Re: OT: anybody dealt with tendinitis?

[Bob Weigel <sounddoctorin@imt.net>]

Here's a little story that might shed some light on at least one thing 
I've learned in treatment that defies what doctors all told me years 
ago.  My reason for dissing anti-inflammatories and making the band aid 
metaphor is that there is a reason inflammation is occuring and to 
simply treat the symptom is generally never a good thing in my 
observation.  I've been a fairly good athlete  a good chunk of my life 
and have obviously dealt with a lot of injuries.  For example I used to 
twist ankles all the time...had this...wonderfully helpful Center (who 
became a police officer and got smacked by a car and has been in a coma 
for years... I pray somehow he'll pull through some day) who would stick 
his foot under me as I was trying to take someone to the hole..knowing 
I'm blind on my left side and there was no way I could see the guy.  But 
anyway I'd lay there screaming in pain and..finally figured out that 
pampering it and icing it and trying to keep swelling down was just 
making things worse....to where I was on crutches.

I finally got really pissed off and developed an attitude of delving 
INTO the pain (barring anything being actually broken bone wise...) to 
find a solution.  It happened the next time and I just said "this isn't 
working" and I jumped up enduring the pain and began to run exerting 
what pressure I felt was good on the thing and I just ran right out of 
the gym and went on a good long gradual run, focusing on what was going 
on in the ankle.   Then later I went out again after some nourishment 
and ran on it on uneven pothole ground and...maybe this sounds like a 
kung-fu school...but it worked!  I never sprained my ankle again after 
the next time I think.  I remember doing this twice and...no more ankle 
sprains  EVEN amidst the injury, the best thing was to just skip the 
ice, skip the ibuprofin or whatever that crap is...  and just get out 
with my body and work it with full awareness of what was going on.  
Perhaps this develops a keener awareness and ones MIND learns to be 
involved in controlling various body functions that promote healing?  I 
think the reason most people just fear the pain...and sometimes the BEST 
thing to do is that which may hurt the worst for a little while. 

Case in point 2.  A few years ago my 90+ mph throwing arm got badly 
damaged by this guy in a jesting video wrestling match who gave me a 
bloody nose because he's out of control.... and I tried to stop the 
match noting that I was bleeding and he had to get a good photofinish as 
I stopped resisting trusting that he wouldn't be an egghead...but he was 
and he threw me down with his weight (220) and my 185 landing on my 
right elbow and driving the rotator so hard that any normal person would 
have gone to the hospital. 

But silly me...instead of incurring absurd expenses, I worked it and 
worked it for a few minutes, did push ups with excruciating pain right 
away...and kept working it what felt like would be good and within a 
couple weeks could throw a football maybe...20 yards again :-). But 
after a good chunk of a year was throwing more like 50 yards again 
because I to the weights you normally pull in from both sides..and just 
pulled one of the cables around and around with 25 lbs on it and just 
worked the sore area and focused on it so I wouldn't overstress anything. 

Most of these types of problems are like that.  You have to spend some 
time doing physical therapy.  And the therapy is best if it's fairly low 
stress, high repetition and you aren't on any screwy drugs and chemicals 
that you put in your body besides the nutrition that will allow the 
cells to actually rebuild the damaged stuff.

I've had good success with this method with the broken wrist also and a 
inverted finger in another case (hit a guy's knee going for a steal.  
Man..that looked ugly.  I reset it and kept playing and actually got 
smoking hot right after that and put away a team that was ahead 6 to 
2..hehe..) , having abnormally fast healing.  So I strongly recommend a 
regular physical therapy aimed at creating good circulation in the area 
of the problem and a high rep/low stress work out there that will 
promote repair with appropriate nutrition as the baseline for recovery 
on these kinds of things.  It takes time but it's a steady road to 
progress.

Jim Goodin wrote:

> Thanks for all thoughts on this subject, particularly the info on 
> Alexander Technique which I think has a lot of merit.  My situation is 
> not that bad but I always get concerned when I get these signs.  I do 
> think in my case I'm probably over-playing and there is a lot of 
> repetition in many of my solo pieces.  As a player I don't sit so 
> trying to be more sensitive to how I hold the guitar in stance.
>
> Again I'm glad this spurned some chatter as I figured some had had 
> some experiences with physical issues.
>
> jim
>
> On 2/3/08, *Bob Weigel* <sounddoctorin@imt.net 
> <mailto:sounddoctorin@imt.net>> wrote:
>
>     Anti-inflammatories etc. are kind of like putting a band aid over an
>     infection I'm afraid.   Just leads to worse problems down the
>     road....like as though they shouldn't be able to see that from just
>     observing trends in the useage of these things and other diseases 
>that
>     arise.    The drug industry is so powerful they steer the kind of
>     research that gets exposed and they spoon feed protocol for
>     analysis to
>     doctors pretty much.
>
>     Doctors typically get what is is..like 4 hours of nutritional
>     training?   That oughta open people's eyes. -Bob
>
>     Richard Sales wrote:
>
>     > I had tennis elbow, shoulder and funky wrist at one point. Couldn't
>     > scratch my head, throw a ball or hold the guitar. I changed how
>     I sit
>     > with the guitar - I sit classical style now with guitar between my
>     > legs - and it's gone. I learned this from John Fahey.
>     >
>     > I turn 60 soon!
>     >
>     > My son the spinal surgeon recommends anti inflammatory pills like
>     > advil or ibuprofin. I have a lot of resistance to new
>     addictions, though.
>     >
>     > Vitamins are good. Glucosamine (sp?) is great. Acupuncture is great
>     > for making pain go away but doesn't always hold up. I've seen it
>     stop
>     > the pain of brain tumors! But it didn't make the brain tumor go
>     away.
>     > So it might be a good move while you change your technique. Posture
>     > etc is so critical. And certainly yoga etc would be wise. I don't 
>do
>     > it, but admire those who do.
>     >
>     > Anything that keeps the blood moving is probably good. I still have
>     > some recurring back pain, but I think that's from lifting heavy 
>amps
>     > and farm work. As long as I'm conscious of it, it's just there, not
>     > debilitating at all.
>     >
>     > Knock on wood
>     >
>     > richard sales
>     > glassWing farm and studio
>     > vancouver island, b.c.
>     > www.glassWing.com <http://www.glassWing.com>
>     > www.richardsales.com <http://www.richardsales.com>
>     > www.hayleysales.com <http://www.hayleysales.com>
>     > www.joannesales.com <http://www.joannesales.com> (coming soon!)
>     > On 2-Feb-08, at 2:54 PM, Per Boysen wrote:
>     >
>     >     On Feb 2, 2008 11:20 PM, Jim Goodin
>     <jimgoodinmusic@gmail.com <mailto:jimgoodinmusic@gmail.com>> wrote:
>     >
>
>
>
>
> -- 
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