'Tennis" elbow

I went thru a nasty case of tendonitis last fall/this spring brought on by doing 800 yards of pulling. This was a set directed by a deranged coach (now former coach) used to coaching kids and not inherently non-athletic overweight 48 year olds. Kept swimming for a while hoping it would go away but in February I finally went to the doctor who prescribed PT and no swimming for a month. It got better but immediately flared up again once I started swimming. About a year earlier I had started taking lovastatin for high cholesterol. Over the past few months it has seemed that my body just wasn't liking exercise as well as it used to. The acheiness was vague, diffuse and intermittent. Rather hard to put a finger on. In November, about the time I first injured my arm, I called the doctor and asked if there could be a connection. The medical assistant or whoever told me if the lovastatin was the problem I would feel flu like acheiness. This didn't seem to fit. Finally a couple of months ago while on a visit for another matter I asked the doctor if the lovastatin could be causing this. She admitted it was possible my mild muscle aches could be due to the low dose of lovastatin I was taking. I stopped taking the lovastatin and switched to niacin. Withing 2-3 weeks I started feeling much better overall AND my tendonitis has largely gone away. If I have a hard workout it might get slightly sore but it recovers by the next day. The lovastatin HAD to be aggravating my tedonitis. I mention this in case you are on one of the statin drugs. If you are you might ask you doctor about stopping it for a bit and seeing if it helps your tendonitis. Jan Jeddeloh

I went thru a nasty case of tendonitis last fall/this spring brought on by doing 800 yards of pulling. This was a set directed by a deranged coach (now former coach) used to coaching kids and not inherently non-athletic overweight 48 year olds. Kept swimming for a while hoping it would go away but in February I finally went to the doctor who prescribed PT and no swimming for a month. It got better but immediately flared up again once I started swimming. About a year earlier I had started taking lovastatin for high cholesterol. Over the past few months it has seemed that my body just wasn't liking exercise as well as it used to. The acheiness was vague, diffuse and intermittent. Rather hard to put a finger on. In November, about the time I first injured my arm, I called the doctor and asked if there could be a connection. The medical assistant or whoever told me if the lovastatin was the problem I would feel flu like acheiness. This didn't seem to fit. Finally a couple of months ago while on a visit for another matter I asked the doctor if the lovastatin could be causing this. She admitted it was possible my mild muscle aches could be due to the low dose of lovastatin I was taking. I stopped taking the lovastatin and switched to niacin. Withing 2-3 weeks I started feeling much better overall AND my tendonitis has largely gone away. If I have a hard workout it might get slightly sore but it recovers by the next day. The lovastatin HAD to be aggravating my tedonitis. I mention this in case you are on one of the statin drugs. If you are you might ask you doctor about stopping it for a bit and seeing if it helps your tendonitis. Jan Jeddeloh