My history with tendonitis

My name is Pat Traynor.

In 2005, I started getting symptoms of tendonitis. Recently, the doctors have told me that I have "chronic tendonitis". I googled for this and found nothing. I'm hoping that the next person who has the same problems will at least find this when the search for something.

Or perhaps someone might have some information that might help me. Who knows?

First, a little bit about me...

I'm 55 years old as I write this. Born in 1952, I contracted polio in '55 when I was almost three. The virus did a hell of a job on my left leg. I've never been able to run, and I've always walked with a limp. However, even today, I walk without the aid of any crutches, braces, etc., but I need a banister to get up stairs. So as a polio victim, I actually came out ok. I don't know if the polio has any bearing on my tendonitis, but I thought I should mention it in the interest of full disclosure.

How it all started...

In 2003, a friend and I started kayaking locally (south of Boston) in ponds and gentle rivers. By the fall of 2004, we'd each upgraded our boats and were starting to take the sport a little more seriously. We couldn't find any local kayaking groups, so we started our own:

http://www.wtpaddlers.org

We began meeting serious kayakers and in the summer of '05 (after yet another boat upgrade), we were taking more serious kayaking trips in open ocean areas - longer distances through rougher and windier waters. As the summer came to a close and autumn arrived, I started noticing a pain in both elbows. The strange thing about this was that when I was paddling, they'd never hurt. It was always during the week after paddling. The pain was only barely noticeable.

After the kayaking season ended and it was late autumn, the pain became severe in my left elbow. My primary care physician prescribed rest and ibuprofen. In January '06, the pain wasn't going away, so my doctor gave me a cortisone shot. This had an immediate effect. By the time I got to my car in his parking lot, the pain was mostly gone, and it was completely gone after two weeks. Life was good.

In the summer of '06, we started kayaking again - the pain from my elbows was a distant memory. In July, I started noticing some slight pain in the left elbow.

August '06: the pain was severe enough that I gave up kayaking for the season (and most likely, for the rest of my life). I gave it complete rest and started taking ibuprofen again.

September '06: Pain still increasing. My primary care physician referred me to an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in sports medicine. He prescribed physical therapy.

October '06: I honestly believe that the physical therapy worsened the problem, so I stopped going after a month and continued resting the elbow.

November '06: My elbow pain started getting extreme. I started getting symptoms that were similar to arthritis. If I left my arm at rest for a while, when I'd try to move it, there would be pain. Some simple movement would ultimately work the pain away. Occasionally, I'd wake up at night in severe pain.

The orthopedic surgeon gave me a cortisone shot. This time, it was two weeks before I noticed any reduction in the pain. After five weeks, the pain was gone.

December '06: Per instructions from the doctor, I started cautiously exercising my elbows to better prepare them for the upcoming kayaking season.

January ’07: Pain starts to return to the left elbow. I stop exercising. The doctor suspects a possible problem with my ulnar nerve and has me make an appointment to have that checked.

February '07: The nerve specialist gives my nerves a clean bill of health, so my doctor refers me to yet another orthopedic surgeon.

April '07: This new surgeon feels confident that surgery will fix me. He does a [need formal medical name of surgery here] which scrapes away the scar tissue. He's happy with the success of the surgery. He predicts that I can start weight training in two months and I'll be 100% in 3 months.

July '06: With no perceptible healing so far, I go back to the previous surgeon and ask again about the ulnar nerve. He doesn't believe that this has anything to do with my problems. He tells me that it appears that I have "chronic tendonitis", and it could take a long time (if ever) to heal.

August '07: Absolutely no change in my pain. The surgeon now says that perhaps my recovery might take 8-9 months.

September '07 (present): I'm changing my primary care doctor to someone who has some great local referrals, and I have an appointment with him this week. The pain in my elbow is about as severe as it ever was (like Nov '06). Unless this guy knows of some brave new medical procedure, I'll have him give me another cortisone shot, but then rest it for months and start weight training very very slowly.