(I have an appointment with my doctor on the 28th, but want to see if I’m being unrealistic about healing time/process, or if I should try to get an earlier appointment)
On January 17th, I had a large (doc says it was a bit bigger than a good-sized marble) ganglion cyst removed from the base of my ring finger, on the palm of my hand. Surgery went well (I had it done under local anaesthesia, despite the fact that the doc wanted it done under general), stitches came out after 10 days, and the surgery site has healed very nicely. But in the past week or so, I’ve noticed something going on with the involved finger.
There’s no pain if I press around the surgical site, up to the base of the finger. But past that, to the finger itself, hurts. More now than it did after the surgery, and it’s more of an incapacitating pain than the actual cyst itself. I can’t bend my finger all the way back, nor can I make a fist (not just because of the pain, but because the finger doesn’t bend to the extreme points of flex anymore). Pressing downward on the tip of my finger (picture pressing straight down on the finger, or bending the first knuckle and trying to put pressure on it… similar to how we used to type on manual typewriters) hurts. I can grab the finger at the second knuckle (keeping the finger slightly rounded) and pull it straight out without a problem, though… as long as I’m not trying to fully straighten the finger. On Thursday and Friday, when the pain was at its worst, I noticed that the finger was much warmer than the rest of the hand/other fingers (but it’s not red or swollen).
The doc told me at my post-op appointment that it will take around 4-6 months before the tendon is completely healed, due to the significant involvement of the tendon and tendon pulley, but he didn’t mention actual pain. Perhaps he thought his statement implied that there would be pain? I asked about physical therapy, and he said that until the tendon/pulley have had a chance to recover from the trauma it would be best to wait.
Anyone experienced this before? Is there something I should be doing to help the healing process? I’ve noticed I carry my hand differently now to accommodate the bending/pressure issues, and I’m wondering if that’s helping or hurting.
As an aside, I’ve learned A LOT about the interconnectivity of the arm/hand/fingers through this process- things that I never even would’ve considered impacting movement have a radical effect on sensation. For example, in the first couple of weeks post-op, if I kept my arm slightly bent, there wasn’t a problem. But if I stretched my arm out, even if I kept my hand curled closed… pain. Now I can stretch my arm out straight in front of me at shoulder height, even with my hand uncurled, without any problem, but move it to the side and… pain. Weird! 
Thanks for any insight!