@confused1955 I wanted to mention here about hand therapy... talking with @patrick17 he reminded me about "buddy loops". These are simple velcro loops that they use around the index finger and tie that finger to your middle finger. You wear them all the time for awhile and that way whenever you bend your middle finger your index finger gets flexed (even a little bit) too. Just wanted to add this here for anyone else suffering from the 'stiff' index finger symptom. Make sure if you start hand therapy to ask about buddy loops if they don't offer them to you!! I did what you mentioned about the rice... but I got some small beans. I think the rice is a better idea! Alot of desensitivity activities during the therapy - alot of it is learning to live with the 1/2 numb hand and learning the difference between discomfort (it feels weird) and real pain (it hurts like hell).