"Bursitis" in the elbow joint is almost always a spongy painfull swelling on the outside of the joint, over the "elbow bone" (the olecranon). It is usually caused by leaning on the elbow, very seldom caused by repetitive motion or stress. However, there several kinds of "tennis elbow" things which cause pain in and around the elbow joint and are repetitive stress injuries. Subluxation (slippage) of the elbow and arthritic changes can also so this. The "straight elbow" paddling technique can help here, but it's hard to use over time unless one also uses a very wide-apart hand position, which can easily cause undue stress on shoulder joints. The torso rotation part of the stroke, of course, is very helpful no matter what problems we're having with a forward stroke. "Vitamin I" (ibuprofen, for **those who've had no acid-peptic problems**) helps a lot, taken prophylactically and regularly - not "just" for pain. A ten day course of regular high-dose ibuprofen can often be amazingly helpful. Ask a good orthopedist or sports medicine specialist what "high dose" means in your individual case. It varies. Or, the newer "cox-2" anti-inflammatories like Celebrex or Vioxx, if you have some past tummy troubles and a thicker wallet. Don't take any of this stuff over a longer period of time unless you do so under specific instructions of a doc who knows what she/he is doing!! Various kinds of elastic or tape support can help. These are not alwyas easy problems to sort out. Treatments are usually pretty simple, but most docs don't have the depth of interest or training to know what they're seeing and/or how to treat an individual with a sports-related stress syndrome like this. A physiatrist or sports medicine specialist can help a great deal, both in diagnosing the problem and in sorting out what treatment measures will help an individual. The cost of a visit or two to such a specialist is usually very worthwhile for chronic problems. IMO, this is a situation where a chiropractor would be very unlikely to help. Bill Hansen Ithaca NY *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jun 13 2000 - 06:27:49 PDT
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