Dreaded Tennis Elbow, Mark II

[boatstall]

Hey Keeled Over,
The '72 daughter (coin) is just starting her clinicals as a PT. She is adamant about me getting any inflammation under control before attempting anything related to rehabbing. Hard to stop life enough for that to happen though.
Best of luck on all of your efforts to get the pain under control, at least enough to allow the PT to get you some relief.

 

[Fritz]

Have you tried the brace that goes around your upper forearm with little pad? Tennis elbow brace can be found in most pharmacy. I spent at least 6 months with the throbbing until I listen to my wife and got a brace. It was life changing both reducing throbbing and most pain while using arm. It also allow it to heal much quicker with the reduced inflammation.

My first experience with tennis elbow occurred about 20 years ago. An orthopedist recommended an elbow brace which worked well for me. I keep one in my car and in my tripping first aid kit just in case of flare up although I haven't had one in years.

 

[Keeled Over]

Thank you Fritz,

I did purchase 1 set and will get another pretty quick.

It is surprising how well they work!!

 

[Keeled Over]

For those of you wear the arm bands, once cured, do you still wear them as a preventative measure going forward or do they get relegated to a drawer till needed?

 

[Gamma1214]

I've never had tennis elbow but I would think it might depend upon how debilitating your pain is and how much you like to suffer.

For example: I have arthritis in my right ankle (I've broken it twice). I have mild discomfort all day, every day but if I twist it, I'm on crutches for a few days at least. I, therefore, wear an ankle brace on hikes, portages and, usually, when I'm working with horses. I do not wear it during activities where there is less risk or smooth ground

Regardless of whether you wear it or not, I'd have it tucked away close at hand for deployment at the first sign of trouble.

 

[Shane V]

Age continues to creep in.

I have had tennis elbow some years ago, and after the home remedies failed to help I went to PT and they got me fixed back up. Fast forward to now, and I have been battling this for 4 months. I was almost healed when a long planned canoe trip came up - I had to go - and I have now made things exponentially worse. Current PT guy says he can't help anymore.

Dr. Internet states a cortisone injection is the way go. I did have one many years ago for my shoulder and it did work well. I ended up having 2 injections. It appears the injection is still popular, but there are other treatments available I am unfamiliar with.

Has anyone had experience managing tennis elbow with a method other than cortisone injections? I am hoping for a speedy recovery because the steelhead are here now and ski season is around the corner, so any details regarding recovery time would be appreciated. The shot gets me right back out there, so that's good. Now a days I tend to question all things medical, primarily due to the fact that 2 of my Dr's. have pointed out that it is all to common to have the medico's just run up the bill, so I am hoping to go in as prepared as possible for this one.

Getting old is tough at times, but it's better then the alternative.

I have been using BB paddles for years. Maybe some new hi tech paddles are required!

Thank you.

Just had my first cortisone shot yesterday in my left shoulder(after putting it off for months) and I'd say get another one. My brother was a college hockey goalie who's had more cortisone than he can count and says it keeps him mobile. The inflammation and swelling of the pressure put on surrounding soft tissue can of course do longterm damage, so for me a cortisone shot is the answer. After taking a series of x-rays $$$$, the doc said, well of course we need an MRI to determine soft tissue and possible rotator cuff injuries, so the root cause is still unknown. We bought super lightweight hi-tech graphite paddles and yes, it has been well worth it at 67 and 70 years young. The best quality forearm, wrist, hand braces, knee braces are made by Mueller in Sauk City Wis. For solo paddling I'm going to get a lightweight double-bladed paddle (if the eagle still flies), and do more switching vs the various same side strokes.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

For solo paddling I'm going to get a lightweight double-bladed paddle (if the eagle still flies), and do more switching vs the various same side strokes.

I have no idea, of course, whether switch paddling will medically help your shoulder. I just want to comment on the double paddle. Lots of solo canoeists use one, but you have to realize that you must keep such a paddle constantly lifted up in front of you with shoulder muscles, which may put stresses on trapezius and deltoid muscles that aren't helpful. Don't know.

You can take all "weight" and shoulder lifting off a straight single blade paddle if you use a J correction, palm roll, and a fully in-water return. The paddle never leaves the water, is constantly buoyed up, and hence is essentially weightless. No lifting required, though you'll travel forward a bit slower than with lifting returns. I've never cared much about speed in my 70's. Efficiency and comfort are more important.

Experimenting with various techniques is probably the only way to figure out what's best.

 

[Keeled Over]

Released from PT today. A couple of things -

My PT thinks that that arm bands discussed in this thread to relieve the arm pain can be beneficial as a preventative measure as well, however the results vary by individual. Some swear by them, some don't. I like mine so I will use them in the fashion to gauge the benefit.

Also, my guy states that this is pretty common to the canoeing/kayaking set, and he recommends preventative exercises as a matter of course. My plan is to take the current exercises I have been doing to recover and complete them 2-3 times per week depending on how I'm feeling.

Standard exercises for tennis elbow are on youTube.

If/when I feel the twinges start, ramp up the stretching and reduce the offending activity asap. Key point is the asap. He see's paddlers taking the wait and see approach far to often, especially as they age.

I screwed mine up by developing tennis elbow, and before allowing it to completely heal I went canoeing again. Now I had golfers elbow on top of the tennis elbow. Had to work through the golfers elbow to get to the tennis elbow, and then treat that.

NOTHING earth shaking here, and anyone reading this will of course see this as common sense, but I figured if it could help one person avoid what I went through it's worth it. This sucked. Just starting my car with my right hand was impossible, and using the left is strange. Plenty of other personal things to deal with that also provided a challenge with the opposite hand. If you've been here, you know.

Good luck!

 

[ppine]

I use neoprene sleeves for elbow trouble. Yesterday I was using a shovel. It seemed to help straighten everything out.
The activity that gives me the most trouble is running a computer mouse and typing.

 

[Keeled Over]

I use neoprene sleeves for elbow trouble. Yesterday I was using a shovel. It seemed to help straighten everything out.
The activity that gives me the most trouble is running a computer mouse and typing.

Yup - had to switch to left hand mouseing, which went only slightly better than my horrible right hand mousing. And clicking the mouse was irritating as well.

What sleeves are you using?

 

[Chip]

I've put myself on the injured list due to hurting 'bows. The problem started two weeks ago. I put on the straps and took a couple short paddles during the past week and iced right after paddling, which helped, but my forearms are still very tender, so I've put myself on the IL and taken the racks off the van. Grounded. Very depressing. I know the exercises I need to do, but have a question and I'll ask it here after reading this thread--collectively, we have a lot of experience with this ailment.

Do I need to wait for the pain to disappear before I start with the exercises?

 

[yknpdlr]

I'm a big fan of cortisone and how it has worked for me to bypass surgery. In the fall of several years ago while painting a metal camp roof, I stepped on a drop of wet paint and went sailing off the edge, complete with a bucket containg a couple of gallons of aluminized roof paint in my hand, right down directly onto a rough pile of rotted concrete chimney rubble dhunks that we had earlier dismantled. On the way down all I could think was "how many bones, how many bones?". I did my best version of a parachute landing fall and to my surprise I was able to stand with no obvious issues, although I did look like the tin man, covered had to toe with aluminum paint.

The next day I could not lift my right arm above the level of my nose and then after an MRI I went to see an orthopedic sports surgeon to fix my shoulder rotator cuff. Since I had known a couple of race paddlers who have had the surgery before, I already knew the answer to “how long do I have to hold my arm strapped to my stomach”? Three months was what I knew was what he would say as he really strongly recommended that he do the surgery on me to repair my badly torn rotator. But, I must begin training with my crew for our upcoming planned Yukon River canoe race next spring !

So since the doc had my MRI image, he said we could try cortisone that he could target with an injection to the exact trouble spot. He did it and it seemed to work well enough for me to begin training on water and by machine through the winter without pain. But by April the twinge of pain returned. So I asked for another Cortisone injection, which the doc agreed to do.

That worked well enough for me to do well with virtually zero pain through the Yukon race and for years beyond. To this day, almost ten years later, I only rarely am reminded with a slight twinge in my shoulder when I move it just right (or wrong). I credit my years of canoe training and racing for healing my badly torn rotator cuff to nearly as good as new.

I would definitely advise any paddler with shoulder or elbow pain to try a different lightweight paddle first, before the needle or the knife.

 

[PortageW/Cerberus]

With one of the annual Canada trips a few days away, today I made my annual May pilgrimage to the hand/wrist doc, who has patched me up a bunch over the last 20 years. Interestingly, we just figured out a year ago that he also is a canoe tripper.

Anyway, got the standard cortisone injections in both elbows...

And what I thought was wrist pain from one of the past surgeries is apparently basal thumb (carpometacarpal?) arthritis.

The injection in that joint is an order of magnitude more painful than the elbows.

 

[yknpdlr]

When I started canoe racing in a 6-seat voyageur canoe, I, and at least one other of my fellow paddlers, developed extremely painful wrist tendonitis. I had not heard that same affliction from other teams. So I began to watch my arm and hand as I paddled at race speed. I noticed that I would bend and drop my wrist on the paddle shaft with each stroke. That can't be right or proper. I then focused on keeping my wrist straight, as if I had it splinted, not bending it at all. That did the trick and I have never had wrist pain from paddling again. It's all in the wrist .