Fishing Thru The Pain

[fishinwrench]

I continue to fish thru pain and assorted ailments because fishing is pretty much the only thing that I truly give a crap about in life.

Sounds awful to say that but it's true.

Anything that causes my fishing to stop completely is considered the Ultimate Disaster, and I might as well start choosing a gravesite.

Society as a whole can go straight down the crapper as far as I'm concerned, and as long as there are still fish in the creeks and rivers, and all the monkeys stay on the right end of the planet, I can remain mentally unaffected.

[BilletHead]

Mentally unaffected? Remember We have met you Wrench Try to not give up on society. A few folks we have met in our cancer volunteer work have given me hope. We all are falling apart. I am loosing muscle mass in my arthritic shoulder. Did my yearly physical and my doc wants me to do physical therapy and get this, like Phil said massage. So far went to learn exercises to try to rebuild muscle groups to aid in mobilizing the shoulder. May draw the line at the massage though. I hate to move the shoulder and I am a bit apprehensive of letting anyone else move it around.

Make the best of what we still have guys and gals. It could be worse!

BilletHead

[Al Agnew]

I feel for ya. I've never had tendonitis, but I know what it's like to suffer pain doing something you love doing. For many years, a day in a canoe fishing hard would result in stabbing pains in my back around my shoulder blade, and the longer it went during the day the worse it got. I just put up with it for years, but finally started experimenting with different things. First I changed my seat situation, different seat back and pad...didn't help. Then I started making sure I kept well hydrated during the day, helped with other things but not so much with the shoulder blade. I noticed, though, that the pain would go away soon after I got off the river, so I started simply getting out of the canoe a lot more often and strolling along a gravel bar. That helped, though it was mostly temporary.

Then one summer I happened to notice that I wasn't having the problem anymore. I think it may have been because my wife and I took up yoga, but otherwise it just simply disappeared on its own. I get a twinge now and then, but very seldom.

The other thing I love doing that causes pain is playing basketball. At age 62, the old body doesn't heal as fast and doesn't loosen up as easily to begin with. I pulled a calf muscle week before last on Tuesday, so I didn't play on Thursday as I usually do. I felt recovered enough to play on Sunday, and near the end of the playing time I pulled a groin muscle, plus BOTH calves started acting up. So I didn't play the past Tuesday. Tried to play Thursday, and all three pulls were still bothering me a bit. But I played today and everything felt okay finally.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I feel for ya. I've never had tendonitis, but I know what it's like to suffer pain doing something you love doing. For many years, a day in a canoe fishing hard would result in stabbing pains in my back around my shoulder blade, and the longer it went during the day the worse it got. I just put up with it for years, but finally started experimenting with different things. First I changed my seat situation, different seat back and pad...didn't help. Then I started making sure I kept well hydrated during the day, helped with other things but not so much with the shoulder blade. I noticed, though, that the pain would go away soon after I got off the river, so I started simply getting out of the canoe a lot more often and strolling along a gravel bar. That helped, though it was mostly temporary.

Then one summer I happened to notice that I wasn't having the problem anymore. I think it may have been because my wife and I took up yoga, but otherwise it just simply disappeared on its own. I get a twinge now and then, but very seldom.

I have had that same pain between the blades.

I found if I would relax and leaned back a little, the pain would be lessened. I think what we do is lean forward and kinda of scrunch too much and coupled wth the paddling, casting and reeling in compromising positions is what caused it. It is worse for me in the front seat. I hate the front seat! If I would flex my shoulders back it would help temporarily.

[fishinwrench]

I started mountain biking again last year and up until it started getting cold I was feeling like Iron Man again.

Haven't been for a good long ride in over 2 months and the energy level I had built up has taken a rapid nose dive. I need to get back on that bike and refrain from taking long breaks from it.

There is always an excuse to do something other than go for a ride, and that is just bs.

Orion (my hyper pup) needs the excersise too.

[Old plug]

when I was 62 I could bench press 220 lb pretty easy. I thought I was going to never get old like a lot of people I knew. Iwas wrong. I thought as long as I was getting a lot of exercise nothing much would bother me. I was wrong again. What I did not realize is that heritary things were going to catch up with me no matter what I did. Mine caught up wih me. It limits my hours out fishing. Just go out there and fish while tou can and try to enjoy every minute of it.

Wrench-----When Orion gets large enough to pee in that plant pot of your wifes like I ben telling him. He will totally rule that house hold. Hype or not.

[Blll]

I used to get tennis elbow from racquetball 3x per week. Long time ago and nothing helped but resting it. Now i use those goofy "copper" supports you see on tv and they really helped. I wore one on my casting elbow all last year and no problems. I remember back in the day Al Linder was the first fishing guy I saw wear a brace band on his forearm. I know that Mike Iconelli missed some time fishing with the same problem. Copper-Fit...$10. Might keep you on the water.

[Gavin]

I've had a few fish related elbow & shoulder issues over years. I agree with Phil. Get a good chiropractor and a massage therapist to put you back in place. Hurts like heck for a bit but well worth it.

[fly2fish]

When my knee problem started affecting my fishing (couldn't get up the stairs at Taney) I had to bite the bullet and get a replacement. It kept me out for about 10 weeks, that was in 2007. Had orthoscopic on the other knee in 2012 and felt better coming out of the hospital than when I went in. But the worse pain I every had was sciatic nerve pain that started in my right hip and would shoot down to my knee 4 weeks ago and could not stand for more than 15 seconds or walk 20 ft. Went to Arizona the day after it hit and was in misery for 6 days, came back and went to chiropractor and started getting some relief after taking spinal decompressions everyday for 2 weeks and starting tomorrow 2 to 3 times a week for 6 weeks. Getting old is not all that it is cracked up to be but at least now they can replace some parts!

F2F

[cart7]

I used to get tennis elbow from racquetball 3x per week. Long time ago and nothing helped but resting it. Now i use those goofy "copper" supports you see on tv and they really helped. I wore one on my casting elbow all last year and no problems. I remember back in the day Al Linder was the first fishing guy I saw wear a brace band on his forearm. I know that Mike Iconelli missed some time fishing with the same problem. Copper-Fit...$10. Might keep you on the water.

Bass Pro Larry Nixon also lost fishing time on the BASS trail due to tendinitis back in the 90's. Rest, Physical therapy to restrengthen the joint and then an elbow support after he came back was the only real cure.

You can go the injection route but that isn't a long term fix either.