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Staying healthy while sailing #283041
07/12/16 03:44 PM
07/12/16 03:44 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,430
california
F-18 5150 Offline OP
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F-18 5150  Offline OP
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california
It is official my arm is done in from sailing. I have lost 20% of strength and feeling from the elbow to the fingers.

During events sometimes I would get a sensation that felt like a electric shock or numbness in the hand similar to hitting your funny bone. These would go away and I didn't worry about it. Now after letting it go for a season it finally caught up to me.

Surgery is scheduled and even more time off the water due to the nerve damage. I have also been told there is a chance It will never heal properly and may not be able to get back to sailing.

If you have any of these symptoms please talk to your doctor about it. There are therapy methods to prevent it from getting to the point mine got to.

Hope to see you on the water soon.


Richard Vilvens
Brand Ambassador
PSA Capricorn USA
R.Vilvens@yahoo.com
Fairfield, Ca
F-18 5150

http://www.capricornsailing.com/
-- Have You Seen This? --
Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283042
07/12/16 06:01 PM
07/12/16 06:01 PM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,403
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What is the diagnoses and what procedure are they doing to fix it?

Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283043
07/12/16 08:40 PM
07/12/16 08:40 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,430
california
F-18 5150 Offline OP
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Ulnar Nerve Impingement due to repetitive motion stress. Sheeting the main. (Wrong Arm before anyone goes there.)Nerve is going to have to be surgically moved and released from the sheath. I have been in a brace since March for 12 hours a day.

Currently it feels like I hit my funny bone all the time, there is a 80 % chance of full recovery, 15 % chance of partial recovery and 5 % chance of no change permanent nerve damage.

If caught early there are exercises and preventative steps to stop it. Physical therapy just didn't make it due to the advanced condition in my case.

Last edited by F-18 5150; 07/13/16 02:12 PM.

Richard Vilvens
Brand Ambassador
PSA Capricorn USA
R.Vilvens@yahoo.com
Fairfield, Ca
F-18 5150

http://www.capricornsailing.com/
Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283044
07/13/16 12:14 AM
07/13/16 12:14 AM
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 524
Petten Netherlands
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northsea junkie Offline
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Petten Netherlands
Ulnar nerve impingement (entrapment) or as we say in Europe "cubital tunnel syndrome".

Richard, it seems to be a typical sailors injury.
I have it already for some years; first at the right arm and now since short it begins also at the left arm.

At first I thought it was a well known tennis-arm (golfplayers-arm), but later I detected it was much more nerve-triggered, with pain on the inside of the arm.
It effects very much the little finger and the ring finger movement. They can therefore diagnose it by measuring the time delay at these fingers when giving a pulse at the elbow.

If you are lucky, you can be repaired by a rather simple surgery, when they only have to divert the nerve round the elbowbone.
When you are in bad luck, they have to cut one of your arm muscles to make place for this diversion!

So, it can be no piece of cake when you are unlucky to catch this injury as a sailor. The warning is: pay attention to pain in the little fingers when you bend them.

P.S. I've accepted this injury of my body as one of the many I already have. Sometimes it flames up, sometimes it disappers for a while. Knock wood!

And Richard, don't listen to much to all these horror stories about not healing at all, keeping pain forever.
When you let your self help in a specialized hand-clinic, they will heal you!
I happen to know an old man who was a windowcleaner all his professionel life and who had this injury on both arms.
He was operated twice with a very good result!


Bon Courage.

Last edited by northsea junkie; 07/13/16 01:49 AM.

ronald
RAIDER-15 (homebuilt)

hey boy, what did you do over there, alone far out at sea?..
"huh....., that's the only place where I'm happy, sir.
Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283051
07/13/16 02:18 PM
07/13/16 02:18 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,430
california
F-18 5150 Offline OP
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california
Thanks for the nice words. We are doing everything we can to get it better. Hope for the best prepare for the worst.


Richard Vilvens
Brand Ambassador
PSA Capricorn USA
R.Vilvens@yahoo.com
Fairfield, Ca
F-18 5150

http://www.capricornsailing.com/
Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283052
07/13/16 02:29 PM
07/13/16 02:29 PM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 5,590
Naples, FL
waterbug_wpb Offline
Carpal Tunnel
waterbug_wpb  Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 5,590
Naples, FL
switch sailing to larger multihulls with winches... worked for me smile


Jay

Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283055
07/13/16 06:24 PM
07/13/16 06:24 PM
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,403
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Originally Posted by F-18 5150
Thanks for the nice words. We are doing everything we can to get it better. Hope for the best prepare for the worst.


It will get better and make sure this is the right diagnosis..

I was having knee and hip problems and had arthroscopic surgery done on both to clean up some bone spurs and other arthritis related issues.. fracture in the femoral head. They both felt a little better but the problem still persisted even after some intensive PT for strength building..

Turns out it was neither that was causing the ongoing pain... and the current PT was a contributor to the problem. The issue was with the IT (Iliotibial Band) that had some serious scare tissue that I assume was from a pitch pole (Peter Panned right back into the bow/NA Foil of a 5.8), and crunching into tree with my MTB with both having an end result of a serious softball size contusion mid thigh let alone black and blue for the hip pointer to the ankle... With never really addressing either of these ijuries with the exception of Advil and ice I had developed some serious scare tissue on the IT band. The scare tissue along with overuse and never really doing a proper stretch prior and post workout the problem manifested to where the only recourse was Oxycontin....

Right at this time I got a new primary care MD.... she did a couple of things like worked up and down my thigh looking for pain points and asked few questions like, do you work out, do you stretch, have you ever had a bad fall, and a few others... wrote me an Rx for PT, but this time it is all stretching and being told not to do any of the exercised I had preciously been doing, squats, leg curls, leg presses, etc...

This took about four months to where there is no pain and was OK's to start back with the strength stuff.... If I don't stretch... I can feel it tightening back up. Here we are a year later and life is good again that is no pain.

Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283057
07/13/16 09:35 PM
07/13/16 09:35 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,430
california
F-18 5150 Offline OP
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F-18 5150  Offline OP
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,430
california
I've had the nerve conduction study and the MRI. Testing since March had been a new thing every few weeks. There is a bone spur that will be cleaned up while they are in there.


Richard Vilvens
Brand Ambassador
PSA Capricorn USA
R.Vilvens@yahoo.com
Fairfield, Ca
F-18 5150

http://www.capricornsailing.com/
Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: F-18 5150] #283059
07/14/16 06:24 AM
07/14/16 06:24 AM
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 46
R
Rickh Offline
newbie
Rickh  Offline
newbie
R

Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 46
I had this and carpal tunnel done at the same time 6 months ago. 6-8 week back sailing and now I can't tell I ever had a problem. Keep moving and hope your recovery goes well

Re: Staying healthy while sailing [Re: Rickh] #283060
07/14/16 08:54 AM
07/14/16 08:54 AM
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,355
Key Largo, FL and Put-in-Bay, ...
RickWhite Offline

Carpal Tunnel
RickWhite  Offline

Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,355
Key Largo, FL and Put-in-Bay, ...
Guess I am a health nut, taking a couple of boxful of nutrients every day.., albeit it has seemed to pay off -- at 79 still racing, still skiing, and still playing tennis 5 days a week.

Not without some pain, however. 20 years ago Dr. said I needed a knee replacement. Did not.
Now they are talking about hip replacement.., don't think so.

Last July I won a tennis tournament, but in the process jammed my hip. Had a cordizone shot and then went to therapy for a couple of months. PT managed to get the joint loosened up and then had a Dr inject hyaluronic acid (natural fluid that lubricates your joints) and I was good to go.
Then when I moved back to Put-in-Bay for the summer, could not get an appointment for a couple of months and it started getting worse again.
Now going to a Dr that injects Prolozone. This is a spinoff of Prolotherapy, which is injections into the joint of nutrients that cause inflammation. That inflammation starts to rebuild the joint. Drawback is that it is very painful and takes many, many shots, which are not fun either.

Prolozone is different in that along with the nutrient concoction they inject oxygen, which makes it nearly painless, spreads the injection out more thoroughly through the joint and requires only 3 to 5 treaments, and it is fairly affordable (Medicare does not cover the injection -- hell they don't want to cover something that actually helps, rather they pay for cordizone which helps pain but destroys the joint. )
I am now getting Prolozone injection in my 20 year old bad knee, my hip, and my shoulder. Each visit, every couple of weeks is $150.., oh and $14 RT ferry ticket.

On another note, I have been a member of the Life Extension Foundation since I was about 40, and now there are more and more researchers that are finding ways to grow younger, believe it or not.
I have been following a Dr Al Sears for a little over a year now. Went to a seminar he put on at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Had a dozen researching speakers. They are far beyond the cutting edge.
Check out Sears' page
http://www.catsailor.com/DrSearNoFishOil.html?Clk=5444525

Rick


Rick White
Catsailor Magazine & OnLineMarineStore.com
www.onlinemarinestore.com

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