(Is pinky what americans called the little finger?) anyways...

About 18 months ago i was playing netball and jarred/bruised my little finger, and as all finger joints, it took a very long time to heal. One day i think i bashed it on something, but it swelled up immidiately and my college sent me to A&E (I believe what americans call ER :P - but i always thought that was a TV program :D) and they Xrayed and said it wasnt broken, but should heal soon.

Well, 18 months down the line, i cannot straighten my little finger. Id say its about 45 degrees off being straight. Will i ever be able to straighten it again? I know i'm a very sporty person, and i have to take into account the risks i make, but i am rather vain at the same time :rolleyes:

What do you think?

Just because it was not broken does not in any way mean that there is not any damage.You have both tendons and ligaments that run into all of your fingers.i blew the ligaments on both sides of my middle finger one day when I fell and put my hand down and all of my weight came down first right onto my middle finger.It swelled up and bruised almost immediately.Unfortunetly the first orthopedic doc was an idiot.without doing any sort of testing, he just looked at it,without even touching it or palpating it in any way,told me its probaly just some pulled and bruised tendons and proceded to cast it,my entire hand and up over the wrist,and had to stay this way for like a month.it kept hurting and spasming horribly the whole time.anyway, i went back to him to have the cast removed at four weeks and when they removed it, the dang finger looked exactly like it did the day they put the cast on.It was still horribly bruied and still swollen.i was shocked and pissed.Well, he said it looked "great",(i don't know if he actually even looked at it)and put this nasty splint on it that was wayyy too long as it came from the tip of my finger and halfway through the palm area.So everytime i bent any of my fingers, the dang splint would irritate and pull on that finger.i finally talked to a friend about how bad this was and she suggested I see a really good hand specialist that she had used before.God this guy is like the best hand surgeon in our state and immediately removed the spilint and asked me who did this to me,when I told him it was a supposed 'speacialist"he was shocked to say the least.Well. to make a long story short(sorry for the lentgh here)i had NOT damaged my tendons in any way, he said i actually snapped the ligaments thatran along side the finger.I ended up having to go to hand therepy three times a week just to get some movemnt back.Also in all of your fingers,kinda over the entire knuckle area,you have what is called a "capsule"?that surrounds the knuckle.Well my capsule had hardened in a bad way and had to massaged at therepy constantly for like an hour,3 times a week, just so she could start to break it down a little.That capsule thing might be what has happened to you too.I think you really need to see a hand specialist for this to have that finger re evaluated for poss ligament or tendon damage.Alot of time has passed since your actual injury and things inside the body undergo all kinds of changes to try and heal itself,if this is not set right before the healing begins, you end up where you are right now, and where I was.i would talk you your regular doc about a referral to that hand specialist so you can see what your options are at this point.just be prepared as your options may be quite limited at this point.Good luck,FB