Elbow pain prevents my progression

[pandaen]

History:
Started wakeboarding last year basically, and had a lot of trouble with my left arm just dislocating the whole time, so in July I went for bankart surgery, and this year I moved to Germany to start wakeboarding more. After starting to wakeboard a lot, several hours a day many consecutive days and not many breaks, I started to get problems that made me almost unable to ride. First came inside elbow pain, then came wrist pain, but this all went by..

Problem:
Now my problem has for months been my right elbow. After riding for a bit i get pretty severe pain. It feels like it is on the outside it feels like it runs with the nerve on the outside of the elbow both toward my hand and the other way. Till now it has been so that if I take a break for 2-3 days, I am able to ride 1-2 days without pain, and next day the pain is back. This all depends on how hard I ride though, and if I jib or do airtricks or so.

What I tried:
Went to the physio as the pain started, and they massaged the area where I feel pain, gave me electro therapy and stuff like 10 times now, but still, the problem reoccurs when I ride more than a little bit.

I guess some of you may have suffered(or still do) from this stuff, so I hope you have some input!?

[pluto2]

sorry to hear dude,

I had a knee surgery that I got about a year and a half ago. To this day I can go wakeboarding or w/e but if I stay out for too long won't even be able to walk that night. But my situation has been getting better, In my opinion its finding out what your limits are and just barely touching them each time you out.

If it starts hurting maybe go for just another minute or two ( or w/e ) then stop for the day. If you way over do it, you can end up really hurting yourself inducing swelling and setting yourself backwards.

Big deal for me is that most of my pain is nerve pain, and some actual pain inside the bone but little to no muscle pain. From the sounds of it you are dealing with nerve pain, which puts us in the same boat my friend and it is not a fun boat to be in. Go see a neurologist if you can, it can be expensive if not covered by health insurance. When I did they put electrodes in my leg and fired each nerve to measure the speed and resistance. I was told that my sensory nerves where firing at the correct speed but at 1/4 the amplitude (power?) they should be. And that they will come back but as they do I'll feel some pretty intense pain.

My paraneal nerve got crushed due to swelling post surgery and the ace bandage they put on me being too tight. Which might be similar to what happened to you, or it might have gotten nicked during surgery.

Can you feel all sections of your arm normally or do you have overly over-sensitive/under-sensitive spots?

Oh and to put it into perspective my knee hurt when I ran and my knee cap would partially dislocate sometime but nothing too noticeable and I got this surgery on my own accord (I didnt get hurt and have to go get it fixed, just the way I was born)

[ridininmd]

Tennis elbow, when I was riding a ton it got me too. They make compression straps that go on your forearm that will help some. But the only real cure is to stop riding for a few weeks and let it heal.

Here ya go http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001485/

[Bowen]

ridininmd, I have chronic tennis elbow. No matter how long I don't ride it comes back. I practically took a season off and when I started riding again it came back. such an awful pain since there is nothing you can do for it.

[ridininmd]

ahh that sucks, the pain from it is terrible, mine would get so bad that I wouldn't be able to pull myself up onto the platform after a set. It hasn't bothered me in a few years, but I don't ride 3-4 times a week anymore either.

[dalderman]

I've had it for the past few months and just came to the conclusion that it's something I'm going to have to live with as long as I'm riding 3-4 times a week. The worse pain is when I use that arm on the wrap handle.
Also, if you play golf it will definitely sting you on every drive.
But compared to how my knee feels, it's a walk in the park.

[Wakeboarder3780]

[The Heez]

If you ride boat there is a simple fix and that is to add a 3-5 foot section of Poly P rope (stretch waterski rope) to your setup.

The elbow pain comes from over extending the ligament in your elbow. To keep it from over extending you need to not straighten your elbow and land with your arm bent. Obviously you can't change your rope if you ride cable so the only option is to add support and not put your arm in that position.

I used to use the Poly P rope and have since focused on riding in control with bent arms. Problem solved.

[supermanotorious]

i get bad tennis elbow too, esp from acid drops but keeping my arm bent helps alot