From: Chris Wright <STA5CW@lucs-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Tendonitis, re juggling listserver posting 6/8/92
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Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
Date: 6 Jan 93 11:07:21 GMT
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Via: uk.ac.leeds.gps1; Wed, 6 Jan 1993 11:29:58 +0000

    Here's an e-mail I was sent a few months ago on the subject of
tendonitis:
> Date:          15 Jun 92 13:08:40
> From:          steve@igor.mwc.com (Steve Ness)
> To:            STA5CW@lucs-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk
> Subject:       Tendonitis, re juggling listserver posting 6/8/92

> Several years back, I tried to learn 5 balls with sand-filled tennis
> balls, not long after switching from my old faithful wooden tennis racket
> to a modern composite racket.  I developed tendonitis in both elbows,
> esp. my right (being right-handed), and got over it after some cortisone
> shots and considerable time.  Here's a brief summary of what I learned.
>
> (1) Figure out what motion causes/aggrivates the problem and avoid it.
> In my case, the sand-filled balls were too heavy and too jarring when
> caught.  If I had been paying more attention to what my body was
> telling me when the problem started, I would have been cured much sooner.
>
> (2) Use anti-inflammatory drugs.  Every body resonds to every drug
> differently, so you will need to experiment to find the right drug for you.
> I found naprosyn (a.k.a. naproxen, it may have another name in UK) best for
> me, although it is available only by prescription and is expensive.
> Aspirin was almost as good for me, and a lot cheaper.  I used regular dosages
> for a couple months when getting over the problem initially, then
> occasional doses to fight specific inflammation after exercise later.
> Some anti-inflammatory seemed to make my condition worse, you'll need to
> experiment.
>
> (3) Fight the inflammation with cold.  When I had the problem, I would feel
> some swelling in my right elbow after playing tennis; I came home, took
> naprosyn, and iced down my elbow.  This made a dramatic difference in how
> my elbow felt the next morning.  Some doctors also advise heat before
> you exercise, I don't recall ever trying that regularly.
>
> (4) Avoid stressing your joints if they are inflamed.  By coincidence, my
> regular tennis partner developed his elbow problem about the same time as
> I developed mine; we eventually quit playing for 6 months, and we both got
> better.  It seemed a terrible sacrifice at the time, but it beats constant
> pain.  I wore a tennis elbow brace for some time after that, you might
> check into that also.
>
> (5) If your joint is chronically inflamed, i.e. you feel elbow pain when
> you get up in the morning before you do anything, you may need a local
> cortisone shot.  Conservative medicine in the US advises to avoid this
> if at all possible, because it apparently can cause some long-term
> deterioration of the tissue.  On the other hand, American athletes get
> these shots routinely.  I found the shots less painful than I was told they
> would be, and they helped me a great deal.  The shot must reach exactly the
> right place to work, though; if it does, it works like magic, but you may
> need more than one.
>
> (6) Go to the local library (or, better yet, medical library) and read
> what you can about tennis elbow.  Good physicians do understand the
> mechanics of joints, and what they say can be quite helpful.
>
> The good news is that these problems can be cured.  I was 40 when my problem
> started, I thought it was middle age catching up with me and expected to
> never play tennis (or juggle, heaven forbid) without pain again.  But now I'm
> 45, neither my juggling nor my tennis is much improved but both are painless.
> Good luck!
>
> steve@mwc.com
>

    The good news is, mine got better too, due to avoiding things
which aggravated it, and rest. However, I think it would return if I
did the things again which caused it in the first place.

              Chris Wright, Leeds, UK.
Newsgroups: rec.juggling