elbow pain?

[Mathew]

I'd been experiencing chronic elbow pain on right-hand arm for a couple of weeks, but wrote if off as, "oh well, what are you going to do about it," and I went on about my life as normal. Last night, several hours after returning from the gym, I noted it was extremely sore, & I could not flex my arm past a right angle. I took my shirt off and tried to flex that bicep and noted that it looked and felt like a flat tire in comparison to the left bicep. I can't extend that arm all the way to flex a tricep, either.

I think maybe I tore the brachialis tendon (not the biceps brachi tendon) as there is no evidence of the bicep actually rolling up on the humerus.

Does anyone have a similar experience to this, and if so, does this sound correct. I'm without healthcare, so I'm afraid I am going to try to fix it myself. Does the fact that the right bicep will only flex about 1/2 as big as the left indicate a complete detatchment, or could it possibly be a partial tear that has rendered the muscle incapable of flexation? I am intermittently icing it now, do these things heal themselves, given time? Also, I have an oral cortisone pack I never used for a back injury a while back, would oral cortisone be an appropriate treatment for a torn or detached tendon?

Thanx for your input,
Mat

[wordsmith]

If you think you've severed a tendon, do NOT mess around, lack of health care or no. My dad did this at work, and if it's not dealt with in a timely manner, you could very well be looking at a permanent disability. Tendons mostly have to be grafted (my collegiate baseball pitcher brother also required a tendon graft back in the day), they won't reattach themselves, and deterioration starts setting in right away.

It might be something as simple as bursitis, for all I know, but on the off chance that you've damaged a tendon and you don't get medical attention in a timely manner, you run the risk of crippling yourself.

[Mathew]

If you think you've severed a tendon, do NOT mess around, lack of health care or no. My dad did this at work, and if it's not dealt with in a timely manner, you could very well be looking at a permanent disability. Tendons mostly have to be grafted (my collegiate baseball pitcher brother also required a tendon graft back in the day), they won't reattach themselves, and deterioration starts setting in right away.

It might be something as simple as bursitis, for all I know, but on the off chance that you've damaged a tendon and you don't get medical attention in a timely manner, you run the risk of crippling yourself.

Thank you for your input. As I stated earlier, the reason I suspect it is the brachialis tendon and not the biceps tendon is the fact that the bicep itself has not curled up on my arm like a venetian blind. The fact that I can not flex that bicep to the size that the other one is what worries me. When I do flex it, it still has some of it's original shape, but no peak, and it does not flex tight and rigid. It feels very flaccid in comparison to the other one. I am thinking that since the brachiallis muscle lies underneath the biceps muscle & attaches to the ulna as opposed to the radius, it is not able to support the biceps when flexed, & thus the lack of size and muscle tone on that arm?

Okay, thanx again for your feedback. I am still in the process of seeking free internet advice, but if I don't see some semblance of improvement, I'll go somewhere.
Mat

[MetFanL]

I think you should definitely see a doctor. I'm basing this educated analysis on the fact that your description of your arm made me puke in my mouth a little. Gross.

Good luck.

[Cole]

Yeah... go see someone. Even as a massage therapist trained in anatomy I couldn't tell you exactly what's going on, except that if you don't get it fixed it could very well lead to worse problems.

[Morgan81]

No matter what go see a specialist. My elbow has been hosed since my freshman year of HIGH SCHOOL thanks to an incorrect diagnosis.
Don't fool around with tendons and ligaments or you'll always have pain.

[Mathew]

Thanx for the feedback.
I've got it wrapped up right now in one of those braces from Wal-Mart, and that all by itself feels alot better. I assume that is because the brace is partially doing what the tendon cannot do.

A couple of things I find interesting:

1)I was deadlifting and I deadlift with my righthand-grip overhand. I'm given to understand that when a biceps tendon ruptures during a deadlift, it is usually the suppinated (underhanded) side that lets go. (Of course, if I'm right, this was not the biceps tendon, but the brachiallis tendon.)

2)The lack of mobility aside & inability to flex the bicep, the pain itself is not the excrutiating type I would think would be associated with severe tendon damage.

Anyhow, thanks again for the feedback, and if anyone reads this who has actually experienced this phenomena, I'd be interested to hear how it was resolved.

Mat

[wordsmith]

When my dad severed his tendon, he wasn't in an inordinate amount of pain. He simply had limited mobility and inability to flex. But the tendon was totally cut lose and was bunched up inside his arm like a cut rubber band. It wasn't reattached immediately enough, and he won't ever get his full range of motion back. But, no, it didn't hurt excruciatingly.

[lostinjersey]

did you put some robitussin on it?

i would definitely go to the doctor i think thats a no-brainer

[Mathew]

Thank you for al the responses.

I understand the common-senseness of a physicians consultation; without trying to provoke a contentious political debate, I'll say that I am not presently included in the nation's current survival-of-the-wealthiest-health-care-program, ergo my attempts at self and internet diagnosis. again, I know what the prudent thing to do would be, & I DO appreciate the wisdom of the advice--sometimes, sadly enough, you have to be in a certain position to understand the mindset of it. That last sentence was not intended to come off as whining or vindictive, it is just the way I look at the facts of my life right now--analytically & pragmatically as I consider the cost effectiveness of options.

With that typed, I did call an old powerlifting buddy of mine up, he's enrolled in med school right now at UL, & he was always pretty knowlegeable of body mechanics even before that when he & I were just lifting & going to the meets together. He assures me I did not detach either the brachialis or the biceps tendon--as Wordsmith said, both tendons are under a tremendous amount of tension & rupturing either would cause either the brachiallis or biceps to roll up & bunch up like (in his words) a golfball. He also informed me that he's personally known a couple of lifters who had a tendon let go at the radial attachment point, & besides the bunched up rubberband which Wordsmith alluded to, there was a hematoma with all sorts of black & blue. The lack of mobility & being unable to flex the bicep to a peak, he said, is the golgi-muscle-tendon response--part of the nervous system that in theory should protect us from lifting more weight than we are supposed to. When the golgi-tendon-organ kicks in, it prevents the muscle from contracting in order to protect the tendon. (This makes sense; I am an unemployed student right now, & I remember studying that in anatomy & phys 2, recently. That thought crossed my mind, actually, but evidently it didn't leave very deep tracks.) Anyway, his theory is that the chronic pain I felt prior to doing this was severe tendonitis in one of the 2 tendons & the deadlifting yesterday traumatized it to a level never before experienced by me, & now the golgi-tendon-organ is telling the brachialis &/or biceps to cool it 'til things get better. In the mean time I'm keeping it compressed or on ice or on heat, & I think I will start that oral cortisone dose pack I was saving up.

Again, thanks for the common-sense advice. In those regards though, my options are a)emergency room to test out Rush Limbaugh's theory about comprehensive healthcare for the uninsured, b)the V.A. hospital :(, or c)a bunch of visa card dept. And if I don't feel like I'm mending SOON, I will flip a 3 sided coin.
Thanx again.
Mat

[Mathew]

did you put some robitussin on it?

i would definitely go to the doctor i think thats a no-brainer

Oops, and in addition to my last post, I neglected to address this. I've got an icyhot sleeve on it with an elbow brace thing on top of that for added compression. That is making it feel a bit better. Again, if I don't think it is mending soon, I'll look into farming this job out to the some sort of professional.

Thanx again,
Mat

[Mathew]

Again, thanx for the replies and the advice that was actually based on very good common sense.

I think I probably over-reacted, but after being used to having two fully functional and ornamental biceps, it gave me a bit of a scare to be unable to even just get one of them to flex--not because of pain, but the fact the thing just wouldn't contract, no matter how hard I tried. Then I started thinking about the physical limitations that I may have to impose on myself--and I realized that those limitations were going to be fairly substantial. Anything in the gym, for example, that required both arms; that would entail about 80% or more of what one does in the gym.

Anyway, that cortisone treatment is like magic! I started the 6 day cycle last night before bed with 6 4mg tablets. When I went to bed last night, I was unable to make my rt. arm bend past 90 degrees, meaning I coud not get my right hand behind my head, & if I wanted to scratch my nose I needed to use my left hand. Last night my flexed rt. bicep looked like a half flat car tire; this morning it appears as a tire that is just a few lb.s low. It is not completely back to normal, my left arm can be flexed to the point that the forearm actually touches the peak of the bicep, and the right arm has about an inch to go before it reaches that point. But needless to say, it has improved significantly, and I am more than just a little bit relieved.

There was a lesson for me to be learned from this--first of all, I really need to get a gig with healthcare; second of all, I have learned my lesson about ignoring chronic joint pain (no more deadlifting with sore elbows). I don't intend on doing much in the way of upper body physical activity until a couple of days after I've finished the cortisone cycle, and when I do I'll keep that elbow wrapped for a while.

Anyway, thanx for the replies, & possibly someone else may stumble upon this thread during time of need & find it useful.
Mat