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Message: [QUOTE="JackBauer44, post: 5287942, member: 227"] All the injury talk on the football recruiting forum led me thinking it couldn't be a bad idea to see if anyone here is either a doctor or has experience with hand injures. As a tennis coach and teaching pro - my right hand is my lifeline. Over the summer while teaching some tennis - I hit my ring finger on a net post chasing down a wide volley and trying to do something i shouldn't have. It swelled up pretty nicely and I shrugged it off as a jam. All summer and fall, the swelling never really went away and I can no longer close my ring finger to make a fist. I could still swing a racket and golf club, so I just continued to go on. Jump to November now and I hit my finger again when playing platform tennis and it was some of the worst pain I've felt in my hand. I decided to finally go see a hand specialist here in Albany and I'm kicking myself now for not doing anything sooner. I have a fracture just below the knuckle that has loose bone spurs. The kicker is that the joint around the knuckle has been damaged and essentially is on the opposite side of my hand now. A simple fix is not possible. Here are the options: 1. Do Nothing. 2. Do a surgery called a hemi-hamate resurfacing procedure that involves trying to shave down the bone spurs, restabilizing the joint, and having some bone taken/harvested from the hamate in my wrist to stabilize the joint. It's not a guarantee to work - but would give me the best chance at a normal recovery. Recovery time is around 6-8 months with some pretty intense PT. 3. A Joint fusion that would not allow me to move my ring finger from the knuckle up. My finger would have to be fused in a way that would allow a tennis racket to fit underneath it. Not ideal by any means. I'm here now questioning how much of my ring finger I actually use in tennis and golf and if that would make a difference in my grip. So now that the long-winded preamble is complete - anyone have any experience with something like this? I've posted on every tennis-pro network I have access on, and I can't find anyone in my field that has endured something like this, so I'm a bit nervous on which option to choose. The doctor has performed the surgery numerous times but never on someone that swings a racket every day of his life. I know we have some smart people on this board who have helped me in the past - so I'm once again hoping someone can talk me off the ledge. [/QUOTE]

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