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Collateral damage

As some people know, I’ve had a little bit of a health scare recently as the first knuckle on my index finger was swollen with a variety of other pains occurring in my hand joints. This combined with some long running unanswered questions and a family history had my GP say effectively “eeek, rheumatoid arthritis?” just from showing him my hand with no other comment. Thankfully blood tests for RA are negative, as are the other blood tests for more exotic diseases they decided to run just in case.

Six weeks on, this raises the question of what is wrong with it since its not really much better and one side of the joint is still swollen. The conclusion is its literally collateral damage, specifically a torn collateral ligament. Its likely this was pressuring tendons causing problems elsewhere and generally confusing things. Treatment is to keep it moving, gentle use. Time to heal, up to 18 months. It could be worse,at least I know what it is now.

Knowing what I do now, how do I suspect I did this? I have a suspicion trying to undo the front sprocket nut on the YZ might have been the trigger. That saw me jumping on a 2m pipe over the ratchet to loosen it in the end.