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Copyright © 2012 Steve Mcclure Site design by AKreatrive
way back in June I tweaked my middle finger pulling on a mono on an indoor boulder problem. It felt bad, pretty much straight away, and instantly confirmed to me that pulling on monos is basically wrong. It didn’t bang though, and I figured it would fix pretty fast, they usually do. But this one was a collateral ligament strain, and it got worse since I didn’t rest it properly.
Eventually, 3 months later all I could do was pull on indoor jugs. Open handing hurt, crimping was out of the question, it felt like broken glass in my joint. I backed off, and slowly it improved, taping helped, if only to stop me using it. But I was feeling like a punter, heavy and slow and without psyche; why even bother. Those TV programmes where you see the fat person who is 200kg and can’t even start a diet because the mountain of fat is too big to climb; I could relate now. I felt so out of shape that getting back to anywhere seemed so far I couldn’t even try; easier to just go home, slam a pizza in the oven and crack open a beer.
But a Petzl Rock Trip to Mexico restored faith, I climbed well and maybe the mountain wasn’t too big to summit. Back in Sheffield I managed to get to see a specialist – a long wait as one would expect. X rays revealed no major bone fractures (commonly the ligament rips a piece of bone off at the attachment). But doctor could see the problem and recommended an injection of cortisone. Aaarrgghh! I hate injections! Especially into something like a finger, Ok in a shoulder or leg or somewhere, but not a spindly bony thing! He suggested the finger would possibly just get better by itself but could take ages; the best way to shift the problem may be with the injection just to kick start things again. Actually it didn’t really hurt, though I still went green and spent twenty minutes slumped in the waiting room before I could stagger home. Pathetic really! So, a few more weeks of hanging out away from the rock to let it work. But hey; it’s Christmas. Optimistically speaking, my timing could not have been better!
Did it work? I’ll let you know in 2011
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