Tendonitis

[bountyhunter]

Another bonus of old age...... I get tendonitis in various places for absolutely no reason. Elbows are the most common, then it becomes terrobly painful to grip or hold things.

The latest is in my right shoulder (have had it there before). Now it hurts like hell all the time and absolutely off the chart when I try to raise my arm. The worst is, that I keep re-injuring it every time I do anything...

Try to comb my hair, reach for something. Even to move the covers to get in or out of bed.

The "tendonitis" schedule always goes the same: something gets sore, you keep trying to get through it. After a week, it's a lot worse and eventually is unbearable. Usually takes months to get better.

The downside is that immobilizing the affected appendage will make it worse, you have to keep using the limb to prevent muscles from deteriorating. I put ice packs on it yesterday and that helped a little.

The sucky part is I have mild excercises I have been doing for years for the arms, neck and shoulders to try to prevent this kind of thing and keep good strength for shooting. I didn't do anything unusual, it just woke up blown one morning.

Here I go, six months in hell.

BTW, I can't take a cortisone shot because I had a bad reaction to it.

Edited April 10, 2006 by bountyhunter

[davidball]

I feel (have felt) your pain. Good luck with rehab.

[tightloop]

been there had that...

[eerw]

had it in my wrists and elbows..

Good luck...

[straightshooter1]

First of all, I am a lawyer not a physician and I am not trying to diagnose anything. Having been blessed with a muscle disease which has similar symptoms, and which have gotten worse as I have gotten older, I would first ask if you are sure that what you have is, indeed, tendonitis. What I mean is perhaps you had an episode of tendonitis and, thereafter, having similar symptoms, you now assume that it is the same problem? If so, please have a doctor confirm what it is that is causing the problems/pain.

Assuming it is tendonitis, I have found that, in my case, thereaputic massage and otc pain relievers work best. I had so much pain in my wrist and elbow that I could barely lift and often could not hold a revolver or pistol. Theraputic massage relieved that and now, with only an occasional massage in the wrist and forearm area, I have no problems with that area of this old body.

I have a prescription for Celebrex, but have found otc pain relievers to work better for me. I have to make sure I don't take them on an empty stomach (we had a fellow in our Church that had to have surgery after taking Advil for an injury for a while, most of the time on an empty stomach. Apparently it had caused a hole in his stomach). You have to be careful with otc drugs and I would ask your doctor for his/her recommendation as to what and how much.

The theraputic massage I mention is painful in itself, but works so well for me that I have two per week and that keeps the rest of me, which is a bit of a mess because of the muscle disease, functioning fairly well.

I am hoping that you can find something that will help you with the pain-I know it is miserable.

Bob

[bountyhunter]

First of all, I am a lawyer not a physician and I am not trying to diagnose anything. Having been blessed with a muscle disease which has similar symptoms, and which have gotten worse as I have gotten older, I would first ask if you are sure that what you have is, indeed, tendonitis. What I mean is perhaps you had an episode of tendonitis and, thereafter, having similar symptoms, you now assume that it is the same problem? If so, please have a doctor confirm what it is that is causing the problems/pain.

Assuming it is tendonitis, I have found that, in my case, thereaputic massage and otc pain relievers work best. I had so much pain in my wrist and elbow that I could barely lift and often could not hold a revolver or pistol. Theraputic massage relieved that and now, with only an occasional massage in the wrist and forearm area, I have no problems with that area of this old body.

I have a prescription for Celebrex, but have found otc pain relievers to work better for me. I have to make sure I don't take them on an empty stomach (we had a fellow in our Church that had to have surgery after taking Advil for an injury for a while, most of the time on an empty stomach. Apparently it had caused a hole in his stomach). You have to be careful with otc drugs and I would ask your doctor for his/her recommendation as to what and how much.

The theraputic massage I mention is painful in itself, but works so well for me that I have two per week and that keeps the rest of me, which is a bit of a mess because of the muscle disease, functioning fairly well.

I am hoping that you can find something that will help you with the pain-I know it is miserable.

Bob

Yeah, it's tendonitis but complicated by the fact I have an auto-immune disorder which seems to cause my immune system to switch into high gear and attack anything that gets sore.

I can't take (or choose not to take) pain killers because I am prone to migraines and taking pain killers gives me rebound migraines. At one point I was taking the legal limit of Tylenol every day and having five migraines per week average.

BTW, I was on NSAID's for arthritis for about five years and they also destroyed my stomach. Now I have chronic stomach pain and have to take Zantac to help that.

As for a massage? I've asked my wife, it's about as likely to happen as Bill Clinton getting elected to a third term as president.

The thing I hate is that it takes forever to get better.

Edited April 10, 2006 by bountyhunter

[straightshooter1]

WOW! I think you may be even more physically messed up than me.

What I discovered about massage is that, and I am not sure how to say this without sounding like some jerk, is that the best therapists are "mature women" not the petit little bouncy blonde cutie. I find that the bigger women are (1) strong enough to work deep in the muscles where they need to get (as in ouch) and (2) have their minds on their business and not on flirting, etc. for a tip. If you can find a strong female massage therapist that is into the holistic-healing scene, you might benefit from it. I would, perhaps, take your wife along so she sees it is not you and three babes in a hot tub, but real therapy.

Some folks I know swear by acupuncture. I have never tried that and don't know anything about it.

Good Luck,

Bob

[BBoyd]

ouch, Mine started a couple of years ago, I'm 55. got it in my right elbow and left wrist, plus my neck right where it meets the collar bone. I take aleve every now and then, and I try to stick with the excercise which does help once I get sort of warmed up. It's effected my shotgun shooting with the recoil hurting my wrist and neck but my handgun shooting is still the same. (I couldn't hit nutting and I wasn't very fast before, and I'm still the same)

anyway, I feel your pain man, but stay active it does help.

[bayoupirate]

Thanks for the reality check guys.

I'm a 30 something that's fighting tendonitis in my strong arm elbow.

It's totally changed the way I have to shoot, and I haven't done anything but moan, gripe and complain about it. It hurts like hell when I bear down on the gun, but I'm gonna shut my trap and enjoy that fact that I can actually still shoot.

Thanks again and Good Luck with it.

[SiG Lady]

Crap... it's all about getting old. I won't even get STARTED on my aches and pains because you wouldn't believe all of it if I did. I find that proper diet and modest but REGULAR exercise is the key to keeping it all slightly under control. You don't have to run marathons or dead-lift hundreds of pounds to benefit from little sets of daily exercises. Immobilizing the aging body is usually NOT what works (unless you've certifiably broken something). I refuse to take pain killers on anything but an "occasional" basis, and even that much with very great caution.

Yep, I feel your pain.

[Blockhead]

I'm right there with you guys. I started having problems with tendonitis about two years ago right after I started shooting regularly. I reached down to reset a popper and grabbed it with the fingertips of my strong (I thought) hand. Getting through two more stages that day shooting my Glock 34 with it's loooong triggerpull made it worse.

I started wearing an OTC tendonitis strap just below my right elbow for shooting or if I was traveling with baggage.

What amazed me was how something just below my elbow could have such an impact on my grip and especially my trigger pull. I had the pleasure of talking with Jerry Miculek at SMM3G in '05. He commented on my strap and pointed to a 2-3" scar on his right forearm at the same spot. He said he'd used the strap but it got so bad he had to get the surgery.

Give the strap a try. Hope it helps.

[Sean Gaines]

I feel your pain, in fact I feel your pain right now. I think I got the pain in my elbow from hitting stakes in the ground with a small sledge hammer for our local club. I think all that impact from that sledge screwed my elbow up. Now I have a major match in 3 weeks and its hard to even dry fire right now. I have tried heat, ice. I keep getting conflicting stories, on what I should do for my elbow. I have had this pain for over a month now. Even after I shoot a stage, my elbow feels like hell. In fact shot today and noticed my grip had changed due to the pain. I guess I will just have to fight through the pain.

good luck

paperkiller (wish it was painkiller)

[bountyhunter]

WOW! I think you may be even more physically messed up than me.

Yeah, the doctors at kaiser hate me because they have to use a fork lift and the elevator to haul up my records.

Thanks for the reality check guys.

I'm a 30 something that's fighting tendonitis in my strong arm elbow.

My first really severe bout with tendonitis was the strong arm elbow. It lasted for about a year, but did eventually go back to "normal". It was so painful, I lost nearly all of my right hand grip strength and could not even hold a coffee cup at arm's length without dropping it.

It sucks because gunsmithing involves holding parts and filing or scrubbing or brushing them.... which requires strong grip pressure with both hands for long periods of time. Be very careful or you will end up with tendonitis in your elbows from this kind of work (as well as wrist and back of hand).

Immobilizing the aging body is usually NOT what works (unless you've certifiably broken something). I refuse to take pain killers on anything but an "occasional" basis, and even that much with very great caution.

Yep, I feel your pain.

Immobilizing a joint is the fastest way known to destroy it. The muscles around it atrophy VERY quickly. When I broke my knee (and had to stay off it), my thigh muscle shrunk to half normal size in about five days from dis-use. All muscles do this.

Studies of people with severe arthritis of both kinds (OA and RA) proved regular excercise slows joint deterioration and reduces pain levels.

[bberkley]

I have this awseomely painful (in a good way) stretch for the rotator cuff that has helped me clear all the shoulder problems I've had.

I'll see if I can get it written up in a way that makes sense, and post it.

[bountyhunter]

I feel your pain, in fact I feel your pain right now. I think I got the pain in my elbow from hitting stakes in the ground with a small sledge hammer for our local club. I think all that impact from that sledge screwed my elbow up. Now I have a major match in 3 weeks and its hard to even dry fire right now. I have tried heat, ice. I keep getting conflicting stories, on what I should do for my elbow.

I'm a semi-expert on the treatment:

1) Use ICE only, heat may feel good when applying it , but it makes inflammation WORSE. I am using ice packs on my shoulder and the pain is gradually going down to a tolerable level (I don't scream out loud when I move my arm).

2) Keep using the limb, but see which kinds of motion are hitting the specific tendons in question.... and avoid those. When my elbow was messed up, I found that keeping my arm near my body allowed me to grip with minimum pain, but gripoping with my arm streched out was horrible.

Figure out how to use the arm with minimal damage. An inflammed tendon is judt that... a thing connecting muscle to bone which is really sore and cranky.

3) I also used the "elbow strap" for a while, try it and see if it helps. Just don't use slings or braces which immobilize the joint.

[Flashooter]

Hello, fellow tennis elbow sufferers.

I want to offer something that seems to be helping me. After quite a bit of research, including this BE forum, I found this web site that offers a form of self-treatment: http://www.webtennis.net/tennis-elbow.htm The cost is only $27, so I'm giving it a try.

I've had severe pain in the elbow of my strong arm for the last couple of months, and it's getting worse. I shot the Florida state match last month wearing an elbow strap, but still with a fair degree of pain.

I've had to stop all shooting including dry fire. I've been using the self-treatment method available at the web site for only two weeks, and very gradually I'm beginning to feel some relief. The thearpy consists of heat, massage, stretching, strengthening, and ice apllied in a specific manner and in a specific sequence. I bought a vibrating massager to more easily do the self-massage.

The treatment is very similar to what I received from a professional physical thearapy clinic years ago for a serious automobile injury.

I'm hoping that my progress will continue, so that eventually I can return to this sport that I enjoy so much! The other alternative is surgery, but hey if it's good enough for Jerry Miculek . . .!

I'll post an update on my progress in the next couple of weeks.

Warm regards to my fellow tennis elbow sufferers!

Leo Garcia

Tampa, FL

I have this awseomely painful (in a good way) stretch for the rotator cuff that has helped me clear all the shoulder problems I've had.

I'll see if I can get it written up in a way that makes sense, and post it.

BBerkley--Yes, please post it. I may want to use it as a preventive measure. Unfortunately, over-use stress injuries are a hazard of our sport especially for us senior and super senior shooters.

Regards,

Leo