Tendonitis in right hand

[Bob Denman]

Scotty,
With your vast range of knowledge I would have thought that you were an "Everything-ologist" :bowdown:

 

[gypsy_100]

...and it lasts way to long to ignore. Once it is inflamed, you absolutely have to lay off for a while, or it doesn't seem to ever heal.

Like others here, I've had classic "tennis elbow" or forearm tendonitis most of my adult life. What I've read and learned is that usually it is not classic inflammation and hence is misnamed. It is usually actually many ultra fine tears in the tendon. Those tears take a long time to heal and initially are not as strong as before they tore. So even when the pain goes away after taking several months off, the tears have healed but are very susceptible to being torn again. To regain full strength in the tendon may take six months or more. Thus we all just keep tearing them over and over again. I actually was free of it for almost a year now (a record) when part of our garage ceiling fell down. I had to use the drill to screw the drywall back up. Careful as I was, the repeated use of the drill and the twisting when the screws tighten down, I've now got it back. Figure it'll be there thru summer at least as I'm not going to take summer off from all my activities. Any impact activities (hammering is terrible) or twisting motions (screwdriver is really bad, drill, etc) really set it off. Shoveling snow with too heavy a load on the shovel is great, too. Once fully healed you can do exercises to try to keep good flexibility in the tendon but there's not much you can do to increase the strength. Supposedly you can strengthen them a little bit over long periods of time but it is slow. Basically you get what you get -- some people have strong tendons and really abuse their forearms and get away with it. Others are afflicted with it for seemingly innocent activities.