"Go see your chiropractor"

natalie_ca

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That's what my family doctor told me yesterday when I went to see him about my right elbow making "popping" sounds.

When my elbow "pops", it does one of 2 things:

1. Causes my forearm and hand to go tingly and eventually so numb if I have my arm bent, that my hand ends up feeling like a block of wood and has absolutely no feeling in it. If I straighten my arm, the feeling will come back, but the tingling in my hand remains.

2. If it pops after causing the above feeling, the second popping, which could be days after the first one, causes the numb/tingly feeling to go away, but leaves the elbow painful to bend.

Ironically I saw my chiropractor about my elbow about a month ago or so. He told me to see my massage therapist and have him work on the elbow joint as well as my neck.

Get this, my massage therapist told me to either see my chiropractor or my family doctor. Seeing that my chiropractor referred me to someone else, I decided to see my family doctor today.

Guess I'll just doctor myself.


Ice packs, and elbow brace, no lifting or straining, Tylenol #3 for the pain and my Dr. Ho's muscle therapy machine for TENS treatment. If that doesn't work I'll call a sports injury clinic and see what they have to say.

Gotta love the medical system!
 

fifi1puss

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I think you need to see an Osteopathic doctor. The handle the 'limbs" vs. chiro's that handle the spine and back.
 

tierre0

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Gotta love the medical system!
Amen to that, I am off to visit my doctor today because of shoulder issue's.

How you thought about doing a consult with a rheumatologist. It sounds like you are loosing cartilage in your elbow. They may be able come up with a treatment to slow down the progression if that is what it is.

I have a knee that does almost exactly the same thing, the joint will pop, it will hurt like heck and I will get pins and needles down my leg into my foot. I have almost complete cartilage loss in that knee and the symptoms I experience are cause by bone hitting nerve.

It may not be that but I am surprised that your doctor didn't even consider it, especially since you are a nurse and your arms and elbows are used a lot in you profession.
 

strange_wings

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Mine will pop a bit more when there's inflammation in them (yes, the elbows will get red and swell at that time). I've seen a rheumatologist... a lot of good that did.
Because I didn't show any obvious signs of autoimmune problems she wasn't interested.

Best thing I can suggest is go ahead and follow you regiment and add an NSAID to it. That's as good as any doctor will tell you unless you need some sort of surgery.
 

kiwideus

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I injured my elbow playing touch rugby - someone ran into it, causing it to overextend and it caused numbness and pain so I went to the dr and he said that I had 'stretched' a nerve - and it wasn't quite back to normal yet so I had physical therapy which helped a lot, along with voltaren, an anti inflammatory.

Your best bet is physiotherapy, not chiropractors.
 

weldrwomn

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I had an elbow problem a while back that resulted in a pinched ulnar nerve. I ended up getting to see an occupational therapist which helped quite a bit.
 
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natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by Kiwideus

I injured my elbow playing touch rugby - someone ran into it, causing it to overextend and it caused numbness and pain so I went to the dr and he said that I had 'stretched' a nerve - and it wasn't quite back to normal yet so I had physical therapy which helped a lot, along with voltaren, an anti inflammatory.

Your best bet is physiotherapy, not chiropractors.
I still go to my chiropractor for my back and neck. Between him and my massage therapist, my back has been feeling pretty good unless I over exert it and lift more than I should.

I need to start walking more now that the weather is getting better. It will help to strengthen my lower abdominal muscles, which in turn will help support my spine, which in turn will reduce the low back pain that comes from fatigue.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Best thing I can suggest is go ahead and follow you regiment and add an NSAID to it. That's as good as any doctor will tell you unless you need some sort of surgery.
I always take NSAIDS. Unfortunately my one of choice I forgot to ask my doctor for...Naprasyn or Celebrex. And while I was taking 600 mg of Ibuprophen, sometimes with plain Tylenol, it wasn't enough to help the pain. Now that I have Tylenol #3, 1 of those with 600 mg of Ibuprophen has been helping immensely.

I've also been babying my arm. It would be easier to baby if it were my nondominant arm, but I'm doing my best.

Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

I had an elbow problem a while back that resulted in a pinched ulnar nerve. I ended up getting to see an occupational therapist which helped quite a bit.
I've been doing my own physiotherapy at home. A physiotherapist isn't going to do anything that I'm not able to do at home. Historically when I've gone to a physiotherapist, they apply either ice or heat, followed by a TENS machine. I have ice and I have a hot water bottle. I also have a TENS machine. I did speak to a physiotherapist at work and he gave me some exercises that I can do to help. Plus my massage therapist gave me 2 exercises to do that will help at my neck and shoulder area. With all of that, time is the only real sure cure.
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

I've also been babying my arm. It would be easier to baby if it were my nondominant arm, but I'm doing my best.
Well, you know how that goes. If one of your arms/hands are going to be injured or bothering you it will almost always be your dominant one, even when there's no reason for it to be.
I hate it when my shoulders act up, specifically my right one. When that happens I cannot move the arm at all and my left arm is weaker and constantly has a tremor - it makes eating interesting!


There are elbow braces. Maybe something like that would help a little?
 
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natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

There are elbow braces. Maybe something like that would help a little?
I did buy one a couple weeks ago. I used it on Thursday and it did make my arm feel more stable. But it still kept "popping."

On my next days off I'm going to go to a sports injury clinic and have them look at it just to make sure there is no internal cartilage damage going on. Seems to me that someone should be xraying the joint at the very least!
 
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