Trigger finger

Back in November I had surgery to correct what I was told was "trigger finger" on the long finger (read middle finger) of my right hand. Basically the finger was painful, couldn't make a fist, woke me up at night by going numb.

I've had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands (40 years of typing will do that to you) but this was new. I first thought it might have come back, it felt about the same.

The doctor told me this was caused by my carpal tunnel - that the same restriction on the tendons occur up the fingers, too. So I went ahead and had the surgery to release the tendon.

In the past two months the finger has actually started hurting worse than before. When I get up in the morning, it feels like the hand is the Hamburger Helper guy, big and puffy. I can't make a fist. As the day progresses, it gets better, but picking up things and doing anything to strain my hand really hurts.

So today I went back to the surgeon to say, more or less, WTF?! I thought this was cured! He told me that all I needed to do was pull the finger backward as far as I could and hold it till I could not stand it any longer, then curl it back into a fist and push down on the knuckle as hard as I can. Do this 100 times a day, he said, and it'll feel better soon.

For this advice, I'm sure it cost me about $110. Don't you think that maybe he should have mentioned that I'd need to do this after I had the surgery? Like when I came to get the stitches out?

I'm really, really hoping that this works. Because if it does, I'm going to take a picture of my extended long finger and send it to him.