bicep tendon surprise

So I've had an obvious swelling spot on the lower Left bicep. It hadn't gone away after a couple months, and this morning I had a Physical Therapist look at it.

She said pretty likely a complete rupture of one of the two tendons. So the "swelling" I'd noticed was most likely that tendon, chopped off above and folded down below.

I was amazed.
Missing half the attachment of one of my most important climbing muscles.
Hard for me to figure out . . .

? How could that have happened without me noticing? Without feeling some pain signal?

? How could there not have been some noticeable (short-lived?) decline in my Left-side climbing performance?

Surprise afterward . . .
I went to my favorite indoor gym and did some of the hardest moves in my life.
? With half the tendons for my upper left arm gone?

I've got an appointment with a trusted orthopedic surgeon next Tuesday.

Glad for some suggestions and perspectives.

Ken

Wow. All I can say is take your time and heal after whatever craziness your doc does to you. Then rehab like a mofo. Go above and beyond to slowly and carefully build up the strength. Take it from my profile photo. I just spent 23 months and three surgeries to get my arm "as good as it's going to get": those were my doctors words. I also did six months of elbow therapy only to find out it was damaging my entirely fucked up wrist. And then had to have even more surgery. So speak up if things don't feel right and be patient. You'll be crushing again, it's just gonna take a lil while. Good luck bro!!!!

I had a torn/ruptured distal bicep tendon. Had a surgical reattachment (was told that time was of the essence; if you wait too long, a graft may be needed to reattach). Promptly tore the surgical reattachment. Have lived with it ever since. Some loss of strength in that arm.

When a distal bicep tendon is completely torn, the bicep "windowshades" or balls up toward the shoulder. A noticeable "Popeye" arm. Doesn't sound like you have the windowshading, so it may not be completely torn.

Going to see the orthopedist is the right thing to do. Good luck.

I know one person that has ruptured a bicep head on both arms & climbed harder than I do now. I know another w/ a rupture on one arm; it didn't affect him too much.

I wouldn't characterize the bicep as the most important climbing muscles (well, do you need it) as IME it's almost never the first (large) muscle completely taxed while climbing.

There are strong dudes (yes mostly dudes) walking around all over the world with ruptured biceps tendons (proximal and distal). It is unbelievably common.

kenr wrote:? How could that have happened without me noticing? Without feeling some pain signal?

Pain is complex and not well understood unfortunately.

The biceps isn't the strongest elbow flexor in climbing (or anything), the brachialis is. You'll be fine in the long run I am pretty sure.

Thanks for those encouraging interpretations of my tendon tear. Hopefully the surgeon (who has a track record of recommending non-surgery) will say the same.

My rupture is on the "long head" tendon. Seems that the absence of ongoing pain supports the diagnosis of a complete rupture.

Might have been that that tendon was already weakened by a couple of nearby injuries in the previous three months. Might be that my body was already transferring function to go through the other "short head" tendon, so I didn't notice much performance impact when the "long head" finally broke.

A couple weeks before the appearance of the "popeye" swelling, I was bitten by a yellow-jacket near my left bicep in the morning just before I started some hard climbing. At the end of the day I noticed that the whole bicep was swollen. Two weeks later the wider swelling subsided and then I noticed the more focused popeye. Perhaps the reaction to the yellow-jacket obscured the pain of the tendon rupture event (or contributed to it somehow).

Nice to hear that something that sounds so nasty might be easy to manage.

Ken

Hi Ken, I ruptured the tendon in my left bicep almost ten years ago. My orthopedic surgeon said he could fix it, but it shouldn't cause me any problems or limit my activity level if I didn't have it reattached. He said surgery would be a cosmetic fix. So far, he has been right. I have been climbing every weekend since then and haven't had any problems. It still worries me so I avoid strenuous under-clings, if I can help it. But what really made me decide against surgery was a medical mishap that a friend told me about. A guy he knows went in to get his tendon reattached and the surgeon severed a nerve. Now the poor guy's arm is completely useless from the shoulder on down. Maybe, If it isn't COMPLETELY broken, don't fix it.

Saw the orthopedic surgeon today. He took a glance at it. Confidently said,
We don't do any anything with that unless there's pain or loss of functionality.

I said What about the Popeye bump?

He said, Unless you've got a career in modeling ...

So I guess I've just got another little "lifetime friend" on my body.

Ken

kenr wrote:Saw the orthopedic surgeon today. He took a glance at it. Confidently said, We don't do any anything with that unless there's pain or loss of functionality. I said What about the Popeye bump? He said, Unless you've got a career in modeling ... So I guess I've just got another little "lifetime friend" on my body. Ken

What was the diagnosis?

Fully ruptured Proximal (upper attachment) Long head (outside) tendon.

There's two upper (proximal) tendons for the bicep muscle, one lower attachment (distal) tendon.
Tendon material is way strong, so only need one of those two proximal tendons.
. (like kidneys)

Ken

P.S. At the gym now ... Campusing moves the hardest I've ever done.

FYI, perhaps one of the better known athletes to have done this is John Elway, Broncos QB & now GM. It turned out he had been having pain from one frayed bicep tendon. When it went fully, there was a funny bump, but he actually was reported to have much improved function as he was previously affected somewhat by pain. In fact, he went on to win a Super Bowl afterwards. Also, there is an option in labrum tears to cut the long head of the biceps tendon and reattach it lower in the humerus, where it is said to give 85% strength. This is supposed to reduce pain in the torn labrum as it stops tugging on the injury.

Bicep Tendonitis can be a tough one. Some great tips can be found here: Healing Bicep Tendonitis.

Wishing you all the best!

VanessaK wrote:Bicep Tendonitis can be a tough one. Some great tips can be found here: Healing Bicep Tendonitis. Wishing you all the best!

This thread wasn't about tendonitis. ??????????????

Edit: Looks like that link from Vanessa is a plug for a company; i.e., spam.