Tough day for Rich


For the  last month or so, Rich has been having pain in his right elbow.  Not sure when it started exactly, but he assumed he hurt it bowling one night.  That is his bowling arm.  The pain has been pretty constant and not really letting up too much.  I finally decided it was time to see the doctor.

I called and made an appointment for today.  We rode in together so I was able to go in and listen to what the doctor said.  Two pair of ears are always better than one when it comes to doctors.  Luckily, we’ve had to use these guys before, so I was pretty confident in their ability to figure this out.

Rich had to fill out papers since this was his first time there.  Then they took x-rays to check and make sure there was nothing else going on in there.  We went to the exam room to wait for the doctor, who arrived very promptly after the nurse left.  Dr. Seeds looked at the chief complaint and then asked the chief complainer a couple of questions.  Yep, it was tennis elbow.  That’s because they didn’t call it bowling elbow first.

So in easy terms, the tendon that stretches from the top of the large bone down through to the hand was irritated at the connection on top of that bone.  This is the pain that Rich has in the elbow.  The other pains are the pressure that the too tight tendon is placing on the muscles.  These muscles are trying to complain too much.

Dr. Seeds went through the list of things that he could do for this condition.  First  on the list is rest.  Need to give the tendon time to heal.  Rich would get a band to wear around his elbow to apply pressure to the tendon.  Next, the doctor could shot the elbow up with cortizone to help with the healing process.  After that, the doctor recommended physical therapy, but only as a last resort. 

Rich opted to have the shot to the elbow as well as the band. There was also some ointment for pain relief rather than eating Ibuprofen all the time.  Dr. Seeds marked an x on the elbow and the nurse prepared for surgery.  The shot went in okay, but the pain got worse over the day.  Now Rich wishes he hadn’t gotten the shot!

All in all, Rich will be fine.  In a couple of days, he should be back to his current normal.  With rest and wearing the band, things should start to improve.  No more bowling for a while though.  The season only had 3 more weeks.  We’ll see how he is in the fall. 

He’s been reviewing websites for information.  Looks like he needs to rest the arm and then work his way back slowly to bowl.  Just sometimes you get older and things don’t work as well.