[Sash.C]

Hi all.

I'm just looking for anyone who has had surgery or knows someone who has had surgery as a last resort to try and get rid of chronic tendonosis of the medial or lateral epicondyle, the brachialis or the bicep insertion. Not really looking for opinions, just stories regarding success or failure.

Thanks

[slackline]

(Not sure of the specifics, but Moffatt had surgery for his elbows)

[Sash.C]

Yep, read the book (brilliant). Moffatt is one of three success stories i've heard of. Just want more evidence before my next appointment with the surgeon. Cheers. 

[SA Chris]

have you read the dodgy elbows article here?

http://www.athlon.com.au/articles.htm

I'm sure he makes reference to surgery at some point.

[Sash.C]

Yep thanks. Read it a long time ago and followed it's advice religiously. I think the damage i've done by stupidly continuing to climb through the pain for many years has created too much scar tissue. None of the following methods have worked (and i have given them all a great dela of effort and time)

Icing, stretching, massaging, eccentric exercises, acupuncture, contrast baths, vasilidation, and rest... lots and lots of rest!    In fact i've had nearly 18 months off climbing now and they're still painful. 

The Athlon website doesn't advise surgery, but I don't think i've got any more choices.

[Sash.C]

PS. On top of that i've seen physios, chiroprators and doctors. The chiropractor discharged me after 6 weeks as i showed no signs of improvement (hundreds of pounds - ouch!) and the physio told me to keep up the eccentric exercises and massage... however after nearly a year of that I can say with some confidence that for me, it's not working. 

[fatdoc]

crikey, good luck with that.

[Falling Down]

Hi Sash (I'm Derbyshire_Ben in UKB disguise BTW)... sorry to hear it's come to surgery.

Not a lot I can add other than it did work for Jerry - I'm sure he'd talk to you about it you gave him a call or got in touch.

[Falling Down]

Sash - Travs has had surgery too, in fact he talks about it on another thread today (Unc's cortisone thread)

[michal]

You may want to give prolotherapy a go before committing to surgery.  It's relatively cheap and has done wonders for many people.  Essentially, it's a sugar water injection at the site of a chronic injury which tricks your body into thinking that there is a new, acute injury at the site, causing a great increase in bloodflow and eventually healing.  The injections are generally spaced several weeks apart.  This did wonders for a partial tear of the flexor tendon that I had, and I've heard of many skiers getting it done on their knees and American football players treating "turf toe" with prolo.

[Sash.C]

Thanks for that... i'd forgotten about prolotherapy as an option. I'll find out more

Hi Ben, hope you're well! Good idea, i'll see if I can get in touch with him. I'll check out that thread too. Cheers mate.

[duncan]

Judging only from what I've read in 'Revelations', Moffatt seems to have had an (ulnar?) nerve problem which is different to the more usual tendonosis/itis.  I wouldn't use him as an example of surgical success in classical 'climbers elbow'.

[PeterH]

Hi sorry to hear you are considering surgey. Three suggestions not mentioned so far, I would certainly ask about TECAR:-

1. My regular climbing (not hard, max F6c) partner had surgery for elbow tendonitis. But it comes back if he doesn't...swim (a lot)!

2. The one time I had it I did exercises with 4kg weight and pulley, upper arm held against your side, forearm pronated, wrist flexed, pull down and let come back up 20X 3X/day. This worked for other people "cos it improved blood flow", as did I'm sure my friend's swimming. Easy to do, no risk to hurt yourself

3. Tecar®  = in Italian Trasferimento Energetico Capacitivo e Resistivo. In English see http://www.tecar.eu and http://www.tecar-uk.co.uk/treatments_en.html for centres in the UK that do it. Capacitive and resistive heating, by appropriate choice of impedances (capacitance and resistance) you heat either bones, tendons etc speeding up metabolic processes and therefore healing. Worked well for me to cure chronic inflammation of distal thumb joint (don't laugh) as alternative to cortisone injection. Interestingly, you actually provoke the pain you want to get rid of during the sessions. 10 sessions cost me about £400. Diathermy isn't the same thing.  I belive it was developed in Italy for footballers who needed to recover quickly from injuries (SO DO WE.)

Be interested to hear if climbing physios in UK know about Tecar®.

cheers Peter