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Tendenitis

2K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  flydoc 
#1 ·
Cast my forearm out this fall. What do you guys do for tendenitis?

Cheers,

Eric
 
#3 ·
Ouch! I've had it in both elbows and it took a long time to heal, maybe six months (or longer??) Left elbow went first, and before that healed I wrecked the right elbow so I had two bum arms at the same time for a while. I never sought medical treatment or did any rehab therapy, I just avoided doing anything that hurt (after fishing was over for the season :hihi: ) and eventually they stopped hurting, although I can still feel a bit of a twinge if I lift something the wrong way.

During those long drives home with a throbbing right elbow, I found that I could ease the pain by resting my arm on the passenger seat with my palm pressed against the seat and fingers spread wide so that my forearm muscles were as relaxed as possible.

Q
 
#4 ·
Yeah, If feel your pain, literally. After working on the house, lots of hammering, drilling, you get the idea I blew out my left arm.
After 2 months of putting up with it, went to the doc hoping for a script for physical therapy I guess that cannot start until the pain does. Got a big bottle of naprosin orders for ice, heat and rest - it's gotten better in the last couple weeks but I know better than to do much with it.

One thing that does help minimize the pain is a band that goes around the arm just below the elbow - you can find them with the ace bandages just about anywhere.
 
#5 ·
Hi Eric...I have been through this and it can take up to 6 mths to heal, esp if you continue to abuse it. This is what worked for me (recommended by a PT that I knew)......1) get a forearm elastic brace made for tennis elbow and place it about two inches below the elbow....wear it if your doing something physical..it gives the tendon support and lessens the chance of further injury;
2) ice the area;heat never helped me;
3) find the tendon just below the elbow and with your fingers, rub it crossways....why that works I don't know, but it does......plus it can be done laying on the couch watching TV and will drive your wife crazy :) Good luck!
Ron
 
#10 · (Edited)
Juro nailed it when he stated that technique should be examined.

Here is the straight scoop, though it may anger some. Most fly fishermen learned casting from a guide or instructor that has improper mechanics. By improper I mean anything other than that taught by Joan Wulff or the folks at Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club in San Francisco or their disciples.

A correct single-hand stroke is vertical, using shoulder, elbow and wrist to achieve the straight line rod tip path to success. You are probably not stroking vertically, and you will suffer fisherman's elbow [tennis elbow] forever. I speak from experience; I learned to cast from guides that were fine natural athletes, but had poor technique, and it took two cortisone shots in my elbow every year to get through trout season, for 12 years.

If you learned to cast from a "natural athlete" there is a good chance that your casting technique is incorrect.

My solution was casting instruction from a disciple of Joan Wulff, who taught me the vertical stroke, and I have not seen a syringe of cortisone for 13 years.

Joan Wulff's books on fly casting are superb--there is no one close to her in technical knowledge and ability to describe the casting stroke. This is not an overstatement.

Good luck with your injury. I know the pain you are enduring. To get rid of the pain, you need a physical therapist that has treated many, many tennis elbows [lateral epicondilytis]. The injury can be resolved in as few as four visits, depending on your ability to withstand pain as the deep forearm massage breaks apart scar tissue. You will cry--just bear with it. After the PT deep massage, ice the forearm. When the physical therapist has done all he can [he, because almost no women have the strength to do the job. The men that can have weight lifter arms and terrific hand strength], then go to the orthopaedic surgeon for a cortisone shot in the elbow to eliminate residual inflammation. That will be the end of the problem, forever, guaranteed.
 
#11 · (Edited)
One technique while fishing that helped me get rid of some elbow/wrist trouble I had was to eliminate false casting as much as humanly possible to minimize the strain and workload. Pick up the line and put it back down...one or two false casts and that's it.

If you don't have this mind set then give it some thought anyway. Helped me a ton and my pain troubles never occured again after they healed up from the first go around.


Good luck and hope you heal up fast.
 
#12 ·
I'm very inclined to agree with Bob Pauli re technique. The tendenitis I have is now no more than a residual tingling and numbness in my right finger tips, nothing near the severe pain and trauma generally associated with tennis elbow. None the less, I think the responses to my query have pointed up the occupational hazard for fly anglers who use incorrect mechanics while casting (myself definitely included). When fishing for silvers in Alaska, we go for two weeks and fish approximately eight hours a day -- sometimes more sometimes less -- I use a 10 wt Sage RPG 10106 (now busted), and throw as much line as I can out into the lagoon over and over and over again. Usually after about three days of this, a lateral muscle below my right shoulder (latissimus dorsi?) begins to ache, sometimes becoming so painful that I have to bend over for a while to relieve the pain. The pain goes away after a few minutes and I can continue casting. The tendenitis thing hit me this year after about ten days of steady casting. It was really bad at first, especially at night, but the symptoms have subsided now to the tingling sensations I mentioned above.

I think if my mechanics were better, I would not have had this problem. It's one thing to fish for just a couple of days, where bad mechanics can be disregarded, but quite something else on a prolonged trip casting with heavy tackle. I need to make some adjustments. I'll start out by taking a look at Joan Wulff's book.

Again, thanks for all the input from everybody. Obviously tendenitis is a concern for a lot of us.

Cheers,

Eric
 
#13 ·
Technique is the key!

As a medical professional and fly guy, I can testify that improper techinque is at the heart of most cases of "tennis elbow" or "golfer's elbow" in flyfishing, as they also are in their namesake sports. And as with the other activities, one of the main mistakes is not only poor technique, but the tendency to try to compensate for the results of poor technique (shorter casts, slices/hooks, etc) by putting more muscle/speed into the casting stroke, further aggravating the problem. Juro has pointed this out to me on several occasions, both for single and double handed casting. Find the correct technique, and let the rod handle the load...your joints and tendons will thank you for it! :)
Flydoc
P.S. In the meantime, a tennis elbow band can help.
 
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