This seems like a relatively minor injury, but it has caused my son a great deal of inconvenience and pain. He is a pitcher, just graduated from high school, playing summer ball and getting ready for college ball. He had his best season ever his senior year, consequently, he pitched more innings than ever before. His shoulder and elbow have held up fine, the problem is with his fingers, specifically the index finger, middle finger, and thumb.
The skin on the tips of those three fingers is just flat out worn away. It looks as if his fingers have been sanded. He did have callouses that had developed, but they have been worn or torn away. The skin on the tip of his index finger is split over the top of his finger and down into the side of his finger nail. When you look at his fingertips, you can see tiny blood blisters forming under the layer of skin that is there.
I am constantly on him about washing his hands and keeping them clean because I am afraid of infection setting in because of all of the open areas. His biggest concern is what it has done to his pitching. He is having a lot of pain when he throws, and can't get good movement on his breaking pitches.
I know, the answer is to stop pitching, but he is 18 and feels as if he would be letting down his teammates and coaches. We just returned from a tournament where we finished with 9 players, because the ones who were struggling or flat disinterested didn't bother to show up. This isn't a rec team that he is on; it is a select team made up of players by invitation only.
He will have about 2 weeks between the end of the summer season and when he leaves for college. Is this enough time for his fingers to heal? Is there any sort of treatment (cream or lotion) that would help his fingers heal? How can he prevent this in the future?
Thanks for the info.
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