Injured base knuckle on my index finger????

[dalton]

Hey all,

About a month ago, I was playing basketball and when receiving a pass my thumb and index finger split apart when the ball was caught. It kind of hurt at the time, but not too bad. At the time I actually thought my thumb was hurt. The next morning my index finger hurt a little bit, but there was no swelling or bruises. Now, it doesn't hurt at all for most normal uses, but if I try to hyperextend my index finger much past a straight position, the knuckle at the base of my hand is pretty sore. I try to do some stretches and exercises for it to loosen it up, but haven't had much luck. For example, if I lay my hand flat on the table and raise my index finger up from the table, I can raise it about 2 inches, then there is some pain at that point and it get worse the further I go.

The problem is that now I am unable to shoot a basketball very effectively, because it is the index finger on my shooting hand and that quick flicking motion rolling off my fingers seems to cause some pain.

Any ideas what could be wrong?? There was never any swelling or real loss of mobility, and my experience with jambing a knuckle involved swelling of some sort and it moves all directions, for the most part. It has gotten better, then I will hit it on something or whatever, and it gets worse again. I was just curious what it could be.

Thanks,
Jason

[Heidi]

My initial guess would be a ligament injury on the outside of the metacarpo-phalangeal joint on the index finger. The only way to really know though is to go and see a professional to get it assessed.