So this is my latest ailment which began a few days after returning from a family vacation last week (all of six days out of the water). Only my right elbow is affected, although I breathe bilaterally. And no, I don't play golf. Anyone else have any experience with this?
Fort and I both have problems with this caused by mostly overdoing the dryland stuff. The only thing That works for me is rest and unfortunately it is a very slow recovery of up to 6 months. I am lucky that it doesn't affect my swimming too much. Fort has been more aggressive in her treatment approach and has used glycerine patches among other things.
Good luck,
Rich
I had tennis elbow last winter. I took copious amounts of advil and didn't swim a stroke of fly or ***, which made it worse. I also avoided house chores. All in all, the it wasn't so bad, in retrospect. But, yes, it was super painful up front.
Yes, just look at him today (photo taken 5 minutes ago)... See attached.
I'm willing to pay a few more dollars on my USMS dues to get him a chair at work.
I'm willing to pay a few more dollars on my USMS dues to get him a chair at work.
And maybe a garage door? :)
Jim, working one-handed as you are, maybe you should solicit easy changes for FLOG (stuff you could do with one hand tied to your back -- or your stomach)? My vote - add "kilometers" as a distance measure. I road 19,600 meters to work today. :)
Skip
Not sure if this will help or not, but both lateral and medial epicondylitis are examples of tendonosis, not tendinitis--i.e., there is no evidence of inflammation in the elbow. Quite the opposite, actually. The current thinking seems to be that these and other poorly vascularized tendons (like the Achilles heel, the Rotator Cuffs, various knee tendons, etc.) would actually benefit from a bit of inflammation, which tends to increase blood supply and bring healing factors to the micro tears of the affected tissues.
Leslie's nitroglycerine patches are an attempt to do this. Other investigational modalities include shock waves and injections of irritants, like talc or saline, into the joint, poking around a bit with needle while the doctor's in there, all in an attempt to provoke a little more damage that causes the body to wake up and take notice.
Interestingly, too, there is a theory that the pain may be caused by abnormal blood vessels and nerves that form post-injury. Some doctors are reporting success by injecting sclerosing agents into the area, which choke down these aberrant vessels. The nerves, in turn, no longer get blood supply and die off, and the pain goes away.
Alleve and cortisone shots are both antiinflammatory drugs (albeit a very mild one and a much more potent one)--but since there is no inflammation there to "anti", the benefits of either approach are most likely analgesia (for the Alleve) and the poking around with the needle, causing "healing trauma" for the cortisone injections.
Eccentric muscle loading (i.e., the part of the biceps curl where you lower the weight back down) may help by triggering tenocyte production.
For what it's worth, an article I did about this ran earlier this year in AARP: The Magazine. www.aarp.org/.../tennis-elbow-tendinosis-treatment.html
It does seem to be a pretty fast evolving field, and I wouldn't be surprised if new treatments emerge in the next year or two. In my own case, learning the two-handed back hand and getting a different racquet dramatically reduced the problem. In other words, if you can find out the motion that is provoking your problem, and figure out a way to avoid putting so much pressure on your elbow tendon, the odds of both healing and avoiding a recurrence go way up.
I suspect weight lifting is the cause of your problem--not all weight lifting, but certain moves you might not realize are hurting at the time of the lifts.
Actually Anna Lea’s desk is of normal height. Jim just told her it was a stand-up desk.
:lmao: Sorry, Anna Lea, I couldn't resist; I'm crackin' up here!
Yes, I had it on both arms, one was much worse. Got a cortisone shot in the bad one and haven't had problem since then
I also changed my stroke by keeping my hands in line with forearm, stretched, and did wrist curls with weights. A good drill is using fists
Good luck, I recall how annoying the problem was, made it difficult to open doors or even drive
