Fingers red, slightly swollen, and tingles

[b-dad]

My 12 year old DD and I have noticed that over the last month or two, after warm-up her fingers are red from the knuckle to the tips, slightly swollen and she says they tingle, almost like when your hand falls asleep. Her normal warm-up starts with stretching, overhead throwing for a couple minutes, 10 or so flicks, 10 from 3 o'clock, 10 from 12 o'clock, 10 from 9 o'clock, and finally 10 walk throughs. We aren't exact with the counts of each, it is basically just a few more or less but we move on when she gets the motion down at each step along the way. This takes about 15 minutes and than she takes a water break. It is at this time when she mentions her fingers and the situation is obvious. After the warm-up she does full pitches from the rubber for probably 20 to 30 pitches before the next water break. After the full pitches the swelling and redness has subsided and mostly gone away. By the time we are done, usually a total workout of 45 minutes beginning to end, her fingers seem to return to normal.

Has anyone else ever noticed this with your DD? Does anyone know if this is something to be concerned about?

While I haven't paid close attention, I think it might be mostly brought on by the walk through pitches. That is obviously when she gets the most velocity on her arm. I am guessing this is due to the velocity of her arm and the centrifugal force that pushes blood down her hand.

 

[b-dad]

Thanks for the comments Hal.

I don't think she has a locked elbow / straight arm. Although her instructor has been working with her to get her arm bent more. Maybe she does have her arm straight. We will take your advice have a doctor check her out. Is it typical that a regular general practice doctor can diagnose the issue or should she see a specialist? I will call her doctor to see what they say, but wondered what your experience has been with previous pitchers.

 

[b-dad]

email sent. Thanks. Will let you know what they say.

 

[mikesitt]

Hal, My granddaughter a 15 year old pitcher has just started showing these symptoms in the last two pitching practices. She does have a straight arm locked elbow delivery. There is no tingle or swelling yet. I think we will rest for two weeks and start again concentrating on relaxing the elbow. I first thought it was the colder temperature but she sure does seem to have the elbow locked. If we see the red fingers we will stop.

b-dad, good luck with your pitcher's symptoms and I'm glad I saw your post. Please let me know also what you learn.

 

[b-dad]

MS, Thanks, will let you know what we hear, the first appointment we could get isn't until Feb 26th.

 

[b-dad]

Well the Dr (orthopedic specialist) didn't give us any useful help. He only commented with useless facts like the capillaries when fully expanded can hold 5 times the volume of the normal amount of blood. He also said he wouldn't worry about it too much and she could keep pitching. He made a poor comment like she shouldn't worry about her arm falling off or any permanent damage. After that I lost all respect for this Dr, he obviously does not know what he is talking about.

He basically said he hasn't had a problem like this and recommended us to see a plastic surgeon. He talked about measuring the blood flow before and after simulated pitching. I am going to call my DD's regular MD and see if he can refer us to a sports medicine Dr.

 

[mikesitt]

b-dad, t hanks for your report. I have a report also. After a two week break from pitching we started again with the elbow bent at 20 % and with frequent breaks. The hand and fingers were slightly red but rapidly returned to normal coloration. There was also a possibility that the temperature was slightly warmer. There was a great relief that the hand and fingers were much less red. Additionally we worked on the internal rotation concept of pushing the ball release forward and not the down and up pure circle release with locked elbow.

Your specialist in commenting on capillaries being able to hold 5 times the normal volume of blood rings true with what I saw with my granddaughter really pitching fast and hard over a period of time with less than good mechanics. I think later when we slowed things down there was time for the blood to circulate and the redness wasn't near as noticeable. Further what he said about not having had this problem before was what I kept running into in my research. Several coaches reported seeing it before but had not seen it to persist over a prolonged period of time and so had discounted it as being serious.

At this point I'm prepared to look at this as being a warning to slow down and pace pitching practice as it seems likely that pooling up of blood in the extremity from tremendous force and not giving it time to circulate out is most likely the problem.

I appreciate the report from your experience with the specialist. I'm of the opinion that he was probably right on. I certainly hope this is true for your pitcher.

 

[ifubuildit]

A question for both of you. Are you doing a lot of static arm circles as part of your warm up routine? In other words your girls are facing the catcher and spinning the ball arm once, twice, three times ect then letting it fly to the catcher. I have seen this same thing in pitchers who use this drill to warm up. Including my daughter. Never caused any damage but its not a drill I use any longer for that reason and others. Such as it promotes locking the elbow out during the windmill.

Dana.

 

[mikesitt]

ifubuildit,

No we haven't used that warm up. I'm also in the future going to be very cautious of my pitcher not having the bend in her elb

 

[mikesitt]

hal,

You are right. I do want to see the slight bend in the elbow.