A little while back, I wrote an article about tennis elbow, leading to many more emails and direct messages than I expected. I guess it’s more common among my readers than I realized. Undoubtedly, its close cousin, Golfer’s Elbow, is equally common. It’s also just as painful and stems from … Keep reading…
The spring and early summer is a common time for overuse injuries and other joint pain. Shoulder pain being one of the most common. It’s that nagging ache in your shoulder that refuses to let up. Maybe it comes and goes, maybe it’s a constant throb, but either way, it’s … Keep reading…
I was talking to a family member recently about cortisone shots. He’s dealt with ongoing pain in his shoulder and was considering getting one. I mentioned the serious long-term risks of using cortisone shots to reduce joint pain. It’s a conversation I’ve had many times with many people. Afterward, I … Keep reading…
Have you ever experienced a sudden sharp pain in your back that seems to come out of nowhere? Or maybe you’ve noticed that your posture has been off lately, and you just can’t seem to get comfortable? It’s possible that you have a rib out of place. This surprisingly common … Keep reading…
Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is a common condition affecting many people, regardless of whether they play tennis. It occurs when the tendons that attach your forearm muscles to your lateral epicondyle (the bony bump outside your elbow) become inflamed, resulting in pain and tenderness.1American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (2013). … Keep reading…
It’s been six months since I fell off my bike, landed on top of my head, and broke my neck and damaged my spinal cord. From the morning after, when I got out of my hospital bed and stood up, we started talking about recovering in six months. When I … Keep reading…
Have you ever seen one of those videos of somebody in India lying on a bed of nails, with an expression on their face like they’re lying on a Sleep Number bed? I’ve never doubted that they seem comfortable, but I also haven’t been interested in trying it out for … Keep reading…
It’s been three months since I broke my neck and sustained a spinal cord injury. I was planning to write an open letter to Regions Hospital about my experience, but after talking it through with Vanessa, decided it wouldn’t be the best use of time or mental energy. Instead, I … Keep reading…
“How’s your recovery going?” I get this question a lot, and it’s kind of a loaded question. In the second or two I take to respond (or more if if someone asks through a text message), I quickly ask myself a few questions: Are they sincerely interested or just being … Keep reading…
As I explained in my pervious post, I fractured my C6 and C7 vertebrae when I landed head first after going over the handle bars on my mountain bike. The fractures, combined with significant disc degeneration in my C5 and C6 caused compression and flattening of my spinal cord, which … Keep reading…
It was a warm summer morning, July 30. Vanessa, our grandson Asher, and I were riding a single-track mountain bike course in Woodbury, MN. As always, I rode in the third position, ironically, in the event either of them ever had a bad fall. I came upon a skinny bridge … Keep reading…
Some people deal with muscle cramps (Charley horses) on occasion, and others experience cramping multiple times each week. While they aren’t harmful, they can be pretty painful. And while the exact cause of cramping isn’t known, you may be able to reduce the likelihood of getting them. In this article, … Keep reading…