Tendinitis Elbow Recovery Strategy?

[boo radley]

Aaagh...3 weeks before a major match, I'm lucky enough to have a raging case of tendinitis in my strong-arm elbow. I *think* it's from carelessly snatching a curl bar a few weeks ago, but I've also been doing a lot of shooting/dry-firing, so it's hard to isolate the reason.

Last few days I've really tried to ice the elbow, been taking lots of ibuprofen, and not shooting or dry-firing. It's a bit better, but any action like squeezing a fist while extending the arm, is painful.

There's a lot of good information on the subject, here, and on the web, but it's not clear to me at what point one can (or should) start working the elbow through the range of motion -- maybe dry-firing extremely slowly, for example?

Wait until it's completely pain-free?? Or bring it just to the point of slight discomfort, through stretching, working a grip-ball, etc.? I'm pretty sure slamming a bunch of draws in dry-fire is going to be out. Man.

Probably should go to a doctor, but I'm trying to avoid the first iteration of what I'm sure is going to be "rest, ice and NSAID's."

[dirty whiteboy]

If you have not had the elbow shot w/ cortizone before, I would consider it. You are not gonna be able to rush calming down tendonitis without a shot. Good luck w/ that.

Edited March 27, 2007 by dirty whiteboy

[DBeck77]

Spent about 2 months doing therapy on "tennis elbow" last year, mainly from doing drywall work. The electro-stim and massage therapy helped my elbow greatly. The therapist said that anything you do with your arm fully extended causes problems. I have trained myself not to do as much stupid stuff with my elbow since mine had gotten to the point where I couldn't sleep. My orthopedic guy won't do cortisone shots because of the potential for softening/tearing of the tendon. Mine didn't improve through inactivity, just made it worse.

David

[JD45]

I've had a little pain from dryfiring in my forearms, but not what you have. If I were you I would talk to a good doctor about a shot. The reason being, I once asked a doctor about the bad side affects of cortisone. He said that in some cases, a person could get an injection in the right spot and it will fix the trouble area for good, with no harm done.

[smokshwn]

Boo

Check out this link. I have been doing the exercises for a couple of months and have noticed a very marked improvement. I shot approx 1400 rds in 6 days last week and had very little discomfort. Make sure you use the anti inflammatories and ice as it will help significantly in helping the injury heal.

http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/tennis_elbow/

I went to walmart bought a 1 in dowel and the weights to make these for the exercises:

Edited March 26, 2007 by smokshwn

[Jaxshooter]

Go to your local pharmacy or sporting goods store and buy a tendon bandage for your arm. If you put it on you can shoot or dry fire without hurting or causing any additional damage. I have the same problem and usually end up shooting a couple of matches every year with the tendon bandage on.

[boo radley]

Thx all -- sounds like a common problem, and I'm not going to fix it tomorrow....

I'll try a band on the forearm, continue with ice and ibuprofen, and if I don't see a lot of improvement in the next week or so, will see a doc.

[blackdragon]

Stay with the Motrin, Switch to your weak hand only, Im sure we all need some work with this????

Ivan

[CenTX]

Go to your local pharmacy or sporting goods store and buy a tendon bandage for your arm. If you put it on you can shoot or dry fire without hurting or causing any additional damage. I have the same problem and usually end up shooting a couple of matches every year with the tendon bandage on.

The bandage helped me, the pain was only really noticed when I was shooting stronghand only.

[dirty whiteboy]

One shot should not be a concern for weakening tedons, more than two shots needed and it's a probably a bigger problem than tendonitis.

Edited March 27, 2007 by dirty whiteboy

[Bryan W]

Thx all -- sounds like a common problem, and I'm not going to fix it tomorrow....

I'll try a band on the forearm, continue with ice and ibuprofen, and if I don't see a lot of improvement in the next week or so, will see a doc.

I've been dealing with this issue myself for the past few months - things were going okay until the double tap match and by day 2 it was going downhill - then last weekend I was practicing and the pain really got intense. I went back to the doc today and got my first shot in the elbow. The pain went totally away in less than five minutes after the shot but it's hurting some now - mostly from the needle probe I assume. I'm hoping this helps -

[cking]

MAybe this is outdated but whenever I do a stressful lots of repeative actions. Like stapler, crimp wire connectors my tendonistis will flair. My PT person showed me how to work on it myself. All of the usually stretch exercises. But the big thing was finding the blowout spot on arm. Take your thumb and dig around in upper part of forearm until you find a sore or tender spot, sometimes even a little lump. Supposedly this area is called adhesions, results from tearing the muscle and then they heal up clumped together.

So while watching a movie or something mind numbing dig around and find spot then take your thumb and massage the h@ll out of it. If it don't hurt you ain't doing hard enough. Do this for about 15/20 minutes your thumb will be worn out by then. Then Ice the area and take the Alieve or iduphroen. I do this for three sets, skipping a day between them. Buy then it is gone. To keep it under control I regular stretch the wrist for closed and open and then massage the forearms after some minor exercise like swimming.

[dcarter]

I had the same problem last year. Got it from trying to perfect my draws. It hurt for a while. Didn't do any shots. Just "babied" it for a while. When it finally did go away I started slowly with strength training. I haven't had that problem since. Be kind to it for a while then slowly strengthen it. Good Luck! I feel your pain.

[DrawandDuck]

I started having symptoms of tendonitis in my right elbow couple days ago and it is progressively getting worse...started taking 800mg of ibu and ice tonight. I have been looking into purchasing a ultrasound wand for myself. Has anyone got one?

Randal

[miyamoto]

Boo

Check out this link. I have been doing the exercises for a couple of months and have noticed a very marked improvement. I shot approx 1400 rds in 6 days last week and had very little discomfort. Make sure you use the anti inflammatories and ice as it will help significantly in helping the injury heal.

http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/tennis_elbow/

I went to walmart bought a 1 in dowel and the weights to make these for the exercises:

This is the solution I have used for a couple years. Correct exercise fixed things and I have been without pain for a couple years now.

Talked to a local Doc about this, who also happens to be a very good shooter. He has really looked into this and suggests the same remedy as what 'smokshwn' has found and it really works. Just like exercise for the body will prevent many injuries and illness over time, this does the same thing. I was also glad this keeps me from having to take any kind of meds.

Will

[boo radley]

Yeah - this totally sucks.

Finally went and saw an orthopaedic specialist today, after another two weeks of ibuprofen and ice and a forearm strap. Tennis elbow, aka 'lateral epicondylitis.'

The elbow would get a bit better, then I'd go shoot, or lift or twist something, and I'd be right back again. For sure, shooting is not good. There's something about the grip pressure in conjunction with recoil that really concentrates the 'ouch.' I used a heavy-duty staple gun, and couldn't believe how much it hurt, from the spring recoil -- almost more interesting than painful.

Truthfully, I was hoping for a shot of cortisone, based on what I've been reading, but he wants to go a week on some Rx NSAID and a different strap, before giving me a shot.

I'll shoot the SC match, then really take some time off, or shoot very lightly. Hell of it is, I'm really motivated to practice, and have a new gun, etc. <grumble> Enough whining, but damn.

[Bryan W]

Good luck Boo - I feel your pain for sure. I got my shot last week and my arm is 100% pain free right now. I did almost an hour of dry fire yesterday - no hint of pain. Hopefully, I got lucky here.

[Service Desk]

I get it in both elbows every so often, seems more prevalent in leadups to big matches (naturally !)

Treatment is 5 minutes of stretching with palm up agains a wall, then 5 minutes with the back of palm up against a wall. I do that every 4 hours and ice for 20 minutes twice a day.

I also do similar exercises as mentioned in earlier posts every day - but only after stretching.

When it is real bad... three days before the match I start on 150mg diclofenac potassium (VOLTAREN) and the day of the match I start to taper back by 75mg, the day after is the same and then I leave 'em alone.

The last bout lasted 12 monts, with 3 months of real soreness - but then I never stopped shooting either.

The band will help reduce the pain some, but won't help fix anything..... just like the NSAID's.

The long thin needle is a last resort - it don't last long enough. I did try some accupuncture and accupressure massage and got good relief from both.

Just my .02 cents.

Edited April 12, 2007 by Service Desk

[boo radley]

Good luck Boo - I feel your pain for sure. I got my shot last week and my arm is 100% pain free right now. I did almost an hour of dry fire yesterday - no hint of pain. Hopefully, I got lucky here.

Ended up getting 'the shot' today. Needle pinches a tad, no?

I was sort of ambivalent about it, but the doc convinced me that sometimes poking a couple holes in there, and starting some bleeding, would actually kick-start the body into a healing process, instead of ignoring the low-grade irritation. Sounded reasonable, and obviously the cortisone is a big plus as well.

We'll see. This whole thing has been a surpringly large PITA.

[FJR]

Boo,

I wish I would have seen your post a few months back. I have struggled with tendonitis myself in the past and the very best treatment I have found for it was acupuncture. The Chinese seem to know a little something about medicine.

I rested the arm for a week or so and within three treatments (12 days) the tendonitis was gone. I then followed it up with a regiment to strengthen the area. If you can avoid getting the cortisone shots in the future, try acupuncture as an alternative. From what I'm told, your body/joints can only take so many cortisone injections before you start to get negative results.

Also, another thing you may want to do before practicing (dry fire)/shooting is warm up your arms/elbows with some light weights, pushups/pullups and wrist curls. This gets some blood flow to the area and helps prevent straining cold muscles/tendons. I have found this works extremely well. Good luck and hopefully you will not be faced with this dilemma again.

Link

FJR

Edited June 27, 2007 by FJR

[et45]

I suffered from tennis elbow for about 3 years before I was pain free.The first shot helped greatly but after 3 months it wore off and the pain came back.I went another few months and had another shot and it did not help all that much and the DR said that surgery might be called for .The DR.also told me that stretching the forearm muscles would help lessen the pain(I did not stretch between the first and second shot).Needless to say I started the exercises and slowly the pain did go away but it took while.

[Paul Burtchell]

I suffered from tennis elbow for about 3 years before I was pain free.The first shot helped greatly but after 3 months it wore off and the pain came back.I went another few months and had another shot and it did not help all that much and the DR said that surgery might be called for .The DR.also told me that stretching the forearm muscles would help lessen the pain(I did not stretch between the first and second shot).Needless to say I started the exercises and slowly the pain did go away but it took while.

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