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All you armchair doctors out there, let me get your opinion....


The Poojer

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I have been having a lot of pain in my elbow area of my left arm...it actually causes the left arm to be quite painful, to the extent that i can barely lift anything with my left arm fully extended...even a cup of coffee at times.., the pain does extend up towards the shoulder.its probably bursitis. But something piqued my curiosity recently.

 

I went to donate blood at a local red cross location, and everything went off without a hitch. I asked the person if the blood was flowing sufficiently, she said it was. The reason I asked is that the previous time to that time donating blood, i barely filled the bag a quarter of the way during the alloted time frame, so they had to stop the procedure. When i told the attendant this she indicated that it appeared I had 2 'veins' very close to each other in the area that she 'tapped' me. Is it possible that the earlier blood donation went into the wrong spot and did something to trigger an irritation of the bursar sac? The timing is pretty coincidental, and I haven't done anything that would 'normally' cause bursitis.....(I am right handed btw, for all you pervs).

 

Does this sound plausable or reasonable an explanation as to what may have happened? It has been going on for several months and i think after the first of the year i will probably visit the doctor to get an mri or something, just wanted to see if anything similar has happened to others.

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Could also be tendonitis (aka "tennis elbow"). Very common and fits your description... pain felt most when you extend your arm and in the lifting motion.

 

Seems unlikely that the blood donation has anything to do with it. Then again, I'm no doctor and I haven't slept in a Holiday Inn in years.

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i thought tennis elbow was bursitis...

 

Could also be tendonitis (aka "tennis elbow"). Very common and fits your description... pain felt most when you extend your arm and in the lifting motion.

 

Seems unlikely that the blood donation has anything to do with it. Then again, I'm no doctor and I haven't slept in a Holiday Inn in years.

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i thought tennis elbow was bursitis...

Nope. Tennis elbow is about injury/inflammation of the tendon that connects your forearm muscles to your elbow. It's pretty common.

 

Bursitis is injury/inflammation of the bursa sac, which basically functions as a cushion in your joints. This is fairly common too, but probably not as common as tendonitis.

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perhaps you didn't see my disclaimer in the original post...i am right handed....i could fully understand if my right arm hurt...or was noticibly larger

 

 

Sounds like too much you know what. Are your palms hairy? :P

 

But seriously. Tendonitis or Carpel Tunnel would be my guess. As far as circulation goes, is the pain accompanied by any tingling or numbness?

 

 

no tingling or numbness....not worried about heart attack(although i should be)...after gringo mentioned tendonitis..the symptoms are dead on...just confused as to how i got it...i really am not that active nor do i make repeated motions with that arm...outside of drinking

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If it's just pain and discomfort, it's most likely irritation or inflammation. If Ibuprofin makes a difference - you may have found the problem.

 

If the pain is accompanied by any numbness/tingling it would be some kind of nerve impingement and/or bulging disc in the cervical spine. This can result in permanent damage if not treated.

 

I'm a self diagnoser - saves me a bunch of $$$. But I wouldn't recommend it to others - get it checked out.

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I have been having a lot of pain in my elbow area of my left arm...it actually causes the left arm to be quite painful, to the extent that i can barely lift anything with my left arm fully extended...even a cup of coffee at times.., the pain does extend up towards the shoulder.its probably bursitis. But something piqued my curiosity recently.

 

I went to donate blood at a local red cross location, and everything went off without a hitch. I asked the person if the blood was flowing sufficiently, she said it was. The reason I asked is that the previous time to that time donating blood, i barely filled the bag a quarter of the way during the alloted time frame, so they had to stop the procedure. When i told the attendant this she indicated that it appeared I had 2 'veins' very close to each other in the area that she 'tapped' me. Is it possible that the earlier blood donation went into the wrong spot and did something to trigger an irritation of the bursar sac? The timing is pretty coincidental, and I haven't done anything that would 'normally' cause bursitis.....(I am right handed btw, for all you pervs).

 

Does this sound plausable or reasonable an explanation as to what may have happened? It has been going on for several months and i think after the first of the year i will probably visit the doctor to get an mri or something, just wanted to see if anything similar has happened to others.

it is almost certainly not related to blood donation. the catheter was probably just up against the wall of the vein or against a valve.

 

it is most likely epicondylitis (tennis elbow). touch the "knots" on either side of the elbow. the lateral knot (the one on the thumb side) is usually the one affected. it will probably be tender just distal (closer to the hand than the shoulder) to the knot. this is the insertion of the tendon onto the elbow. this is a common spot for inflammation. sometimes the tenderness is on the other side of the elbow. twisting the forearm (such as to turn a doorknob) usually causes pain.

 

the treatment is anti inflammatories like ibuprophen and a tennis elbow brace which is a strap that goes just distal to the elbow. ( can get at any pharmacy OTC for about $7) wear it as much as you can. if that doesnt help an injection of steroids from an md usually will. severe cases occasionally warrant surgery.

 

..that will be $75 or you can add a vocalist to my lesser known artist threads.

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As others have mentioned, it is probably tennis elbow. There is no known cure for tennis elbow and there is no reason why it comes around in the first place.

 

I had it a couple of years ago after experiencing similar symptoms. I went to the doctor thinking that it was worse than just tennis elbow because the pain was aching and consistent...nuisance variety. Doc informed me that it was probably tennis elbow and gave me a cortisone shot. Didn't feel much better after that and went back. Got one more cortisone shot and the pain was gone just as quickly as it came.

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I've started a ton of IVs and drawn lots of blood, and I agree with others who have said it has nothing to do with the blood donation. The fact that you didn't have a lot of output at your last donation is likely due to exactly what birdog1960 said...

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I have been having a lot of pain in my elbow area of my left arm...it actually causes the left arm to be quite painful, to the extent that i can barely lift anything with my left arm fully extended...even a cup of coffee at times.., the pain does extend up towards the shoulder.its probably bursitis. But something piqued my curiosity recently.

 

I went to donate blood at a local red cross location, and everything went off without a hitch. I asked the person if the blood was flowing sufficiently, she said it was. The reason I asked is that the previous time to that time donating blood, i barely filled the bag a quarter of the way during the alloted time frame, so they had to stop the procedure. When i told the attendant this she indicated that it appeared I had 2 'veins' very close to each other in the area that she 'tapped' me. Is it possible that the earlier blood donation went into the wrong spot and did something to trigger an irritation of the bursar sac? The timing is pretty coincidental, and I haven't done anything that would 'normally' cause bursitis.....(I am right handed btw, for all you pervs).

 

Does this sound plausable or reasonable an explanation as to what may have happened? It has been going on for several months and i think after the first of the year i will probably visit the doctor to get an mri or something, just wanted to see if anything similar has happened to others.

 

I had these symptoms about 4 months or so ago in my left arm. I went to the doctor and it was "tennis elbow" or atleast thats what he said after about 5 min of talking to him. Told me to getsome fancy powerful smelling cream, and told me to take it easy.

 

Mine was from repetitive over exting of my elbow when at the gym. Needless to say when i started working out again, the pain came back. Have not been back to the doctor.

Edited by CountDorkula
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the timing was just too coincidental, and like i said, wouldn't have given it another thought had the tech at the red cross office not mentioned it...in no way was i looking for someone to blame on this...just wanted to see if this had been the potential cause of the discomfort....i figured i had been slightly dehydrated the day the tapping went slowly

 

I've started a ton of IVs and drawn lots of blood, and I agree with others who have said it has nothing to do with the blood donation. The fact that you didn't have a lot of output at your last donation is likely due to exactly what birdog1960 said...

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the timing was just too coincidental, and like i said, wouldn't have given it another thought had the tech at the red cross office not mentioned it...in no way was i looking for someone to blame on this...just wanted to see if this had been the potential cause of the discomfort....i figured i had been slightly dehydrated the day the tapping went slowly

 

Oh, absolutely...you're smart to question it, IMO. There are a lot of people performing venipuncture who should NOT be, and often times there are complications due to things other than anatomy. If I were in your position I'd want to make sure there wasn't a direct relationship between the pain and the IV stick, too. Even though I'm an RN myself, and there was a time when I needed warm-bodied victims to practice my IV skills on too, this is one area where I won't typically allow someone inexperienced to stick me.

 

PS: Dehydration could also be a factor, yep. They typically use a larger bore needle when u give blood though, so might not be as much of an issue as it would if they were drawing labs or soemething.

Edited by ajzepp
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