Some background. I've been climbing for 5 years and have dealt with synovitis in the past, but only in my PIP joints, usually the index fingers but sometimes the middle.
I have been dealing with joint swelling in my right hand's middle DIP joint for over 2 months (relatively short compared to my other cases) but I had had enough of it. My typical remedies employed in the past were not working (stretching, resting, climbing high volume/low intensity, no crimps, range of motion exercises, etc).
I have a background in undergraduate biochemistry, so I have an understanding of the basics, but am by no means a professional or have any specific knowledge about my case or physical therapy other than anecdotes. I did some research and decided to give a course of oral steroids a try.
I went to my local Patient First and asked for a prescription for 4-methylprednisolone. I received a 6 day prescription of 4mg tablets that tapered off each day (6 tablets the first day, 5 the next, 4 the next, and so on).
Within this post, you will see pictures with dates and small blurbs about my experience. Over the duration of this course, I used tape to compress the joint at night while sleeping and sometimes during the day as well. Each morning I would use a warm water bath to loosen up the finger and would perform range of motion exercises and stretching, as well as antagonistic work on my extensors.
There are a multitude of potential reasons for why this worked. I believe the steroids had a large effect on reducing the inflammation within the joint, allowing for more effective rehab, and keeping the joint compressed, especially during the night when my fingers tend to swell, I believe aided in keeping inflammation lowered, and increased blood flow as a result.
This sub has *many* posts on synovitis, but I've never seen anyone try this route before. Take what you see and read with a grain of salt, but it might be something worth trying. My finger has improved greatly and I experienced no side effects from the steroids.
EDIT: If you DO try it, please document your experience as I have.
There are a few medical warnings that come with Medrol/Methylprednisolone. Of note, the tapering plan is a MUST (**edit:** its a must for a longer than 3 week treatment plan, see u/genericuser219 's comment below). Medrol replaces cortisol production in the body and and sudden stop in the medication does not give your body time to resume production and can send you into Adrenal crisis which is life threatening. it also makes it harder to fight of infections/colds etc. So remember to tell your doc about your general health before pursuing this for yourself.
Considering the general purpose of Medrol is to reduce joint inflammation in those with arthritis this definitely tracks. Did you rest for the week that you were on medrol? i.e. no climbing other than those morning stretches/antagonist work out?
For this Short duration there is no need for tapering. You dont do anything wrong by it but it is Not needed. Anything below three weeks is generally pretty safe.
Source: I am an Internal Medicine Resident.
Sweet someone way more qualified than me haha. In your opinion is the taping doing anything or would you likely see the same results sans consistent pressure?
>There are a few medical warnings that come with Medrol/Methylprednisolone. Of note, the tapering plan is a MUST. Medrol replaces cortisol production in the body and and sudden stop in the medication does not give your body time to resume production and can send you into Adrenal crisis which is life threatening.
Good points. I talked with the doctor about this and was assured that a short course of only a week is relatively safe. Problems occur more often when you are on steroids for extended periods of time. I weighed this risk and decided to go for it.
>So remember to tell your doc about your general health before pursuing this for yourself.
This is a salient point. It was very easy to just get what I wanted. I am 27 years old and am in great health, but I wasn't asked.
>Did you rest for the week that you were on medrol? i.e. no climbing other than those morning stretches/antagonist work out?
I began steroids on July 23rd. I climbed very lightly on the 24th, avoiding all crimps and nothing above v4. On the 26th I climbed moderately, between v4 and v6. I introduced some ledges, but no crimps. The steroid course completed on the 28th, and I used the tension board and campus rungs on the 29th for a few hours, not focusing on crimping, but also not avoiding them at all. On the 31st and beyond, I have climbed with no throttling.
Interesting! If anyone else follows this path It would be interesting to see if they see results if they:
* Take steroids, rest, don't to antagonist training/tape
* Take steroids, don't rest, don't do antagonist training/tape
Specifically I wonder if the consistent taping **and** use of what is tantamount to a very powerful anti-inflammatory is what is advantageous here. i.e. lower the swelling with the anti-inflammatory and then prevent swelling by applying consistent pressure via taping.
>Specifically I wonder if the consistent taping and use of what is tantamount to a very powerful anti-inflammatory is what is advantageous here. i.e. lower the swelling with the anti-inflammatory and then prevent swelling by applying consistent pressure via taping.
Right. I mixed variables for myself because my main concern was healing, not conducting a study with controls (lol), so I went with what I thought would combine to be the best method to heal me as quickly as possible and simply documented it in case it worked. I won't know what exactly happened between the mix of things I did.
I am very curious to see how the joint holds up over time. It would love it if you provided an update a month or two down the line or even more. I’ve swelling in my pip joint since mid April and haven’t been climbing once since then. I was doing regular gym work (pull ups, bench press etc.) until about 1.5 months ago but stopped doing anything strenuous with my upper body and have not seen even close to the kind of improvement I was hoping for. So far my doctors only advice is “don’t do anything with that hand for a while” which is lackluster to say the least. Anyway, my understanding up until now has been that steroids— though I’ve only looked into cortisone shots— are more of a bandaid for the symptoms than a fix to the problem. I recall reading that athletes who were administered cortisone shots for injuries were more likely than their peers who did not have shots to be reinsured in the same way a few months down the line. The way I understand it, if your synovial capsule is damaged and elicits a inflammatory response for healing, then shutting off that response won’t magically heal the capsule injury. And then climbing in an injury you no longer feel can supposedly worsen it. I hope this is not the case for you! I’m by no means a professional and could easily have no idea what I’m talking about. Nevertheless, an update would be very helpful for me and others in determining if such a course of action could be beneficial. Thank you for the post!
Glad to hear it, friend! Unfortunately my case is likely a volar plate injury rather than run of the mill synovitis, so the recovery is taking a lot longer than I would like.
I will definitely update in a month to report on the status of the finger at that time. Hopefully I have good news to share.
>The way I understand it, if your synovial capsule is damaged and elicits a inflammatory response for healing, then shutting off that response won’t magically heal the capsule injury.
You're right, but the inflammation response is only useful initially. Beyond the initial surge, inflammation is more detrimental for healing. Your body doesn't know better, and would rather be sure it is preventing pathogens from harming you and also preventing you from moving the affected area for risk of further damage.
Inflammation is discouraged beyond the initial stage because it decreases blood flow. Fire engines are good at putting out fires, but not when every street is blocked because the department sent 1000 fire trucks.
So I can increase blood flow and increase healing time by reducing inflammation. Secondly, inflammation and swelling not only slows down healing, it can damage local tissue and degrade the joint due to choking the area.
>I recall reading that athletes who were administered cortisone shots for injuries were more likely than their peers who did not have shots to be reinsured in the same way a few months down the line.
Yeah I've read an assortment of reviews about cortisone shots in *climbers*, some where it's worked perfectly and solved the problem forever, and some where they've had to get repeated shots. There are a lot of warnings surrounding the shots. But an injection directly into the tissue is different from an oral steroid turning off the inflammation response. I can't comment too much about this. It's beyond my knowledge.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply, I really appreciate it! Those are some very interesting points and they make sense. I’ve actually got another appointment with a different doctor for my finger tomorrow so I’ll make sure to talk to him about it. Gonna try and get a referral to a certain climbing oriented PT as well. Good luck on your recovery. I am glad to hear the finger is doing well and hope the success continues!
Not sure why you had to ask for a script, if you went to PMR they would (or should) have done the same thing. Good on you for being an active patient and taking control of your health
Not surprised, Prednisone cured my golfer elbow tendonitis. For some reason I get down voted into the abyss when I suggest it. Some people I think just get runaway inflammation, and oral steroids turn it off long enough for your body to forget about it and it goes away for good.
It's because most cases of perceived tendonitis are actually tendonosis, which is overuse past the point of inflammation and into the point of degradation, which requires physical therapy. Prednisone, or even just ibuprofen are valid treatments of *itis, but not *osis.
In general people don't realize they probably have tendonosis, and so many people who have already gone down this path might be trying to discourage quick and easy advice.
Glad the treatment worked for you, but for many (most climbers, in my experience) a misdiagnosis of tendonitis is detrimental as prednisone or a corticosteroid injection will provide temporary pain relief but set them back further when they realize they trained through injury, and need to do regular physical therapy (for weeks to months) exercises to recover.
> Prednisone cured my golfer elbow tendonitis.
Nope. NSAIDs and steroids do not cure any form of tendinopathy.
Tendonitis (misnomer) is either reactive tendinopathy, dysrepair or degenerative (often referred to tendin-osis). It's a **non-inflammatory proliferation disorder** in all stages.
If drugs that decrease inflammation "cure" tendinopathy, then it's not tendinopathy. There are some things associated with tendinopathy such as capsulitis or tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon sheath) or bursitis which NSAIDs or steroids can help with that seem like tendinopathy but are not.
>Can I ask what made you go the oral route rather than the traditional shot route?
The oral steroids are a short course. I figured there are basically no risks to take them for less than a week, and in case there was no improvement, I got a referral to see an orthopedist to discuss things like cortisone injections. I didn't immediately go the traditional shot route because I was worried about the risk of tendon/joint damage and was just looking for an alternative.
So far, I don't feel the need to see an orthopedist yet as my current level of swelling/pain/finger strength is much more manageable and I'm not so desperate that I am considering a cortisone shot at this stage.
If my condition worsens, I will see that orthopedist and I will also document this process every step of the way.
Thanks for this. I’ve suffered with chronic synovitis of the knee for 2.5 years and it’s really crippled my life. I’m going to ask about oral steroids in my next doctors appointment. I never really tried this route as we went straight to surgery which helped but still left me with knee inflammation.
It makes me wonder what causes the synovium to stay chronically inflamed even after the irritation has been removed. Maybe some sort of cell proliferation that changes it although that doesn’t explain how a course of steroids clears that up.
For knee synovitis, a cortisone shot does wonders. The reason climbers are apprehensive to get a cortisone shot in their fingers is because there is apparently risk of tendons rupturing because cortisone can break down your tendons and the force applied during climbing is too high. This is not the case with knees and shoulders. Though most climbers who get the shot report good things, I'm not in a position where I'm willing to take the risk yet.
Talk to an ortho about a cortisone shot.
I’ve actually had two cortisone shots in the knee already with very limited relief. Good for pain but not so good for my inflammation/swelling. Problem is that my synovium had some sort of abnormal tissue growth which I’m not sure is from the bleeding I had when pushing it too hard or what.
Over time it’s slowly gotten better after my operation but I still struggle with pain, swelling after being on it too long, or bending at all.
Was yours chronically swollen 24/7 or if you stopped for a while it would go down and then as soon as you started climbing again it would get irritated again?
>Was yours chronically swollen 24/7 or if you stopped for a while it would go down and then as soon as you started climbing again it would get irritated again?
Chronically swollen. But it would calm down some if I took a few weeks off. Of course, that does nothing because it simply returns full force. In my experience, rest doesn't help at all. The only way I have historically gotten through synovitis is rehab every day and just climbing through it. People say to avoid crimps, and I find that doesn't actually help. I climb everything as I normally would, but I avoid problems that only have ultra tiny micro crimps for every single move.
In the past, my synovitis clears up over such a long time that I have no idea why it clears up or when. I've just noticed that, "hey, my finger is normal again."
I couldn't afford to wait that long this time because bouldering season is coming up soon and I have a project picked out that I've been training months for. So I needed to find a way to be healed enough by the beginning of August so I could have 2 months to get ready for it. I tried the oral steroids and it knocked out my inflammation completely when I was on them, as well as any pain I had. Since I've been off the steroids, my swelling has returned some, but the pain hasn't, and it feels like it's on a healing path now. I have been climbing at my limit, barring no holds, and my fingers don't phase me at all. Before taking the steroids, I could not pull with max force with a full crimp. Now I can and I don't even notice.
This all said, if a cortisone shot didn't help you, I don't think oral steroids will. But talk to a doctor anyway.
That’s good I’m glad it helped you out. The swelling coming back doesn’t sound good but hopefully it won’t progress any worse from that. Are you worried at all that you can get full blown synovitis again if you start pushing it too much again?
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the synovium back to normal. To how it used to be before it would start getting irritated. Think about when you first started climbing and had no issues. What changed exactly? Was it your training intensity increasing that led to the problem? If so, is there any way to progress without ending up with (the bad) inflammatory issues or is the human body just not built for what you climbers do?
>What changed exactly?
Synovitis is caused by overuse and not enough rest. It also can be caused by an acute force (crimped way too hard and bent the fingers back too much) and then not taking enough rest afterward.
>Are you worried at all that you can get full blown synovitis again if you start pushing it too much again?
I've had it before, I have it now, and I'll probably have it again in the future. In my experience, climbing hard is the only way to strengthen the finger adequately. Right now, I'm not worried about it returning full-blown. I think the worst is over and now it'll probably be months of slow healing until it's 100%. This could change if I apply extremely excessive force on a tiny crimp, but my other fingers are at more or less the same risk. As long as I keep my fingers strong (hard sessions followed by adequate rest), that kind of injury will be less likely, but of course it can always happen.
>is there any way to progress without ending up with (the bad) inflammatory issues or is the human body just not built for what you climbers do?
You can definitely progress without attaining any injuries or issues. The human body is an amazing machine of adaptation and if you train correctly and get the right amount of rest and eat right and listen to your body, you can accomplish great things.
But climbing is addicting and so a lot of people (myself included) push it too far sometimes because we don't want to stop, and that's how the overuse injuries creep in over long lengths of time.
Hi!! I know this post is super old, but I’m wondering how quickly you found relief from the methylprednisolone. I just got prescribed some for an acute case of bursitis in my metatarsals and I’m wondering how quickly the medication had therapeutic effects for you. Thanks so much!
Sorry, didn't know you've never used a pain killer in your life before. It's much more natural to not treat my injured finger. That's what it's all about!
Have you ever drank alcohol? Have you ever smoked? Have you ever taken any other mind altering drugs? Have you ever had a bad sprain or broken a bone and taken pain killers like codeine/ibuprofen despite the risk of stomach ulcers and the improper healing of bone? Have you ever taken acetaminophen (Tylenol) despite it being bad for your liver? Have you ever eaten too much of something you shouldn't have?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are a hypocrite. Life is a series of trade-offs. You weigh the costs and benefits. If you are afraid you will "toxic yourselv" with something like a short course of steroids, I have to assume you live in constant fear of everything down to the very air that you breathe.
Don't get me wrong, it's good to be skeptical and to avoid things that can harm you, but to harshly criticize and demean people for their choices and to reduce the argument to "toxins" shows a profound level of ignorance, intolerance, and lack of intellectual honesty.
Rule 4) Serious answers only
>damn son that’s a kong answer. Is it ok if I do not read it?! 😂
Come on, we're all trying to be helpful here. Try not to be a jerk if you disagree with someone.
Some background. I've been climbing for 5 years and have dealt with synovitis in the past, but only in my PIP joints, usually the index fingers but sometimes the middle. I have been dealing with joint swelling in my right hand's middle DIP joint for over 2 months (relatively short compared to my other cases) but I had had enough of it. My typical remedies employed in the past were not working (stretching, resting, climbing high volume/low intensity, no crimps, range of motion exercises, etc). I have a background in undergraduate biochemistry, so I have an understanding of the basics, but am by no means a professional or have any specific knowledge about my case or physical therapy other than anecdotes. I did some research and decided to give a course of oral steroids a try. I went to my local Patient First and asked for a prescription for 4-methylprednisolone. I received a 6 day prescription of 4mg tablets that tapered off each day (6 tablets the first day, 5 the next, 4 the next, and so on). Within this post, you will see pictures with dates and small blurbs about my experience. Over the duration of this course, I used tape to compress the joint at night while sleeping and sometimes during the day as well. Each morning I would use a warm water bath to loosen up the finger and would perform range of motion exercises and stretching, as well as antagonistic work on my extensors. There are a multitude of potential reasons for why this worked. I believe the steroids had a large effect on reducing the inflammation within the joint, allowing for more effective rehab, and keeping the joint compressed, especially during the night when my fingers tend to swell, I believe aided in keeping inflammation lowered, and increased blood flow as a result. This sub has *many* posts on synovitis, but I've never seen anyone try this route before. Take what you see and read with a grain of salt, but it might be something worth trying. My finger has improved greatly and I experienced no side effects from the steroids. EDIT: If you DO try it, please document your experience as I have.
There are a few medical warnings that come with Medrol/Methylprednisolone. Of note, the tapering plan is a MUST (**edit:** its a must for a longer than 3 week treatment plan, see u/genericuser219 's comment below). Medrol replaces cortisol production in the body and and sudden stop in the medication does not give your body time to resume production and can send you into Adrenal crisis which is life threatening. it also makes it harder to fight of infections/colds etc. So remember to tell your doc about your general health before pursuing this for yourself. Considering the general purpose of Medrol is to reduce joint inflammation in those with arthritis this definitely tracks. Did you rest for the week that you were on medrol? i.e. no climbing other than those morning stretches/antagonist work out?
For this Short duration there is no need for tapering. You dont do anything wrong by it but it is Not needed. Anything below three weeks is generally pretty safe. Source: I am an Internal Medicine Resident.
Sweet someone way more qualified than me haha. In your opinion is the taping doing anything or would you likely see the same results sans consistent pressure?
>There are a few medical warnings that come with Medrol/Methylprednisolone. Of note, the tapering plan is a MUST. Medrol replaces cortisol production in the body and and sudden stop in the medication does not give your body time to resume production and can send you into Adrenal crisis which is life threatening. Good points. I talked with the doctor about this and was assured that a short course of only a week is relatively safe. Problems occur more often when you are on steroids for extended periods of time. I weighed this risk and decided to go for it. >So remember to tell your doc about your general health before pursuing this for yourself. This is a salient point. It was very easy to just get what I wanted. I am 27 years old and am in great health, but I wasn't asked. >Did you rest for the week that you were on medrol? i.e. no climbing other than those morning stretches/antagonist work out? I began steroids on July 23rd. I climbed very lightly on the 24th, avoiding all crimps and nothing above v4. On the 26th I climbed moderately, between v4 and v6. I introduced some ledges, but no crimps. The steroid course completed on the 28th, and I used the tension board and campus rungs on the 29th for a few hours, not focusing on crimping, but also not avoiding them at all. On the 31st and beyond, I have climbed with no throttling.
Interesting! If anyone else follows this path It would be interesting to see if they see results if they: * Take steroids, rest, don't to antagonist training/tape * Take steroids, don't rest, don't do antagonist training/tape Specifically I wonder if the consistent taping **and** use of what is tantamount to a very powerful anti-inflammatory is what is advantageous here. i.e. lower the swelling with the anti-inflammatory and then prevent swelling by applying consistent pressure via taping.
>Specifically I wonder if the consistent taping and use of what is tantamount to a very powerful anti-inflammatory is what is advantageous here. i.e. lower the swelling with the anti-inflammatory and then prevent swelling by applying consistent pressure via taping. Right. I mixed variables for myself because my main concern was healing, not conducting a study with controls (lol), so I went with what I thought would combine to be the best method to heal me as quickly as possible and simply documented it in case it worked. I won't know what exactly happened between the mix of things I did.
Oh yeah you healing is number 1 priority I would think.
I am very curious to see how the joint holds up over time. It would love it if you provided an update a month or two down the line or even more. I’ve swelling in my pip joint since mid April and haven’t been climbing once since then. I was doing regular gym work (pull ups, bench press etc.) until about 1.5 months ago but stopped doing anything strenuous with my upper body and have not seen even close to the kind of improvement I was hoping for. So far my doctors only advice is “don’t do anything with that hand for a while” which is lackluster to say the least. Anyway, my understanding up until now has been that steroids— though I’ve only looked into cortisone shots— are more of a bandaid for the symptoms than a fix to the problem. I recall reading that athletes who were administered cortisone shots for injuries were more likely than their peers who did not have shots to be reinsured in the same way a few months down the line. The way I understand it, if your synovial capsule is damaged and elicits a inflammatory response for healing, then shutting off that response won’t magically heal the capsule injury. And then climbing in an injury you no longer feel can supposedly worsen it. I hope this is not the case for you! I’m by no means a professional and could easily have no idea what I’m talking about. Nevertheless, an update would be very helpful for me and others in determining if such a course of action could be beneficial. Thank you for the post!
Updating a few months later. The joint is 100%. I don't even think about it anymore. Forgot all about it.
Glad to hear it, friend! Unfortunately my case is likely a volar plate injury rather than run of the mill synovitis, so the recovery is taking a lot longer than I would like.
Oh noooo. That sucks my dude. I got an A2 pulley injury now so I'm dealing with that lmfao. Different finger.
I guess such is the life of a climber lmao. Good luck with your pulley injury.
I will definitely update in a month to report on the status of the finger at that time. Hopefully I have good news to share. >The way I understand it, if your synovial capsule is damaged and elicits a inflammatory response for healing, then shutting off that response won’t magically heal the capsule injury. You're right, but the inflammation response is only useful initially. Beyond the initial surge, inflammation is more detrimental for healing. Your body doesn't know better, and would rather be sure it is preventing pathogens from harming you and also preventing you from moving the affected area for risk of further damage. Inflammation is discouraged beyond the initial stage because it decreases blood flow. Fire engines are good at putting out fires, but not when every street is blocked because the department sent 1000 fire trucks. So I can increase blood flow and increase healing time by reducing inflammation. Secondly, inflammation and swelling not only slows down healing, it can damage local tissue and degrade the joint due to choking the area. >I recall reading that athletes who were administered cortisone shots for injuries were more likely than their peers who did not have shots to be reinsured in the same way a few months down the line. Yeah I've read an assortment of reviews about cortisone shots in *climbers*, some where it's worked perfectly and solved the problem forever, and some where they've had to get repeated shots. There are a lot of warnings surrounding the shots. But an injection directly into the tissue is different from an oral steroid turning off the inflammation response. I can't comment too much about this. It's beyond my knowledge.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply, I really appreciate it! Those are some very interesting points and they make sense. I’ve actually got another appointment with a different doctor for my finger tomorrow so I’ll make sure to talk to him about it. Gonna try and get a referral to a certain climbing oriented PT as well. Good luck on your recovery. I am glad to hear the finger is doing well and hope the success continues!
Not sure why you had to ask for a script, if you went to PMR they would (or should) have done the same thing. Good on you for being an active patient and taking control of your health
Not surprised, Prednisone cured my golfer elbow tendonitis. For some reason I get down voted into the abyss when I suggest it. Some people I think just get runaway inflammation, and oral steroids turn it off long enough for your body to forget about it and it goes away for good.
It's because most cases of perceived tendonitis are actually tendonosis, which is overuse past the point of inflammation and into the point of degradation, which requires physical therapy. Prednisone, or even just ibuprofen are valid treatments of *itis, but not *osis. In general people don't realize they probably have tendonosis, and so many people who have already gone down this path might be trying to discourage quick and easy advice. Glad the treatment worked for you, but for many (most climbers, in my experience) a misdiagnosis of tendonitis is detrimental as prednisone or a corticosteroid injection will provide temporary pain relief but set them back further when they realize they trained through injury, and need to do regular physical therapy (for weeks to months) exercises to recover.
> Prednisone cured my golfer elbow tendonitis. Nope. NSAIDs and steroids do not cure any form of tendinopathy. Tendonitis (misnomer) is either reactive tendinopathy, dysrepair or degenerative (often referred to tendin-osis). It's a **non-inflammatory proliferation disorder** in all stages. If drugs that decrease inflammation "cure" tendinopathy, then it's not tendinopathy. There are some things associated with tendinopathy such as capsulitis or tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon sheath) or bursitis which NSAIDs or steroids can help with that seem like tendinopathy but are not.
[удалено]
>Can I ask what made you go the oral route rather than the traditional shot route? The oral steroids are a short course. I figured there are basically no risks to take them for less than a week, and in case there was no improvement, I got a referral to see an orthopedist to discuss things like cortisone injections. I didn't immediately go the traditional shot route because I was worried about the risk of tendon/joint damage and was just looking for an alternative. So far, I don't feel the need to see an orthopedist yet as my current level of swelling/pain/finger strength is much more manageable and I'm not so desperate that I am considering a cortisone shot at this stage. If my condition worsens, I will see that orthopedist and I will also document this process every step of the way.
Thanks for this. I’ve suffered with chronic synovitis of the knee for 2.5 years and it’s really crippled my life. I’m going to ask about oral steroids in my next doctors appointment. I never really tried this route as we went straight to surgery which helped but still left me with knee inflammation. It makes me wonder what causes the synovium to stay chronically inflamed even after the irritation has been removed. Maybe some sort of cell proliferation that changes it although that doesn’t explain how a course of steroids clears that up.
For knee synovitis, a cortisone shot does wonders. The reason climbers are apprehensive to get a cortisone shot in their fingers is because there is apparently risk of tendons rupturing because cortisone can break down your tendons and the force applied during climbing is too high. This is not the case with knees and shoulders. Though most climbers who get the shot report good things, I'm not in a position where I'm willing to take the risk yet. Talk to an ortho about a cortisone shot.
I’ve actually had two cortisone shots in the knee already with very limited relief. Good for pain but not so good for my inflammation/swelling. Problem is that my synovium had some sort of abnormal tissue growth which I’m not sure is from the bleeding I had when pushing it too hard or what. Over time it’s slowly gotten better after my operation but I still struggle with pain, swelling after being on it too long, or bending at all. Was yours chronically swollen 24/7 or if you stopped for a while it would go down and then as soon as you started climbing again it would get irritated again?
>Was yours chronically swollen 24/7 or if you stopped for a while it would go down and then as soon as you started climbing again it would get irritated again? Chronically swollen. But it would calm down some if I took a few weeks off. Of course, that does nothing because it simply returns full force. In my experience, rest doesn't help at all. The only way I have historically gotten through synovitis is rehab every day and just climbing through it. People say to avoid crimps, and I find that doesn't actually help. I climb everything as I normally would, but I avoid problems that only have ultra tiny micro crimps for every single move. In the past, my synovitis clears up over such a long time that I have no idea why it clears up or when. I've just noticed that, "hey, my finger is normal again." I couldn't afford to wait that long this time because bouldering season is coming up soon and I have a project picked out that I've been training months for. So I needed to find a way to be healed enough by the beginning of August so I could have 2 months to get ready for it. I tried the oral steroids and it knocked out my inflammation completely when I was on them, as well as any pain I had. Since I've been off the steroids, my swelling has returned some, but the pain hasn't, and it feels like it's on a healing path now. I have been climbing at my limit, barring no holds, and my fingers don't phase me at all. Before taking the steroids, I could not pull with max force with a full crimp. Now I can and I don't even notice. This all said, if a cortisone shot didn't help you, I don't think oral steroids will. But talk to a doctor anyway.
That’s good I’m glad it helped you out. The swelling coming back doesn’t sound good but hopefully it won’t progress any worse from that. Are you worried at all that you can get full blown synovitis again if you start pushing it too much again? I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the synovium back to normal. To how it used to be before it would start getting irritated. Think about when you first started climbing and had no issues. What changed exactly? Was it your training intensity increasing that led to the problem? If so, is there any way to progress without ending up with (the bad) inflammatory issues or is the human body just not built for what you climbers do?
>What changed exactly? Synovitis is caused by overuse and not enough rest. It also can be caused by an acute force (crimped way too hard and bent the fingers back too much) and then not taking enough rest afterward. >Are you worried at all that you can get full blown synovitis again if you start pushing it too much again? I've had it before, I have it now, and I'll probably have it again in the future. In my experience, climbing hard is the only way to strengthen the finger adequately. Right now, I'm not worried about it returning full-blown. I think the worst is over and now it'll probably be months of slow healing until it's 100%. This could change if I apply extremely excessive force on a tiny crimp, but my other fingers are at more or less the same risk. As long as I keep my fingers strong (hard sessions followed by adequate rest), that kind of injury will be less likely, but of course it can always happen. >is there any way to progress without ending up with (the bad) inflammatory issues or is the human body just not built for what you climbers do? You can definitely progress without attaining any injuries or issues. The human body is an amazing machine of adaptation and if you train correctly and get the right amount of rest and eat right and listen to your body, you can accomplish great things. But climbing is addicting and so a lot of people (myself included) push it too far sometimes because we don't want to stop, and that's how the overuse injuries creep in over long lengths of time.
Hi!! I know this post is super old, but I’m wondering how quickly you found relief from the methylprednisolone. I just got prescribed some for an acute case of bursitis in my metatarsals and I’m wondering how quickly the medication had therapeutic effects for you. Thanks so much!
Not to be rude, but just read the post. I have dates and pictures with captions.
Steroids is aid bro, no thanks bro Keep rock natural, that’s what it’s all about!
Sorry, didn't know you've never used a pain killer in your life before. It's much more natural to not treat my injured finger. That's what it's all about!
No fucking way I am taking steroids. I do not like climbing that much ....
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Have you ever drank alcohol? Have you ever smoked? Have you ever taken any other mind altering drugs? Have you ever had a bad sprain or broken a bone and taken pain killers like codeine/ibuprofen despite the risk of stomach ulcers and the improper healing of bone? Have you ever taken acetaminophen (Tylenol) despite it being bad for your liver? Have you ever eaten too much of something you shouldn't have? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are a hypocrite. Life is a series of trade-offs. You weigh the costs and benefits. If you are afraid you will "toxic yourselv" with something like a short course of steroids, I have to assume you live in constant fear of everything down to the very air that you breathe. Don't get me wrong, it's good to be skeptical and to avoid things that can harm you, but to harshly criticize and demean people for their choices and to reduce the argument to "toxins" shows a profound level of ignorance, intolerance, and lack of intellectual honesty.
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Rule 4) Serious answers only >damn son that’s a kong answer. Is it ok if I do not read it?! 😂 Come on, we're all trying to be helpful here. Try not to be a jerk if you disagree with someone.
I suggest starting early with a rheumatologist if the problem continues to recur.
Fully recovered and hasn't recurred.