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Posts: 19
Location: Michigan | drugs work really well!! Prior to fishing pop a couple of Advil and get one of those straps. |
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Posts: 929
Location: Rhinelander. | 2 or 3 adjustments at my chiropractor did the trick and not botherd me since. Now I have to go for the other elbow. sure he'll fix that one also.
Pfeiff |
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Posts: 531
Location: Hugo, MN | I'll put in yet another vote for A.R.T. and or Graston. Years of work with hand tools and carrying my tool pouch all around caught up with me two years ago. I tried everything, including the band, ibuprofen, stretching, etc. Nothing helped until I went to a Physical Therapist who used the Graston technique on my forearm and even up the arm into my neck. The pain went away rapidly, and my range of motion was greatly improved.
I also had Graston done on my knee, post operation. It made a huge difference in flexibity and reduced pain.
Many years ago I saw a chiropractor, who is now the Vikings team Chiro, and he performed A.R.T. on my back. I walked out of that place feeling like a new man. For those of you who don't believe in chiropractors, why is it that every professional sports team has one on staff? Because they help. A GOOD chiro can absolutely help with repetetive stress disorders such as epicondylitis (Tennis elbow, golfers elbow, etc.). |
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| I have wasted a few thousand dollars of my own money trying to fix everything from Carpal Tunnel to heartburn with chiropractors. I have ran the full procedure with 3 different people. In the end the only thing that get fixed temporarily is the pain down the back of my leg. I don't get that if I remember to stretch everyday.
True story. I worked with a guy that had a regular appointment, once a month, with a chiro. The chiro retired so my buddy asked who he should see next. The chiro gave him a list of stretches to do and said you should not need one if you do these stretches daily. He hasn't been back since.
Again I rested and took medicine to get rid of the swelling and my elbows are now better. |
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Location: 31 | double post...
Edited by Jerry Newman 4/18/2010 11:29 PM
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Location: 31 | Mine got so bad that I was considering surgery. I had a half a dozen cortisone shots over about a five-year period on my right elbow that only worked temporarily. Then I stumbled across a procedure called shockwave elbow therapy. http://www.shockwavetherapy.ca/what_we_offer.htm
I had to travel from Illinois to a sports medicine facility in Eau Claire Wisconsin to get it done... absolutely fabulous results. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Some good advice here, as well as some not-so-good advice...
As a physician who has seen one or two patients with lateral epicondylitis over the years, you need to confirm the diagnosis. Go to the doctor. It takes 15 minutes, and then you'll know. But the doctor may or may not be able to help you; probably no more than a Chiropractor will be able to help you. The treatment for Tennis Elbow is rest, and (eventually) stretching and strengthening exercises, in a controlled fashion. The mistake people make is to get too aggressive when it starts to feel better, and they re-injure the connective tissue fibers that attach the wrist/hand dorsiflexor muscles to the upper arm (there at the lateral epicondyle). In some cases, steroid injections are needed to quiet the inflammation. But if you've gotten to that point, this is probably more serious--because the process causing the on-going inflammation is unabated.
The best things you can do for this are:
1) Get confirmation of the diagnosis, so that the proper treatment can be offered.
2) Try to figure out which activities are causing the problem to persist, and stop those activities. If it hurts to do that, don't do that... (This is VERY important!)
3) Assuming it is Tennis Elbow, find yourself a skilled Physical Therapist, and (once the diagnosis has been confirmed) go see them. They will give you an exercise program, and may even be able to offer additional treatment such as phonophoresis, where ultrasound is used to drive a steroidal cream through the skin and into the affected inflamed tissues. Do the exercises. Religiously.
The risk here is that you will cause the inflammation to persist for so long that eventually surgery may be needed. That's rarely a good thing, but sometimes it's all that left to be offered. So the more aggressive you can be with treating the problem now; the better. Certainly the RICE method can work, but most patients get impatient and resume their normal activities too soon. Many times this causes a very persistent (and painful) process.
TB
Edited by tcbetka 4/19/2010 6:58 AM
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Posts: 785
| Fought it for two and a half years in both arms, it's a nasty thing. The only real fix for it for me is to rest it a painfully long time. Icing it down helps with imflamation as does ibuprofen, just don't over do either as I've lost feeling on the skin of my right elbow from too much ice, and too much ibuprofen can give you a nasty stomach pain for a long time. Also when fishing (because i wouldn't stop) wear and arm brace and even a wrist brace to limit movement in that arm.
Rest it rest it rest it. Don't use it, and expect it to take at least a few months if you have it bad. It took me 6 months once I got serious about it. Also expect it to feel worse before it gets better, both arms did that to me. Also once it feels better still go easy with it for a couple months because it can come back quick.
I finally rested it and stopped being careless and reinjuring it. After 3 months without pain I started lifting weights again and fishing normal and it's as good as new now going on about 4 or 5 months.
Hope it gets better for you soon,
Andy |
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Posts: 57
Location: Madison | I've had it in both elbows  You need to rest it. Don't do any activity that aggrevates it. Ice it whenever you get the chance. The therapist had me doing reverse wrist curls with real light weight...like a soup can - 3 sets of 15 reps.
Edited by tetris 4/21/2010 7:51 AM
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| If it doesn't get better the only thing that will work is Prolotherapy. I tried everything from rest, exercise, ibuprofen, stretching, physical therapy, hot, cold, cortisone shots etc...
Prolotherapy is the only thing that worked for me and it was the only thing my insurance didn't cover at the time! The shots went from about $180 dollars to about $240. You're going to need at least 2 sets of shots. Of course my insurance covers it now but hopefully if you have insurance it will be covered. It was worth 10 times that. Every now and then if I cast all day it will start to hurt a bit but Ibuprofen takes care of that.
Oh and if you smoke, quit! It's all about blood flow!
Talk to your doctor and get a referral to go see a sports doctor for the Prolotherapy shots and you can thank me after you nail that 50 incher without any elbow pain.
Good luck and take care. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Wow, smoking cessation...how did I miss that one. Excellent idea!
And Prolotherapy--OUCH! I vaguely remember seeing that done when I was rotating through a Sports Medicine clinic while in Med School. Basically, when anti-inflammatory agents no longer work, then they inject a concentrated glucose solution (as I recall), into the tendon at the insertion point. This is multiple injections per session, on a recurrent basis. The idea here is to incite a more vigorous inflammatory reaction, simply to cause proliferation ("Prolo") of fibrous tissue at the tendon insertion point. Basically, this causes more scar tissue formation. I have seen it done a few times and remember thinking..."Man! I'll bet that hurts like heck!"
Suffice it to say that you really don't want for this to get to the point of needing Prolotherapy--and in all honesty, I didn't even know they were giving this treatment any longer. It's somewhat barbaric, from what I could tell. I'll ask one of our Orthopedists here in the hospital about it--but from what I've seen over the past few years though, they are more likely to take the person to surgery before it gets to the point of trying Prolotherapy...
TB |
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Posts: 2361
| As this thread goes on, I am thinking you guys are the same bunch that heads to the emergency room when you hook yourself or others.
Might I offer some cheese? |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | I'll trade my back pain for your elbow pain. |
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| Surgery is the last thing you want. It hardly ever works. The first Prolotherapy shots I had were murder, but I think the doctor hit something in my elbow that he shouldn't have. The next few shots were better even though I threw up after the 2nd set. That is all it took however and I've been cured for over 4 years.
Basically your body gives up trying to fix the injury and the Prolotherapy re-aggravates it enough to make your body\immune system kick in and start the healing process. It's kind of a witch craft type of therapy but all the newer sports doctors are doing it and most insurances will cover it.
It's not that bad. I couldn't even brush my teeth without the tendonitis hurting before the Prolotherapy. Stretching and strength training helps also. Smoking cuts down the blood flow to the injury greatly reducing the body's ability to heal itself. Lots of doctors I know won't even do surgery on you if you smoke. I hope you get better.
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | fsf,...LOL ! Good one, I needed that chuckle. |
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Posts: 313
Location: Bemidji, Lake Vermilion | Meet a nice lady if you don't already have one, convince her to massage other "areas" until you forget about the elbow. Works every time!! |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Thrax,
yet another good chuckle ! |
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