Anyone ridden with/had mallet finger?

I woke up Monday night with a great deal of pain, swelling and heat in my left index finger. A trip to the surgery the following day resulted in antibiotics for an infection; unfortunately, other than giving me stomach cramps, they don’t seem to have done anything.

I still have a very swollen, painful and deformed looking finger tip (from the top joint upwards) with restricted mobility and MIU today suggested that it might be Mallet finger[/url] (to be confirmed by x-ray tomorrow) which could result in being splinted for up to 8 weeks!

Has anyone had this and is it possible to ride (just pootling)?

Unfortunately I’m left-handed and finding this surprising disabling.

Wife did this on day 1 of 3 weeks intensive riding in colorado. Was only pinkie mind.

Not sure the riding helped, it was splined but never healed properly and it is still wonky. She can contract it fine but extending doesn’t happen all the way.

If it was me I’d be off the bike given that it is a index finger…… Sorry

Interesting coincidence, just coming to the end of my mallet splinted period, 8 weeks plus one more month to be sure the consultant said.I severed the tendon completely at the tip joint of the second finger of my left hand. incredibly it looks to have healed pretty well, I had the plastic splint supported by the stretchy self stick bandage. I bought some leather finger stalls on line to keep it clean and stabilised, then some large gloves over the top for work and been riding the bike quite comfortably as well. At first it feels cumbersome,but surprisingly soon adapted and now feels odd on the few hours I am weaning myself off it. Small inconvenience to save a possibly risky operation and get a realistic outcome, good luck.

Well, nothing’s confirmed yet, so we’ll wait and see but the antibiotics certainly don’t seem to have touched it and it’s feeling rather grim at the moment -very swollen, painful and hot!

I’d be avoiding riding tbh, id rather miss a few weeks riding than not be able to ride properly for the rest of my life. I’m not trying to be dramatic or anything, but if you’ve got (for example) 40 years of riding left, than a few weeks is fek all.

Had a mallet injury after breaking fingers at BPW. Tendon or whatever tore bit of bone off, had to wear splint on index finger for a couple of months. I kept off the bike a bit but was doing my head in so went for gentle pootles with the splint and just used my other fingers to brake instead of the index. Also had fracture on finger on right hand but that only needed a simple bedford splint on little fingers and no real issue riding.

The bigger problem was it needed physio to get the finger bending again and few years later it still doesn’t quite bend as fully as on the other hand, but it’s fine for braking.

Was off to Morzine couple months after the injury though (hence keen to get riding again), and that was no problem. Splint gone, no pain and swelling long gone. Just the bending not quite so good at the time.

I haven’t had mallet finger so can’t help there but are you having food with the antibiotics? I used to take them as a teenager for spots and when I didn’t eat and take them I would get awful stomach pain.

Hope you heal quick dude

Nope, I once had mullet hair though.

Did mine in the van door 😉 Had a splint which became known as ‘chub-finger’. DIdn’t ride for a week but then modified a glove I could get two strapped fingers into and just taped it to the one next door. It was the finger next to my little finger on my right hand so didn’t need it for braking.

Hurt a bit but still went to Stiniog three weeks later. It was sore but fine.

After 8 weeks. splint off and it was pretty good. Doesn’t full articulate but not a problem. I didn’t ask if I could ride as I didn’t want to know the answer. Consultant seemed pretty happy with the way it had healed tho.

I currently have this, I sliced through the end of my finger and was given stitches and a split wore the split for 12 weeks no riding

Unfortunately when I saw the specialist after three months he said I should have been referred for surgery and it’s now too late. My finger won’t straighten at the end

I’m currently in a figure of 8 splint as my middle joint is now bending upwards 🙁 after 8 weeks I see him again,  I can ride now though

He doesn’t want to operate as although he can straighten the joint I’ll not be able to grip properly but he’ll have to if the middle joint doesn’t stop bending backwards 🙁

Long story short I would avoid riding and look after it carefully

Said finger

That’s what mine looked like before the 8 weeks in the finger splint.

mine was kinda more hanging off before the splint

Apparently if a and e had have referred me rather than bodge me it would be straight but now it’s fecked

I came off the road bike on ice last winter, landing with my little finger trapped between road and shifter. Hairline fracture and finger tip bent at funny angle. Fingers taped together for a month. I was on Zwift within a few days and decided to ride outdoors 2 weeks later only to come of on ice again! No more damage to finger but did most of my winter riding indoors after that. I did do a few road and mountain outdoor rides whilst it was still taped. No issue on the bike but I guess it wouldn’t have been good if I had landed on it again.

Finger is still bent, and haven’t got full movement

Interesting comments, knifed mine first week in January, blood everywhere but taped it up myself. then when it had healed and I realised that the tendon was gone I panicked and went to GP for  a consultant referral, so first week of Feb when I saw him but he was totally confident of a satisfactory outcome re the tendon joining back together. He told me that he’s had full healing months after the event being properly diagnosed, it’s a very common rugby injury apparently, in fact they had seen three  that very monday when I was there.

Ummm, are they suggesting that you managed to snap an extensor tendon in your sleep? Possible I suppose! Was it a sudden pain that woke you up?

To answer your question, if it is mallet finger (snapped extensor tendon) then you would be doing yourself a big favour by staying off the bike to give it a chance to form a workable union. Basically the two ends of the severed tendon need to kept together and not agitated by any excessive movement so as to allow them to stick back together again. Same as breaking a bone, really!

 Ummm, are they suggesting that you managed to snap an extensor tendon in your sleep? Possible I suppose! Was it a sudden pain that woke you up?

I recall that I was pushing down very hard on my left index finger during work and the pain (which was really bad) woke me up that night (swelling and heat present).

I’m have imagined an immediate onset if I’d snapped something but who knows; perhaps it’s torn rather than snapped.

To be honest they don’t seem to know what it is but a week’s worth of antibiotics haven’t helped. Hopefully the x-ray today will help diagnosisis.

As it stands pain is focused around the DIP joint (top join in the finger) with the top of the finger swollen and hot (including the underside); it’s very painful with limited mobility.

I’ll just have to wait and see what they decide it is.

Well the x-ray showed no fracture or foreign bodies so treating it as mallet deformity; duly splinted and waiting for a call from the general hospital. MIU seems happy for me to work (I’m a cleaner) if I can work around the injury and cycle (my wife my have something to say about that). It’s an absolute nuisance though (and I can’t touch type or use a mouse properly any more)!!

This was the x-ray

Wonky finger by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

So a bit of bone got displaced I think. Not much of a gap hence not *quite* needing an op. Consultant (Hereford, he’s done a lot of this kind of stuff) was pretty relaxed about me riding if it was taped. He did recommend – quite strongly tho – not to crash.

Oh well, just back from Orthopaedics and it’s confirmed as a Mallet (unusually swollen apparently so possibly an infection on top). I’ve been re-splinted and my 6-8 weeks presumably starts today 🙁

However they didn’t seem concerned about cycling which is good (I will try and be careful).

Katie did hers taking her trousers off one night.  splinted up and we rejigged her brake levers so she could ride for a week in the Lakes.

Healed up Ok in the end but not helped by the Doctor in London removing the splint and giving it a wiggle so starting the process again.

I had mallet finger after a nasty mtb crash last september – my middle finger on my left hand basically swung around freely. No pain but no control either!

12 weeks (upto Christmas) splinted up and 100% recovery. Had a small ‘bump’ where the tendon had reattached to the bone. This took another 4weeks to go but now cant tell which finger it was and full movement which I was told was unlikely.

Took it easy for them 16 weeks and rode VERY boring cycle path routes (strictly no off road) but glad I did. Luckly my riding buddy took time out and rode along side me. Was rubbish but better than ‘Frankenfinger’ I was dreading or even worse the operation!