Tendonitis Flare Up: Fixed in a Few Days
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A scary thing happened to me this summer, after 4 years of zero serious flare-ups from my tendonitis, I had a bad one. Luckily, I remembered to take notes while attempting to treat it so I can share them with you today.
The flare up occurred on a Friday, I aggressively treated it over the weekend, returned to work with limited function on Monday, and was back to normal by Tuesday. I waited a few months to publish this because I wanted to be sure I’d successfully treated it before I went telling everyone about it.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened, why it happened, how I fixed it, and what I learned.
What happened?
I’m no stranger to RSI. My injury is close to ten years old now and I’ve gotten to the point that it doesn’t impact my life since all the things I do to maintain it are routine. The last bad flare up I had was four years ago - before I got a dog. Ever since getting a dog, and having a fairly constant PT routine, I’ve been able to do anything I’ve wanted, even push the limits for hours worked per day. However, that changed on fateful Friday in July 2021.
Why it happened?
I was working too much, plain and simple. Like I said, this injury is an old friend and I knew I was pushing my limits. I remember thinking, “I’ll wrap up this last working block and go do some arm maintenance.” Almost on cue, my arm started hurting, not just the tendons and muscles which get a bit cranky from time to time, the ulnar nerve was hurting too. This really scared me. The last time the nerve was involved, it was very serious.
How I fixed it.
Back when my injury first happened close to a decade ago, I read an article, that I can no longer find, called something like, “Aggressively treating a tendonitis flare up.” Instead of waiting for it to magically go away with inactivity (which, in my experience, it never does), you need to make it go away with various PT techniques.
One thing I’ve been told that helps a lot with a flare up is the ability to stay calm and not completely and utterly freak out over the looming deadlines you have while your arm feels like it’s on fire.
Since I don’t have this ability, I did the following:
Friday Night
• Rolled out my forearm and upper arm with a lacrosse ball
• Ice/Hot bath while watching Resident Evil. (I love zombie movies and the distraction helped me stay calm).
Saturday
• I woke up around dawn with a panic attack. This flare-up was truly freaking me out.
• I did interval training (walking and running) until I felt the panic subside a bit.
This is an important step. If you are having a panic attack or flight/fight response to your injury, your body is stressed. Stress hinders healing. I needed my injury to heal and I needed it fast, so I had to focus on stress reduction. After this light exercise, my upper arm and forearms started to feel better.
• I did a full body stretch to encourage more blood flow and to stay calm.
• I took Advil and fish oil.
• I put KT tape on my elbow and wrist using movies from Youtube. This was the first time I’ve tried KT tape and I like it a lot. I felt a small amount of immediate relief.
• I did some easy, slow painting on some figurines. I took a lot of breaks. This was to also keep blood and oxygen flowing around the injury. It is very important to pay attention to your injury while doing this. The goal here is rehab, not output.
• Then I took a long break to watch a three hour movie and distract myself.
• When we got home I did another full body stretch and tried the slow painting again.
• Once I was a bit warmed up from painting, I went to my basement gym and did all my strengthening PT exercises as well as more foam rolling.
• By the end of the day, my arm was feeling slightly better.
Sunday
• Today was all about keeping calm so I could heal.
• I took my dog out for a walk and a swim.
• We made up a month worth of dog food for him after. The larger movements of meal prep was good for keeping my joints and muscles moving.
• I took turmeric pills. I love these pills. I’ve been using them for at least 5 years now.
• I stretched my upper body and arms.
• I did my very best to chill for the rest of the day. We found a great new show to binge.
• Sunday night my arm was a bit better, far from perfect.
Monday
• I resumed work with my elbow brace on and used a pomodoro timer to stretch every 25 mins for the first half of the day. For the second half of the day, I pushed it out a bit more.
• Although I was working, I was working at about 75% speed.
• I took advil.
• I stopped a bit early for the day to relax, meditate, and distract myself with my new show.
• I did a final wrist stretch and went to bed with an okay arm.
Tuesday
• I was back to work as normal, but still wearing the brace, just in case.
• Pain was minimal even without painkillers.
• It was a big scare, but I treated it successfully.
What I learned
• I can’t skip the strengthening part of my PT.
I was stretching and I was doing a bit of body weight strength - like doing some push ups in a field while the dog played. But for the most part, I hadn’t done an official workout in about two weeks. Turns out, that’s not an option for me. After I did the strength part of my PT, I felt an immediate decrease in pain - the most pain reduction out of all the tricks I tried.
I put some light gym equipment in my studio so that even if I don’t feel like I can make it to the gym, I’ll still be able to do those movements crucial for my arm health.
• I can’t t wait for an event to relax or take a break.
I was swamped work and part of the reason this injury happened was that I wasn’t relaxing because I knew I had a camping trip planned two more days. I was trying to hold on until camping - that was a bad plan. I should have taken time to relax when I needed it.
Important things to note
• Since this is an old injury for me, I have a prescribed PT routine from my physical therapist that I used. If you have the means, please see the physical therapist so you can get a routine that works for you.
My routine is:
• foam rolling
• wrist curls
• bicep or hammer curls
• floor press
• stretching
• ice/hot baths after
• A lot of this is trial and error. I’ve lived and worked with this injury for a long time and, therefore, have a relationship with it. It took a long time for me to find what works for me. If you’re new to the game, don’t be discouraged. Learning what works for you can be very frustrating, but you can do it with time and patience.
• If you’re currently in a period of long term or chronic pain period with tendonitis, this sort of aggressive treatment might not work for you. When my injury was in full on nightmare mode, and had been for many months, I tried this after finding the blog post I mentioned above. It didn’t help. If you’ve been suffering for tendonitis for a long time, in my limited experience, the treatment is a for a long time. This was an acute flare up so that’s why I think it worked out for me.
• Don’t hurt yourself. If something hurts, don’t do it unless directed by your PT or doctor.
I truly hope this helps.
Best of luck!
Sarah
❤️
Written by Sarah Dahlinger
Discussed by Sarah Dahlinger and Sarah Forde