%&^#^%$&^%$ Bursitis

[olyclimber]

gawd is punishing me for hangdogging on that roof at zebra zion by giving me bursitis of the elbow. damn it is painful, and i just about could have killed the bureaucracy between me and relief. after filling out about 20 forms the doctor wrote me a prescription and i'm feeling better now. i know what you're thinking...party at olyclimbers house tonight. no. i'll be crouched in the basement with weapons watching clockwork orange over and over. i won't be friendly.

[Kat_Roslyn]

Ouch man,

I have this in my lower back from impact. Try getting the doc to write you a Rx for an ultrasound at a PT. I have a couple questions for you; how big is it, and does it hurt to the touch? When someone touches my back, it is very painful and my body involuntarily convulses, I don't know if it is just nerve damage or from bursitis, what does yours feel like? Does it make you feel like singing in the rain?

-Kat

 

[olyclimber]

it hurts like hell. a huge knot on my elbow with throbbing pain down to my fingers. its because the nerves are getting buggered by the swelling i guess. my fingers where going numb and cold, and the knot hurts to touch and if i move my arm at all.

 

the pain goes away when i take teh pills though.

[Mr_Phil]

I have a couple questions for you; how big is it, and does it hurt to the touch?

 

See? Size matters.

[layton]

Here are some things to do, or ask your chiropractor or PT to do.

 

Protect the area...bumping it again will only make it take longer to heal.

Ice it 20min on 60 min off as much as you can tolerate...careful over the "funny bone" area though.

Apply kinesiotape over the bump for lymph/edema control

Bromelain for the inflammation

Cold Laser treatments

Underwater, pulsed ultrasound 20% duty

 

Bursitis of the elbow can last a LONG time, good luck

[ScottP]

My doctor stuck a big-ass needle into my elbow and drained about 60 cc of a vile looking liquid. Prescriptions for antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and a week or so later my elbow was back to normal. No recurrences so far.

[layton]

My doctor stuck a big-ass needle into my elbow and drained about 60 cc of a vile looking liquid. Prescriptions for antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and a week or so later my elbow was back to normal. No recurrences so far.

 

I'd have to agree that this is the fastest, easiest treatment for palpable ones. The tricky ones are the painful ones that aren't swollen.

 

So Oly, was your bursitis, cellulitis instead?

[Billygoat]

I got something very similar to what Scott descibes. I had a scrape on my elbow and was fishing in the Yakima. a couple days later the elbow swelled up and they stuck me with a needle, pulling out a lot of nasty looking fluid. It was a strep B infection. They figured from leaking septic tanks along the river or cattle. Strep B is associated with raw sewage.

 

So, basically, I had poopy elbow.

 

 

The big danger is getting the infection deep in the elbow. There isn't a lot of blood flow in the joint so it is hard to deliver antibiotics. They said I could have lost it!

 

Good vibes out to Porter

[billcoe]

Did the Bursitus go away in the hospital?

[iluka]

Did the Bursitus go away in the hospital?

 

My hunch given that he spent all that time in the ICU was that this may not have been bursitis after all and may have been a different infection such as an infected (aka "septic") elbow joint. An alternative explanation would be that he had an infected bursa and the infection spread to the surrounding soft tissues causing a nasty deep soft tissue infection +/- some accompanying sepsis (body wide inflammatory response to a bad infection.

 

All pure speculation on my part. I'm very glad to see from the other thread that he has been doing better.

[olyclimber]

yeah, i have cellulitis in my arm.

 

what happened was i had an extreme reaction to a bacterial infection and went into septic shock (liver, kidney failure, etc).

 

they will never know the cause, tho there is a little scratch on my elbow.

[scheissami]

Dude, glad you're okay!

 

Usually people have some sort of risk factor for skin infection (wound, diabetes, IV drug use) but not always. Sometimes people just have bad luck. Happy to hear you're improving...

 

[catbirdseat]

yeah, i have cellulitis in my arm.

 

what happened was i had an extreme reaction to a bacterial infection and went into septic shock (liver, kidney failure, etc).

 

they will never know the cause, tho there is a little scratch on my elbow.

Septic Shock is very dangerous. Once you go down that road, there's a good chance you don't come back.

 

A bunch of biotech companies have tried coming up with treatments for it and have failed. One of the most notable was Centocor which had a spectacular clinical trial failure.

[Billygoat]

Fuck!

 

Glad you made it Porter

[layton]

Fucking awesome to see you back my friend!

 

RED FLAGS

fever,fatigue, malaise,weight loss/gain, loss of appetite, night pain,change in mental status,numbness/tingling/weakness, change in bowel/bladder,vision,hearing,headaches

[billcoe]

yeah, i have cellulitis in my arm.

 

what happened was i had an extreme reaction to a bacterial infection and went into septic shock (liver, kidney failure, etc).

 

they will never know the cause, tho there is a little scratch on my elbow.

 

Isn't this now known as the Anna Nicole disease? You get a scratch on the elbow and almost die. Week in intensive care in a hospital.

 

Damn.

 

And from this can we also deduce that climbing is dangerous? You got that scratch hangdogging I'll bet.

[olyclimber]

the loss of vision was freaky. i could see forms in white, that was when i told my wife to drive me to er.

 

then we got stuck in traffic and i was sure i was going to die. i guess i have a pretty good immune system, or i would be.

[billcoe]

the loss of vision was freaky. i could see forms in white, that was when i told my wife to drive me to er.

 

 

Angels

[olyclimber]

no, i just could only see things in white. unfortunately i didn't have any epiphanies, so i still stuck as an agnostic. not that i'm not greatful to be alive.

[dan_forester]

yikes. welcome back, hope you feel better soon

[TrogdortheBurninator]

that is really scary. Really glad you made it through that Oly.

[Mr_Phil]

RED FLAGS

fever,fatigue, malaise,weight loss/gain, loss of appetite, night pain,change in mental status,numbness/tingling/weakness, change in bowel/bladder,vision,hearing,headaches

 

Sounds like the day after a sick alpine trip.

[billcoe]

And in a bizare twist of sick humor the "Drip" was cumming from the arm and not some other soft senistive unmentionable place.

Edited March 29, 2007 by billcoe

[iluka]

 

Usually people have some sort of risk factor for skin infection (wound, diabetes, IV drug use) but not always. Sometimes people just have bad luck. Happy to hear you're improving...

 

Many cases of cellulitis are seen in people with some underlying disease process but not all. It can happen in healthy people as well. The basic problem in cellulitis is a bacterial infection of the skin. Normally, the skin forms an impermeable barrier such that the normal bacteria that live on its surface don't get in and cause disease. If that barrier is broken, pathogenic bacteria can enter and cause infection. IV drug users often get cellulitis (as well as abscesses) because they put (often dirty) needles in their skin and provide a direct portal of entry. Heart failure patients often get it in their legs because they have swelling/edema of their legs that stretches the normal junctions between skin cells that form part of the protective barrier. In Oly's case, the abrasion or cut he had may have been the portal of entry, particularly if it wasn't cleaned out well -- a good warning to all to clean such wounds really well with warm water.

 

The signs that suggest cellulitis as opposed to another type of rash include (1) redness (blanches if you press on it); (2) pain; (3) warmth. Signs of more concerning deeper soft-tissue infections (necrotizing fasciittis... i.e. "flesh eating bacteria") include severe pain, rapidly spreading redness, bluish, grayish or black discoloration that develops in the red areas, blisters that form in the red areas. I've seen cases of this develop in otherwise healthy people with plain bad luck.

 

Sepsis (the body wide reaction to an infection) can develop from either of these processes but is not as common with cellulitis as it is with necrotizing fasciitis. In his post, Layton hit on most of the warning signs that a simple cellulitis or other infection may be turning into sepsis -- high fevers (or in some cases low body temperature), altered mental status, lightheadedness/about to faint, severe fatigue, nausea -- basically the person starts looking very punky (not a very medical term)

[Mr_Phil]

Personally, I think Oly just has hemorroids but is trying to cover.

 

The pain, the iching, the inflammation ... .