Musician Injures Hand While Gardening (please help me diagnose)

Greetings Community,

I am a professional musician, Daniel, 44y/o.

I am a constant user of my hands with a full music schedule of teaching, performance & calligraphy work.

I am no stranger to muscle & joint aches. A few years back I was diagnosed with Capsulitis in my thumb joint. (thankfully no rheumatoid arthritis in this diagnosis). I was prescribed Diclofinac. I am not at liberty to take NSAID's after my chapter with Diverticulitis which involved a colon resection 3 years ago). From time to time, especially when I am busy musically, I will experience some soreness, tightness in my joints. I have been able to steer through these waters for some time since my original diagnosis. The doctor's advice was "do less of what causes the pain". I learned exercises in my recovery along with some ultra-sound applied to my hands. Very few problems since then (4 years ago).

3 weeks ago I was pulling weeds in my wife's garden when I felt a sharp pain after a tight grip with my left hand, middle finger. I did the usual: ice, take it easy a day or two etc... I noticed a decrease in my finger mobility in this time and I irritated it further while continuing to practice for an upcoming show in a few days. I made it through the show fine but I went back to my normal practice schedule which can be time consuming. Classical music can be likened to an athletic activity with the finger/joints. This proved to be too much and after another gig I decided enough was enough, I have to heal up...no more playing for the time being.

The symptoms are as follows: My middle finger cannot bend without pain through out my finger, especially my DIP & PIP (to a lesser degree). My finger just wants to be straight. I do not have much swelling visibly but I can notice a tinge of puffiness in my finger. From what I can tell the injury seems to be my Flexor Tendons. My finger can easily be re-irritated if I were to try to make a fist. The over-gripping seems to be enemy no.1.After some massage I noticed quite a bit of tenderness down the side of my finger, especially in the left tip of finger.

My course of action has been tons of ice throughout the day (10 minutes per session). I have done everything from buddy-taping (index+middle), splinting, & taping my DIP joint with a bandaid. The later has provided me the most relief as the others bother me. The splint always gets caught on things and torques my DIP enough to shoot pain down my finger's side etc. I use hot stones at the end of a long day which provide quite a bit of relief. I will use essential oils like peppermint, rosemary, tumeric during the hot stones session. Some amount of massage as well. I have used Diclofinac & menthol gels, tylenol.

All in all i am 3 weeks out from the original over-gripping garden injury and 1 week total stop of guitar playing and bandaging has been for 1 week also. I understand this injury needs 3-6 weeks from what I'm reading. I have no way to know if this is a strain or tear. I do have an annual check up next week which I can ask my doctor for referral to the specialist. I cannot take NSAIDS.

I need general advice from anyone who has suffered this kind of injury...

Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation are all great. How long is this going to take until I can even play again?

At what point should I be seeing the specialist? Any remedies to help the healing fasten?

Someday I will play Debussy again!

Thank you so much for any helpful info!

Best,

Daniel

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