Hand Injury on the Course

[dave39]

Was playing 2 weeks ago and first hole was a par 4. Second shot into the green was a pitching wedge and stuck it to about 10 feet, but my divot was deep and I hurt my right hand (I swing right handed). I saw the doctor and he told me that I probably pulled a tendon in my hand. He said time and ice would help. It's been over 2 weeks now though and it's just as bad as it was the day it happened.
The pain is mostly in the top center of my hand but extends over to the pinky finger and down to the wrist.
Has anyone else had this injury? If so what have you done to help it? I am itching to play but can't due to the pain. Any help would be appreciated.

[David in FL]

Yep.

Doctor, it hurts when I do this......

......Don't do that!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you have to ice it and rest it.  Don't turn a couple of weeks of no golf into 3 months of no golf.  As an aside, it's possible to break a bone doing that too.  If it hasn't already been done, it might be worthwhile to get an xray.

[NuclearMike]

Check out "hamate bone fracture".  I had a playing partner with this issue and his symptoms were a lot like yours.

[dave39]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the replies. The fracture description sounds very much like what I am going through so I will look into that further.

[kcarile]

I also get pain in my hand when playing. I swing lefty and its my left hand that hurts (bottom hand). I have a pretty strong grip over the top of the club to hook the ball more and I feel like I get pain because of this. My hand begins to hurt taking practice swings sometime in my round.. Then I block it out during my swing.. It is in my knuckles and it feels like I jammed my fingers and are hard to move them.. It's not in my palm at all or on top. Just my fingers.. Not sure what this could be.

[pipergsm]

Hi Guys,

I'm hoping for some injury-advise here.

I'm a right handed player, and bout 3 months ago, I started having pain in the back of my left hand, more or less in the middle, but spreading out to the pink.

This probably happened after hitting into the mat a few times, at the driving range.

There was never a swelling in the hand.

I wasn't playing much at that period (maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks), but even those resting periods didn't stop the pain.

The pain is not constant, but appears whenever I need to use the hand for specific efforts, like lifting the club or any other object, when trying to apply force during the swing (which is why, at the moment, I only use my right hand/arm during the swing) and especially at impact, when the impact is not 100% pure.

I've been taking lots of anti-inflammatory medications, which helps for all my other aches, but not really for the hand.

The pain usually seems to get less after extensive warm-up (hitting 40 balls or more)

Which is more like to be the problem:  some form of tendonitis, or one of the small bones being broken?

IMO, tendonitis should have gotten better due to the long periods of not playing, but broken bones usually present some swelling, which was never the case.

Thanks for your advise!

[pipergsm]

After extensive research on the internet, I think I found what's wrong with my hand and just want to share it with others, maybe it can help some other people.

I'll be going to an orthopedic surgeon today to have it checked decently.

When hitting deep into the range mat 3 months ago, I probably injured 1 of the tendons at the wrist, one that covers the 5 little bones (like the hamate-bone). This tendon injury (or even braking the hamate-bone) is a very common injury for golfers (who hit hard into the mat/ground!).

Medication took away the initial pain, but because it wasn't treated the way it should, the tendon didn't heal well, causing instability in the wrist (located at the 5 little bones), causing pain, but only while doing certain activities, like playing golf.

In the next faze of the problem, ostheo-arthritis sets in, causing pain during activity, which will subside after  some "warm-up", but also moments of pain during inactivity (which is now happening with me).

The ulnar nerve in the wrist is probably being compressed due to the instability in the wrist, resulting in the little finger sometimes being contracted (bent) and not being able to stretch it in a normal way. This recently started happening to me during the night.

With this kind of injury, surgery is often necessary.

I hope this helps other people with similar injuries.

[pipergsm]

In case anyone is still following this thread, I just visited the orthopedic surgeon today, and it appears my suspicion was wrong.

Somehow, when hitting into the mat at the range, I managed to cause a long but very fine fracture in the hand-bone leading to my pink.

Because the fracture is so fine and doesn't cross the entire bone, there was never any real swelling and the symptoms are very similar to what I described in my earlier post.

The contracting of my pink is probably caused by a cyst, of which I didn't even know I had it.

All I can do for now is taking anti-inflammatory medication and wait for it to heal properly, which could take 3 more months.

Luckily I don't have to stop playing golf, just be careful not to hit in the mat too often and put as little pressure on the left hand as possible!

Internet is a great tool, also for finding out what could be wrong with you medically.

But even when the described symptoms are an exact mach, it can still be something different, so go see a doctor when it seems serious!

[RayG]

In case anyone is still following this thread, I just visited the orthopedic surgeon today, and it appears my suspicion was wrong. Somehow, when hitting into the mat at the range, I managed to cause a long but very fine fracture in the hand-bone leading to my pink. Because the fracture is so fine and doesn't cross the entire bone, there was never any real swelling and the symptoms are very similar to what I described in my earlier post. The contracting of my pink is probably caused by a cyst, of which I didn't even know I had it. All I can do for now is taking anti-inflammatory medication and wait for it to heal properly, which could take 3 more months. Luckily I don't have to stop playing golf, just be careful not to hit in the mat too often and put as little pressure on the left hand as possible! Internet is a great tool, also for finding out what could be wrong with you medically. But even when the described symptoms are an exact mach, it can still be something different, so go see a doctor when it seems serious!

Oh yeah, the internets is great for that kind of thing. So far I've self diagnosed the Bubonic plague, ovarian cysts, Beri-beri, Elephantiasis, Guinea worm disease, Naegleria fowleri and Brain Eating Bacteria. A quick visit to the Doc in the Box, a few sugar pills later and all is right with the world. Oh, and I had a similar incident several years ago- hairline fracture in one of the bones in my hand while chopping out of a fairway bunker on the first hole. played the rest of the round in 3 over because I had to nurse my way around the course and couldn't over swing at anything. Fortunately it was near the end of the season and I had a few months to recover before heading to Florida for the usual start up sessions in March.

[ApocG10]

OP sounds like he stretched a tendon, which is dangerous, though its not torn it can. Continuing to play while experiencing this is a very immature thing to do ALways think of your body first. Let it heal, then come back and play better golf. Continue what your doing, and you tear that ligament, and you will never have the same feeling or strength you previously had, ever again. Not to mention the painful and not overly successful ligament re-attachment surgery.

So ya, keep playing while you figure it out.

[stealth]

Had that same injury on my left hand last year. It's an inflammation of the ulnar nerve tunnel. Now the bad news. The only fix is months of rest. It was around August and I worked as a cargo handler for FedEx, unloading planes, and I had a tough time doing the rest thing. So I played and worked through pain until the season (Canada) ended, and quit my job (for non-injury reasons fyi), gave my hand about 5 months of rest and it's great again. Rest and ice my friend. edit: I hurt my hand taking a divot too.