I’ve overexerted my right arm, causing moderate tendonitis. I refuse to take any narcotics, like pain killers or even some muscle relaxers, which really dont help the tendonitis anyway.
Ive been trying to give my arm some rest but I have to clean stalls, move hay etc. I can’t hire anyone right now.
I’ve tried surpass and bengay, ice and heat therapy but nothing is giving me relief. I’m scheduling an ortho appt in the am to discuss injections ad I can’t keep hurting. I’m right handed and have carpal tunnel syndrom as well so I’m getting hit hard right now.
I do hand arm and elbow stretches, too. It hurts to bend my elbow, hurts to straighten my elbow and fingers. For awhile it was better but now i cant sleep because it hurts.
Does anyone have any suggestions of tried and true methods for dealing with tendonitis? Especially at the barn?
I know from experience the drs will do an emg study, xrays, maybe an MRI, rx pain pills, do an ultrasound etc, all the same stuff I went through with my carpal tunnel. I dont know if injections will help with the inflammation but no other NSAIDS are so I guess it might be worth a try.
Thanks for your insight.
Shockwave did wonders for my elbow!
Yes, but you’re not going to like it. You must rest the tendon. Ice it at least three times a day. Take ibuprofen every four hours for a week to get the inflammation under control. You probably need to hire some help.
I had biceps tendinitis and was told six months no riding. It just sucks and I’m sorry you are dealing with this.
I had really bad elbow/forearm tendonitis for almost a year from hammering some years ago, and I ended up at a bodyworker for something else, and she fixed it by manipulating my wrist. She does structural integration. It left and never came back…amazing.
I had tendonitis of my Achilles. A real pain(haha) because no matter what you do it is hard to stay off your feet.I went to Ortho sports medicine who had me take Naproxen for a couple of weeks and some stretches to do. Didn’t help at all. After a few more months of pain and taking Ibuprofen like it was going out of style, I went to have accupuncture. It took a while to get better because I had been having the tendonitis for about 8 months and continued to ride and work full time. One of the best things my accupuncture dr. did was to give me an RX for compounded Voltaran(diclofenac) 10x the normal strength. It also has Lidocaine in it. I rarely need to use it on my achilles any more, but I use it on other aches and pains.
Muscle relaxers do help tendonitis - they relax the muscle, which lowers the stress on the attached tendon. I have gotten tendonitis in the past just from spasmed muscles. (I love my body, really I do:rolleyes:)
As others have said, rest, NSAIDs and ice. To quote the doc I saw last week “Ice the hell out of it, lots of ibuprofen and stay off it” Peroneal tendon in my case.
I have had some good luck with KT tape at times, especially for the patellar tendon below the knee. You need to find someone who knows how to put it on; it’s not at all straight forward.
I’ve had some elbow issues lately too (I dug up my yard :D); it feels like tendonitis, but is more from the assortment of muscle knots from my forearm through my shoulder.
Well, the muscle relaxers did not help, except to make me sleep for days. In fact, I hurt worse on them as I slept so hard I didn’t pay attention and slept with my arm under me, or crossed over my chest with my fists clenched.
Unfortunately, there is no way to not use my arm, although I am more conscious about it and am trying to be more ambidextrous. And i can not hire anyone to help, theres no money for it. I run our farm and we are in the middle of a nasty custody battle with Mr. Cs ex wife.
Has anyone had injections for tendonitis? I have high blood pressure so I need to be careful about my NSAID intake according to my Dr, including topical use as well. The voltaren (surpass) helped when it was more mild but now nothing helps so I’m thinking (hoping) injections will help.
I’ve had cortisone injections into my tendons… I had golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow from hammering, pulling nails and too much farm work. It helped a lot and I had it redone about 4-5 months later and then I was good on my own. The injections were a miracle solution for me.
I also used these Band-its.
As the others have said, lots of ice. I used my horse’s ice boots at work during that time to reduce the pain I was in. I also didn’t find drugs or Voltarin (Surpass) particularly effective.
I also tried Active Release Therapy about 5 times which helped a bit but for the money it cost, I didn’t find it effective.
Lol too much farm work! Yep, that’s me. Building fences, stacking hay, cleaning stalls, oh it goes on. Heck, just bending my arm to scratch my nose hurts like heck!! I have my appt Friday so I am hoping we can try the injections. This is slowing me down too much!
Can you vetrap it? Helps provide support and compression.
injections did nothing for me, I am serious, shockwaved it twice and have never looked back. It is a prescribed therapy for tendinitis.
Acupuncture worked for me.
I had better luck with the back on track elbow sleeve than injections. What really did the trick was PT though. My elbow was popping very slightly out of alignment and my PT was able to fix that.
Nsaids come in many kinds and I think that’s your best bet. I would not worry about your BP for a temporary injury recovery period and besides it won’t likely affect it. Try naproxen as a good long term OTC w/no cardiac side effects for effectiveness. The thing about nsaids is…they MUST be taken around the clock for longer periods to be effective. 7-10 days minimum before you rule them out. They are not to be taken just whenever you are really in pain or once/day or once every few days but to prevent & minimize it. You can’t skip doses or you have to start again. AROUND THE CLOCK!! Nsaids are curative. Antiinflammatory AND analgesic. You could try oral voltaren or celebrex also for longer term treatment. There are no drugs without side effects so get used to it. Many of us mature riders live on these things to stay functional. I’m worried you seem to want to be pain free without doing what’s needed to get there. Rest, ice, meds etc or suffer. That’s your choices!! Sorry!
Horsewomen can be stubborn. We think we’re superwomen! We want what we want when we want it and how we want it. But sometimes life doesn’t deal us the right cards and we have to play the hand we’ve been dealt and optimize our lives as best we can. Compromise. Leave horses out to avoid doing stalls for a few weeks maybe. Take drugs. ASK for help. and so on!
[QUOTE=mroades;7564556]
injections did nothing for me, I am serious, shockwaved it twice and have never looked back. It is a prescribed therapy for tendinitis.[/QUOTE]
Where would one get shock wave therapy? Do you mean like they use on horses?
Yes, like they use on people.
Other than shockwave, and I have had it in various places, elbows, forearms, etc in my life, rest and time does heal it. For example, I had a three year period without a car living in the city, where I carried heavy bags of groceries home almost daily. My tendonitis made it so that I could hardly pick up a dinner plate and hand it to someone, that was the position and strain I had. Over time, once I moved and got a car, the tendons healed. I had stopped using them in the same way. Wrist tendonitis stopped once I got a different job and stopped typing on an old machine which positioned me oddly. And I had tennis elbow (tendonitis) as a teen which cleared up after I stopped daily tennis.
Annecdotally, tendonitis does clear up with rest and time. I have heard people who have had it (think physical therapy) say that shockwave therapy ‘works’ as in they feel better. I don’t know anything about it and how it works, so probably more research wouod be responsible. And yes, they use it on horses. :sadsmile:
Watery Glen, that was an excellent post about nsaids! My choice is ibuprofen, not naproxen, it just works better for me. When I’ve taken naproxen, I’ve been given an Rx for 600 mg pills, and ibuprofen I take one 800 mg pill. The irritations and side effects come mostly from the materials the pill is made out of, so your best bet is to get a pill in the milligrams you need all in one pill, less collateral material to injest, and fewer side effects, such as indigestion, or what have you. But I know many people who use naproxen like you do and like it better than ibuprofen for their own issues.
Anti inflamatories are important to use correctly, as you said, and you need to keep up with them and not let them wear off, then you have to ‘start over’ to get the inflamation down. The idea is to get the inflamation down and keep it down without letting it flare up again, giving the injury a chance to heal.
Nice points.
I’ve been dealing with tennis elbow (really mucker’s elbow!) for about the last 4 months. I finally went to the sports med/ortho doc and he put me on anti-inflammatories (Meloxicam) for 6 weeks and gave me a brace to wear. I just went back for my follow up last week and when I told him there was improvement but still pain, he gave me a cortisone injection. It hurt worse the day of the injection and the day after but it’s been almost a week now and I think it must be kicking in because it feels a LOT better. He said it would last for about 3 months and I may or may not still have pain once it wears off. He did tell me that it isn’t unusual for it to take a full YEAR to get over tennis elbow. :no:
Back on Track is a must especially as your continuing to work in it. Cortisone injections are somewhat unpredictable (worked amazing for my knee not so much for my back or neck - yeah I’m pretty broken… let’s just say car met pedestrian and pedestrian lost). A good physician will also be very cautious in giving you cortisone as continual use of it is bad for the joint. I had a case of bursitis in my hip which resolved only with active release therapy and acupuncture - so worth a try. My over the counter drug of choice was Aleve (aka Naproxen). Truthfully narcotics likely won’t be extremely effective anyway if you continue to work - they have limited effectiveness for breakthrough or nerve pain. I take three pain related meds and none are narcotics.
But I must say don’t push your arm… I ended up having to have surgery on my worst tendonitis which was my shoulder and they had to remove the tendon completely from the shoulder (luckily you have 2) and re-attach it to the bicep as it was too damaged to keep in the joint.
Back on Track is a great affordable addition to whatever treatment plan you go down.
I find that a combination of extra strength rub a535 or icyhot, under a back on track elbow and/or wrist wrap (depending on if it’s my elbow or wrist acting up) works wonders for when I have a tendinitis flareup. the even pressure and heat-reflection of the BoT wrap combined with the deep penetrating cold-and-hot rotation of the a535/icyhot soothes the pain better than oral meds, and helps to keep any potential swelling down. I’d be lost without my BoT wraps/braces!!!
I’m allergic to acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen, so my OTC options are limited to Naproxen (Aleve). It will often take the edge off, but I find the rub-on stuff works better for me. I started taking MSM to help recover from my ankle injury, and I found that it has also helped reduce the frequency of tendinitis flareups as well, and when it does flare up it’s not quite as long lasting or painful. MSM is CHEAP, I noticed a difference within the first 2 weeks with my ankle. I also have a cream that has MSM in it (along with some medicinal-strength essential oils) that I use before and after any activity that would normally trigger a flare up and it seems to reduce the risk of aggravating it. Plus it smells nice, haha!
