Severe Tendonitis anyone??

[archer wapiti]

My bow shoulder is giving me trouble. I've been able to shoot how ever much I wanted for the past 10 years, so this is frustrating. I'm getting deep tissue massages and hitting the gym to keep the blood flowing. I'm not sure if it's tendonitis or something else, but this plan is working for me. As Beendare and others have said, there's so much connectivity in our bodies that the source of the problem could easily be in a completely different part of your body.

 

[VO2Max]

I am going to have to weigh in on this... I am sport chiropractor... no, not the type that only works on backs. Not the type that only adjusts spines. The type that is a neuro-musculoskeletal specialist. I have worked on the best athletes from many of the national teams in the USA and specialize in upper extremity injuries, especially that of the shoulder and do work on elbows extensively.

First: DO NOT... DO NOT get surgery until it is the absolute LAST step.
Second: Lay off the ice... ice does two things, and two things alone; it reduces blood flow and it reduces pain. That is it. It will not allow for adequate healing nor will it speed healing.
Third: instead of ice, use heat... improves local blood supply (think increasing blood supply means you are bringing nutrients to the area)
Fourth: try to determine the perturbing factors... what do you do for a living? Are you working in one position day after day and can that be an issue? Are you swinging a hammer day after day and are you gripping things, perhaps improperly, day after day, hour after hour? Figuring out the cause is EVERYTHING on this.
Fifth: if you have not already, and I don't understand why anyone would not, PLEASE get some serious soft tissue work done on this. I am not talking about massage... I'm talking about heavy duty Graston Technique, Active Release Technique or other like IASTYM. What this does is to increase blood supply, reduce fibrosis, improve range of motion and decrease pain... eventually. You CANNOT train/strengthen/stretch effectively, unhealthy tissue.
Sixth: Acupuncture can be very helpful to reduce pain as well as if done directly on the tendon itself and on the lateral epicondyle itself (the attachment point of the tendon) blood flow introduction is seen and therefore an improved healing outcome
Seventh: Perform the bull dog exercise (if you don't have an idea of what this is I am more than happy to send it to anyone whom is interested via PM)
Eighth: in the initial phase, you can use eccentric exercises to assist with decreasing fibrosis... try using a therabar (on amazon.com for $20) several times each day
Ninth: I am not sure why anyone would inject this tendon with corticosteroids when we know that it does nothing long term.... NOTHING. Short term, like to get your through a championship game, yes, it can help. But long term it can actually lead to soft tissue necrosis/death and worse pain and dysfunction.
Tenth: If the above fails, try ESWT (Extra Corporeal Shockwave Therapy)... radially pulsed, high frequency sound waves applied directly to the tendon(s)/region(s) with the goal of breaking up scar tissue and improving healing time. Typically and out of pocket expenditure of $300 for the entire treatment course but well worth the investment compared to surgery with piss poor outcomes in my experience.
Eleventh: You cannot... you CANNOT strengthen unhealthy tissue. So, don't even think about trying to make the region(s) stronger before the tissue is healthy once again.

That about covers it... I am sure i have more ideas for you all but I am on vacation right now and dont have the bandwidth! Best of luck and I am more than happy to discuss the above with anyone who has questions.

Erik

 

[Beendare]

When I see Chiropractor....I cringe...but coming from a guy that has been battling elbow issues since 07...I think Erik's above^ is good advice.

ALL of my docs say...."No Heat, only ice"...well for the most part thats good advice...except on elbows. I was battling my left elbow...doing all of the things the PT recommended...not working. When I added a little heat AFTER the ice...it was better in 2 weeks. Coincidence...maybe. But I had gone on for 2 years with problems.

Most elbow cases can be cured with PT and rest. If you have long term pain get an MRI...the only way you really know that you need the surgery. Mine was almost a complete tear in my right elbow.

I was told by a couple ortho surgeons, "They have knees, hips, shoulders DOWN"....but elbows are a whole different deal.

 

[Mxracer532]

Well guys I have an update, I have done everything you all have recommended. Unfortunately none of it worked. I just got MRI results back today and my right elbow has tears in the extensor tendon. My left elbow has the standard lateral epicondylitis. So i am somewhat back to square one.

 

[mfllood3800]

glad you tested and know
What's the plan going Forward?

Well guys I have an update, I have done everything you all have recommended. Unfortunately none of it worked. I just got MRI results back today and my right elbow has tears in the extensor tendon. My left elbow has the standard lateral epicondylitis. So i am somewhat back to square one.

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[Beendare]

Well guys I have an update, I have done everything you all have recommended. Unfortunately none of it worked. I just got MRI results back today and my right elbow has tears in the extensor tendon. My left elbow has the standard lateral epicondylitis. So i am somewhat back to square one.

I'm 9 weeks post surgery....still not good. I can't even lift a bow. About 40% strength in my hand. FWIW, the surgeon told me it would be awhile as they had to drill holes in the bone, cut and shred the tendon [laymans term/grin] then suture to the bone so the scar tissue would connect the tendons. This takes a long time as there is little circulation in elbows.

I'm hoping I can start shooting light #s in another month.

 

[JFKinYK]

I've battled this off and on. One piece of advice I received to increase circulation was "contrasting".

Get two large roasting pans. Fill one with very hot water. Fill one with an ice bath. Submerge your forearm, wrist, hand and elbow up to bicep in the cold pan. Hold there til you can't stand it (or about a minute). Remove and shove into the hot pan til you can't stand it. Repeat a few times. Always end on cold.

You may need to add hot water/ice as you go to keep the temps extreme. Your arm will turn bright red! Do this a couple times a day.

Vo2max has way more experience than me but I'll echo all his/her advice. Avoid surgery at all cost. Painfully hard massage, stretch, strengthen, rest, changes in lifestyle. Attack from all angles and it will take a long time.

 

[Oregon]

Tendons suck! Pulled my tendons off my shoulder that held my bicep on a few years ago. I still throw like a girl.

Currently 3.5 months out from surgery of a patellar rupture. Brutal. I’ll be in PT another 3 months, still in a brace, and knee still worthless.
The bonus is surgeon may have to go in and lower knee cap. Still riding high. Find out tomorrow.
May be offline awhile if he tells me that. I’m sure I’ll end up punching him in the throat and get arrested.

 

[Bramk]

Pm sent


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[Mxracer532]

As of right now my work has took away the cause from my daily work.
As far as medically I am starting PT, continue Graston/active release treatment and also looking into low dose radiation treatment.

 

[Johnboy]

As of right now my work has took away the cause from my daily work.
As far as medically I am starting PT, continue Graston/active release treatment and also looking into low dose radiation treatment.

Just curious... have you tried a genuine low-carb diet for a period of time? I've been doing the ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting for the last 4 months, and my body feels restored. No inflammation anywhere, whatsoever. It seems almost too good to be true. I'm not suggesting that it's the miracle cure you're looking for; just saying maybe it's worth consideration, as it seems to have done wonders for my overall health, and you're looking at radiation treatment as an option, which sounds utterly terrifying.

 

[Poser]

This is going to sound shocking, but I did the chin-up rehab for for elbow tendinitis. For centuries, horses with problematic knees were treated by “scorching” the knee. This causes a symptomatic response to a localized problem. In short, the body responds to a new and sudden injury to the larger area and while repairing the tissue, addresses the tendons as well.

I did chin ups 3x a week for 3 sets of 5-10. The first several sessions felt like my elbows were going to explode. It was excruciating pain, but it improved dramatically over 10 sessions and eventually healed. I had two friends at my gym at the time who were physical therapists and they both tried to talk me out of doing this as they thought it was a terrible idea even though they both admitted that the body will respond systematically to localized problems. In other words, the agreed with the theory but not the actual practice.

If you’re facing surgery anyway, it’s worth a shot. There will be pain.

 

[S.Clancy]

Left triceps injury here. I went from pushing towards a 330 bench to not being able to do a pushup or contract my tricep at all. The bad thing about tendons is there is almost no blood flow, but I've just been doing incredibly high volume of whatever I can do to get some work in. I've been progressing over the last 6-7 weeks, nothing extraordinary, but at least slow progress. I can now do sets of 20 pushups with mild discomfort. Still no even moderate weight presses or pull-ups. It will likely be another 6-8 weeks, maybe more before I can do some actual training. This experience has taught me two lessons: 1) I have to cycle my training where most of the time I do volume work and only push hard with heavier weights for ~6 weeks and 2) When elbows, shoulders, wrists, knees hurt, stop and recover and do prehab or be crippled

 

[bat-cave]

IMHO VO2MAX is spot on! As someone that has had on again / off again elbow pain for over 30 years, I wish I had been able to begin with Erik's suggestions! More recently I flared up both elbows (Medial & LateralEpicondyle (sp?)). It was brought on by lots of pullups/pushups and poor technique with a barbell and it got to the point that I could barely shoot my bow and had to take several months off from the gym. Two different different well respected surgeons were both 100% down to do surgery. I ended up meeting Kelly Starrett who most will agree is one of the foremost movement specialists / trainers on the planet.

His view was that my issues were far to symmetrical and that surgery would be a short term fix and the issues would return as they were elsewhere up/down stream from where the pain was occurring. In my case it was primarily thoracic spine tightness. It's amazing what a double lacrosse ball up/down the thoracic spine while working through shoulder position can do!

Moral to the story, you can use lots of bandaids like NSAID's, Cortisone etc ... or you can find the root cause. Not saying those aids may not help you get over the hump, but if you don't find the root problem (which is rarely the point of the pain) you are kicking the can down the road.

 

[TheGDog]

Surgery never makes you "good as new". Usually you wanna try every other darn thing you can before trying surgery. And dude... seriously now... it's your health you're talking about. I know we all love this pursuit. But man issues like this take precedence man! Can't do you if you is broke, right?

I'm in similar predicament, but with my spine at lumbar and possible even lower down too. I figure try steriod injections and some PT... to buy me some time and take a wait and see approach with it.

It's just safe to assume you're gonna be out for at least a year if you go the surgery route. If it ends up being less than that, great! But better to have realistic expectations going into it though.

 

[highcountrymuley]

Used to have tendonitis. Reduced inflammation through dietary changes (this is a long process and is pretty much a life change) and tendonitis is gone. Research reducing inflammation

 

[Coopsdaddy]

Poser thats the mark ripetoe suggestion.It works for some,also check out your shoulder mobility as sometimes thats the cause.
I also just hang from bar one handed for 4-5 sets and that seems to help.

 

[Crusader]

I had left elbow tendinitis/"tennis elbow" for several years. Did all of the conventional approaches first such as rest, PT, ice, heat, steroid injections, etc. Finally got tired of the pain and gave in to the release surgery. Worked fantastically, have been pain-free since, which has been about 5 years.

 

[406]

Thera Band makes a bar. You twist it between your two hands.
I had "golphers" elbow on both arms due to years of judo and jiu jitsu. The bar was recommended to me by a friend and after a couple weeks irritation was down 90%
Seriously, I was shocked.
Worth the $20 or whatever I paid.

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[GotDraw?]

Bee-sting therapy.
Buddy had severe medial epicondylitis, could no longer shoot a bow his elbow was so painful.
Grilling on the barbecue for a charity event, a bee happened to sting him on the back of hand. He felt the "heat" go up his arm and woke up the next day with ZERO pain. Totally clear ever since.

Googled bee sting therapy and IT's a thing, apparently low cost and it works.


JL