Well, I’m lucky in that the bones and joint are fine so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.
When I tore my ACL (what a coincidence, another riding accident!) the doc opted for conservative therapy. He said there was no difference in outcome if we waited for 8 weeks and tried physical therapy, versus operating immediately.
In those days (I did that several years before my hand), there was no arthroscopic surgery and no MRIs. They did a dye scan on the knee (a primitive procedure involving LARGE needles and inflating your knee with nitrogen or CO2, can't remember which) and couldn't find any trace of the ligament. But rather than lay me open they decided to try PT. It worked -- the doctor ultimately concluded that I must have had only a partial tear because I got full function back with aggressive PT. I still have a slight Lochmann's Sign (lateral instability in that knee) but the ligament is probably just a little lax.