Severe and Persistent Tricep Pain, Doctors Useless. Need Help
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Some information: |
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One of the things that worked for me, when I had elbow tendonitis - including my tricep, was eccentric contractions. I did those on a dip bench. Jump up into an arm straight position (don't push up, the point is to only exercise the muscle eccentrically - stretching, not contracting) and then lower slowly. Also stretching helps though that's a little hard with the triceps. My tricep tendonitis was more ventral than central. |
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Bill, |
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not to state the obvious, but didn't anyone have you get an mri? |
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Doing some exercises does not constitute doing "physical therapy". |
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No doctor mentioned or recommended me getting an MRI or an ultra sound. |
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Your doctor is no help so you are going to take medical advice from the Internet from people who haven't examined you? Not smart. I would get a second or third opinion from another doctor. Don't believe anything on the Internet especially medical advice. You could end up in worse shape. |
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Rolfing Structural Integration may help. There are some great Rolfers in your area. Backchannel me if you want recommendations. |
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Brian, I have met with 3 different doctors and have taken their advice and has gotten me no where. |
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I had Achilles tendon injury while back. Even with PT, eccentric contractions - low load, high rep, it took ~1 year to get back to semi-normal. |
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I'm not too surprised that doctors were no help. I've seen two doctors for tendonitis and both advised me to "stop exercising that muscle and take ibuprofin," which did me no good (I would leave the muscle idle for months and then it would be as bad as ever the day I finally resume exercise). Finally found a good PT who was able to get rid of the problems with deep massage, eccentric exercises, and stretching. I see where you don't have tendonitis, but my point is that when something is neither life threatening nor completely crippling, doctors tend to have very minimal "go do this" type advice, where often you need somebody who can work together with you for a long period of time to get to a solution. |
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Erez L wrote:...if any has some suggestions on some a way I can get some therapies or has a suggestion on someone to see in the DC/MD/VA area that would be much appreciated.Find a family physician or physiatrist (physical med/rehab specialist) with the CAQ in sports medicine, and who has access to a good musculoskeletal ultrasound facility. (Most ultrasound facilities do a great job with gallbladders but lack the specialized skills for really good MSK imaging.) In your area I'd look toward either the Fairfax or Georgetown sports medicine programs. They're both teaching fellowship programs, with professors of sports medicine who will have more depth of knowledge. That'll be your best bet to figure out what's really going on. Then be prepared for a long haul, because you're trying to heal tissue that has a very limited blood supply and hence builds new fibers very slowly. Good luck! |
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Fact is, tendons don't heal in a reliable way to different forms of therapy. If you're expecting a panacea, you're in for disappointment. You can't undo damage that has been done. Scarring and damage to the normal tendon fibers can't be made to disappear. |
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Jonathan Williams wrote:Fact is, tendons don't heal in a reliable way to different forms of therapy. If you're expecting a panacea, you're in for disappointment. You can't undo damage that has been done. Scarring and damage to the normal tendon fibers can't be made to disappear. If your description is accurate, you almost certainly have chronic injuries to your triceps tendon...Like Al Gore, you speak an inconvenient truth. It really highlights the need for prevention and for early treatment. For prevention, the key is understanding that muscle builds strength within weeks, but tendons and ligaments work-harden over months to years. Pushing too hard too fast is the express lane to injury. Another is not taking enough rest-and-repair days between climbing sessions, especially the first two years in the sport or when getting back into it after a time away. Mostly these are overuse injuries, and the way to avoid overuse injury is... just what you'd think it is. For early treatment, as soon as your body is trying to tell you something, listen to it! Playing through pain is a macho tradition in football, but it's a world-class bad idea for a climber. When you start to get a tendinosis or a ligament overuse pain, back off frequency and intensity, and get on rehabilitating it at once. I know it's hard to sell that, especially to the young and enthusiastic, but it's the reality. (Sometimes I think sports medicine is 25% anatomy and physiology, and 75% psychology - trying to get competitive and driven athletes to do less of what they live for.) |
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You might begin by reading the PDF linked in the 'ruptured elbow surgery' thread. Page 75 or so discusses enthesopathies which is a general term that includes tendonitis. The author mentions prp injections and also dry needling the muscle belly. You might begin with the dry needling since it's much less expensive and even covered by some insurances. You can find PT's who dry needle by going to the IMS or Kinetacore website. |
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This won't cure you, but it might assist in pain relief and improve healing: try kinesiotaping your elbow. |
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Thanks all! |
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Hey guys, |
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Curious what the final diagnosis was. |
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I wish I got a diagnosis. |