Injured hand, what exercises to do?

[Jason Donaldson]

I cut straight through my left thumb flexor tendon two weeks ago. I have my thumb in a splint, running several inches down my forearm. The next day I was doing chinups on the childrens playground.

I'm not sure how I could aggravate the thumb flexor without explicit intent since it is confined in a plaster splint and virtually immobile. It would have to be something really stupid and careless, and I don't know what that could be until I actually do it. I try to be conservative with the weights I'm moving and so far three weeks since the initial injury things seem to be proceeding nicely. I managed 180kg deadlifts yesterday for 2 sets of 5, having the injured hand supinated and everything felt fine. I started with passive thumb flexion exercises a week ago and those are proceeding with almost no pain as well.

Idiomatic use of prepositions can get muddled...when you say you cut straight through that tendon, what exactly do you mean, and what repair was done?

[Chiaki Nitya]

How's the uh... wiping situation?

[Jason Donaldson]

How's the uh... wiping situation?

As often happens around here, I don't think I can top Satch:

Jesus, Ryan. What goes on in your bathroom?

[8odin8]

when you say you cut straight through that tendon, what exactly do you mean, and what repair was done?

Kitchen accident. With a sharp knife I managed to cut my thumb to the point where I couldn't willingly bend it even 1mm. Panic ensued, I jumped to the emergency room and within an hour I was on the surgeon's table. I received a local anesthetic to the fist. The surgeon said that I cut my thumb flexor tendon completely to the point where the ends of the tendon managed to 'recoil' about 1cm in each direction, since they function by way of tension, similar to a hand brake on a bike (this is how it was explained to me). He cut my thumb open more than that of the initial cut to get a hold of both ends of the tendon that 'recoiled' and stitched them back together. I think you call this type of stitching 'sutures'.

For anyone interested, I was cutting a piece of bacon.

How's the uh... wiping situation?

Thankfully I cut my left thumb so my right hand still gets to do all of the dirty work. Tying my shoes is the biggest chore out of all of the things I need my thumb for.