbing a shirt. The finger still works, which is why people wait. Hold the middle bone and bend the tip: if nothing moves, this is surgical, in days not weeks.
Dupuytren’s contracture pulls fingers into a bend over years via cords in the palm, not the tendons. The timing rule flips everything: never treat the lump, treat the bend. The table-top test tells you when the window opens.
Knobbly knuckles and morning stiffness that loosens in minutes: finger osteoarthritis, common, genetic, and usually kinder over the years than it feels now. Heat, daily motion, and joint protection do the real work. Stiffness lasting over an hour is a different disease.
Trigger finger release takes 15 minutes and the locking is gone on the table. The recovery questions start on day 3. Here’s the honest week-by-week: move early, respect the palm scar, and know the two situations where hand therapy earns its place.
Most jammed fingers are minor. But four other injuries wear the same costume on day one, and two get permanently worse if ignored. Run the 4-question self-sort: tip straightens, tip bends, finger looks straight, joint never popped out.
A drooping fingertip after a ball strike is a torn tendon, however little it hurts. The fix is a splint worn dead straight for 6 to 8 weeks, and one bend restarts the clock. The cheapest good outcome in hand therapy, bought entirely with discipline.
Trigger finger is a tendon catching on a thickened pulley at the base of your finger. Caught at the click stage, a splint usually settles it in 6 weeks. At the locking stage, the options narrow. Here’s the honest timeline.