[TheForge] elbow

[Mike Spencer]

> Your choices are simple. Either see a doctor, or take 25 different
> treatment ideas from 25 different people that do not have your arm
> hanging on their side, and only know that your elbow "hurts".

I'd say pretty much the same.  But I might add an anecdote.

My wife (an RN, BTW) fell on the ice last winter and was hit with hip
pain suggesting a broken hip, i.e., real bad.  X-rays showed no breaks
or cracks and no arthritis of either likely kind.  So the MD -- a very
sharp GP -- tried the customary cortisone shot.  Didn't help so he
referred her to a specialist (the technical name for whose specialty I
forget) who was expected to give her more (and differently placed)
cortisone shots.

While waiting some weeks for the specialist appointment, she went to a
physiotherapist.  He did an extensive range of motion exam, read the
x-ray reports and came up with both a convincing explanation
(tendon/muscle inflammation resulting from exacerbation of a well
documented joint problem from a childhood injury) and a
treatment/exercise regimen that has gradually produced very good
results.  No drugs or invasive procedures.  She's cancelled the
specialist appointment.

The point of this anecdote is that physiotherapists are often better
qualified than most GPs to deal with those joint, tendon and muscle
problems that are not clearly candidates for surgery or aggressive
medical intervention.

I had a similar experience (twice) with "frozen shoulder".  Got the
diagnosis from the MD but skipped the cortisone and went with physio,
with completely satisfactory results.

Doctor first.  If the response is "Mumble mumble cortisone mumble
waffle mumble", then try a physiotherapist.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 
                                 
mspencer@tallships.ca            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/