hi I'm Josh Richards I'm a hand surgeon in Oakland California today I'm going to talk to you about what to expect after family's fractures felix's are the bones and your fingers so the metacarpals are in your hand and then the Phalanx are the three small bones and the fingers all are a little bit different but the fractures happen commonly oftentimes jamming your finger or getting it twisted can happen pretty easily sometimes they're not as painful as you'd think and then they are broken but takes some people some time to get in there to get it checked out the most important part of a good seeing good answers and that can determine whether this is a stable injury whether it needs to be fixed and then how it needs to be immobilized as well as when early motion can be started one of the biggest problems with finger fractures is getting motion back it can be very difficult and it can be painful so the goal of a surgeon is to determine how stable it is and decide when you can start moving it and how aggressively as well so a minimally displaced or even non-displaced family's fracture often can just be buddy taped and aggressive motion could start early with good follow-up typically we're gonna see these types of fractures each week for the first three weeks so we can make sure the bone isn't displacing on an x-ray as well as make sure that you're getting your motion back as far as getting in motion back it does hurt this is not easy to get your motion back because it gets stiff and it's painful to work through motion so it's important to talk to your hand surgeon about how stable it is and how aggressive you can be to get your motion back the average time to healing is about six weeks for a full angel' fracture so you're out of sports no lifting pushing pulling for two over two or three pounds as far as casting splinting and surgery well those are all discussions with your surgeon some of these fractures do need to be fixed if it's significantly displaced or mal rotated these small little plates can be used which render it very stable and you can start a very aggressive motion if you have surgery like this you would need therapy right away to get started sometimes we use K wires which are small little tiny nails typically that's gonna be casted an early motion would not be started usually it's about four weeks in a cast take the pins out and then start therapy at that point occasionally surgery and immobilization is necessary but that's more the rare side usually by six weeks you're moving okay depends on if you are locked up for four weeks or not if you've been just bunny taped by six weeks usually you're moving pretty well the swelling around the digits however will last a long time so these knuckle joints the pypy joints they'll stay still swollen for three to six months sometimes longer but usually by three months you have almost all your motion back and they're doing really well just a little bit sort a little bit swollen it can take as long as an entire year before a ring will fit on that finger again so if it's your actual ring finger and your left side I tell people don't get the ring resized it'll fit again in a year but you can get a less expensive one at a bigger size as a temporary ring so overall just review you need a good answer j'en so find your local hand surgeon to assess whether it's stable and if it needs surgery if it doesn't need surgery to discuss the plan an emphasis of getting a motion back as quickly as possible and it generally takes about six weeks to heal but again that's an average and then usually by three months you're feeling really good and can return really any activity with some very slight soreness very slight swelling thank you