Over the past couple months, twice, while climbing, my left elbow has filled up with some fliud till its about the size of a ping pong ball. There is no pain with the fliud filled sack. Anybody ever seen/experienced anything like this?

The first time that it happened, was after 15-20 pitches of easy soloing on the wind tower at eldo, followed by a trip up the bastille- my elbow swelled up on the third pitch or so and scared the hell out of me. After that I thought the condition was possibly due to mileage. However, yesterday, it did the same thing to me on the first pitch of the day (also on the bastille, ironically enough). This leads me to believe that the condition is from hand jamming because bouldering and sport climbing (ie face) dont seem to create the condition, even though I'm generally climbing at a higher level bouldering/sport wanking.

Also, on a related topic: Anyone know of a sport medicine doc/climber in the boulder/denver area? I'd love a good recommendation. Thanks for reading.

Photos of condition/injury:

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--Marc

I have something that looks and acts like that in my knee, it's called a "baker's cyst." It's a herniated bursa - the bursa sac fills up with synovial fluid and herniates out the back of the knee. Root cause is is some other irritation that causes inflammation & development of excess synovial fluid - mine is some kind of patellar tendinitis, or maybe meniscus damage (haven't had a good diagnosis).

I wonder if it's the same thing.

This happened to my elbow 10 years ago. A day after pulling down really hard on 11+ crimp crux.It didn't hurt much I researched and concluded it was a ruptured Bursa sack. Bursas occur were A tendon has to turn A corner and go around a bone;they allow the tendon to slide freely without wearing it self out as it rubs agaist the bone I found a joint doc at local hospital and had it drained it never came back if it does it could be bursitis yikes!which can require chcortozone injections to treat.good luck Marc

That looks like olecranon bursitis. Look it up on Google. I am a gastroenterologist, so my knowledge of this sort of thing is probably only slightly more than yours. I think it is usually due to overuse or repetitive minor trauma.

When you hand jam, you probably lever off your elbow or perhaps tick it when inserting your hand. This is an occupational risk of people who rest their elbows on hard surfaces such as a desk.

I don't think it is dangerous, but it can get infected. Check with a real doctor though.

Could it be possible that "15-20 pitches of easy soloing on the wind tower at eldo, followed by a trip up the bastille" could tip one into the range of overuse?

Oh to be young again.......

I agree with the bursitis.. usually it's from drilling it hard against something and the bursa sac breaks and swells up and looks like that. You can get it drained or wait and see if just ice and advil/aleve whatever will get it to go down.

never heard of it happening from any sort of muscle over use.. i checked 2 of my athletic training books and they only mention acute blows or chronic trauma (leaning on a desk)

It could be some sort of tendinitis or muscle strain, ligament sprain in that area that swelled up and just looks like bursitis. You'd have pain or limited range of motion in that case.

If it's not painful then the only thing i'd keep and eye on would be if it gets more swollen or hot to the touch.. that would indicate an infection and you'd want to see someone pretty quick about that.

Bastillitis. . . not bursitis (c'mon, anyone can see that).
I'm a bastillitentologist, so my extensive study and research on this ailment can be trusted.
What you need is beer, and plenty of it. Slow down man - quit trying to push yourself into a place where your body doesn't belong. Sit down, look around, relax, gawk, and drink a beer, followed by many more.
(Note: beers must be cold, not the filthy warm grime from the "pubs" across the pond).

Just to update anyone who took an interest in this:

After the third onset of this condition, I finally saw a medical professional today up at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. The PA did indeed diagnose the condition as Bursitis (most likely, of the uninfected variety.) He gave me two options for treatment: Sit tight and watch it, or be more aggressive, drain it, and inject some cortisone. I choose the latter. After draining, the PA saw that the sac was filled with not only synovial fluid, but blood as well (possibly indicating the condition was caused by trauma), so he withheld the cortisone.

So, right now, the only thing that I can do is hang out for a couple of days and watch the elbow. I will try to climb on it in the next couple of days and see what happens.

Thanks to everyone to posted, even you Cameron :). Although, I must say that beer from 'across the pond' is great, as long is you chill it thoroughly.

--Marc

Marc,

You really need to rest if for more than a few days...

I had this very same issue and it took a long time to heal. It got infected and over time a hard deposit started to form on the end of my elbow. I was doing a lot of weighted pullups during this period as well which didn't help.

I eventually had surgery to remove the deposit and it took about a year before I was back to normal. I'm pain free now. Moral of the story, once something like this happens take an extended break from climbing. My surgery cost 18,000 dollars and you don't want to have to go down that road.

Rest it, get rid of the infection and follow it up with cortinsone to help it heal.