Friday, January 23, 2015

Fifty Miles of Elbow Room

Just an update on my ever, and somewhat rapid, decaying body.

The beginning of the end was when I fell in 2010. The lower back incident that plagued me for months and many dollars of physical therapy.

Of course, there was my shoulder for 2012. More PT.

Somewhere in after that was my hand and my on-going battle with tendinitis of my right foot added with it morphing into plantar fascitits. I'm almost forgetting  a bout with my sprained kneed and of course my temporary hearing loss and on-going tinnitus.

And buried in posts here and there were hints of a sore elbow that was making it hard to do weight lifting.

Sheesh. I'm a frickin' mess.

Said elbow is taking center stage these days. I've had to stop doing any kind of curls, which are making my biceps look even more girly than they had been. Actually, I halted them a long time ago and it took months for the pain to dissipate.

But about a month ago, seemingly out of nowhere, the pain was back and for no good reason. There was no trauma. There was certainly no weight lifting.

I was trying to ride out the pain, but it became too pervasive for me to squash down. A typical day is a 3 on the pain scale, though in the evenings, it seems to increase to a 5 or 6. That I can't figure out. I tried to make a doc appointment only to be told they could get me in on March 26th!!!!!!

Fuck that.

A day or two ago my pain level started at an 8 and stayed there. While I have a fairly high tolerance for pain, this was wearing on me.

Yesterday, I called and got a same day appointment. Sure, I had to travel to a farther facility, but it was worth it.

And of course, I started to formulate scenarios: arthritis. carpal tunnel. One morning I even lay awake, figuring it was another bout of bone cancer and that I would lose my arm. It sucks being me.


Ruckiry (not Jon's boss), carpal tunnel can't happen in the elbow. So that was ruled out. The x-ray shows no signs of arthritis - so that is good. Oh, and no tumor or anything.

After some manipulation of my arms and looking at range of motion - or lack thereof - and gauging the pain at each exercise, I was diagnosed with Lateral Epicondylitis.......or as you might know it:

Tennis Elbow.

Forget the fact that I don't play tennis. Or rarely. And by rarely, nothing in the last decade.

And wouldn't you know it's my left hand! My eating, writing and 'batin' hand - which in theory could be why it is so sore. But nah.........those aren't the reasons. If that were the reason, I'd have had 'tennis elbow' since I was like 15.  You know, because I was um always writing and using kitchen utensils to eat.

I'm getting put on a prescription anti-inflammatory (yay, more pills to take!). I will have to wear an elbow brace for a bit. And I have a script for another round of physical therapy.  Yay me.

There are alternate treatments not covered by insurance, and ironically are cheaper than PT, considering our deductible has yet paid down, since this is the first medical expense for 2015.

But the weird-ass treatments include taking my blood, spinning off the plasma and injecting that plasma into my elbow muscles and tendons. Or the other one is injecting some kind of glucose serum into the same area. Then there is something with electronic pulses into the tendon. All running about a grand for three treatments.

While they sound promising, there doesn't seem to be enough data to support successful treatment. I'll probably just start going to PT next week.  {sigh}

If my father and grandmother were any indication - only another 43 more years to go.

Shoot me.



Song by: Iris DeMent

11 comments:

Erik Rubright said...

Needles stuck in elbow muscles and tendons! I think I may have passed out just thinking about that.

Fearsome Beard said...

Well, my rhuematologist says...
What the hell I'm 51 and I have a rhuematologist?
Yep Blobby, I know what you're talking about.

Bob said...

I'm sitting here just thinking, "Ow."


Sorry about that.

Jeffrey said...

A properly trained massage therapist can help tendinitis clear up in about five to seven sessions. Fascism work and friction ing can have it much better in a single session.

Jeffrey said...

"fascial

Jeffrey said...

Dang autocorrect

Mark in DE said...

I can't believe you do yoga so frequently with that elbow. Sorry you are going through a rough patch. Good luck with the treatments.

BosGuy said...

Yikes, I'm so sorry to hear about your elbow. I've hurt my back and struggling through that pain so I really sympathize.

Robert said...

Getting old certainly has it's drawbacks. I started physical therapy today for my chronic lower back pain. And looking in the medicine cabinet is now an adventure when now I see lots of pill bottles and I think, "what the hell was I taking THIS for?"

Hope you feel better soon!

Ur-spo said...

No fun, this
I am glad to see people here giving you support.

Biki Honko said...

Hubby had the same thing happen to him, a nagging pain that morphed into can't deal with this pain.

After a dose of pills and PT, he was still in pain, so a buddy of him told him to go to acupuncture. That worked, it took a bit, but the pain started receding fairly quickly. You might want to give it a try, can't hurt yeah?