...to stop getting bursitis?

I am tired of my shoulder, arm, wrist and fingers being sore for months after a bout of bursitis. I last had it after a lovely vacation in July where I carried a cooler full of beverages repeatedly at a music festival, it stayed through August and my next vacation when I had to always have someone with me to pull the starter cord for the boat motor because I couldn't do it. It lingered after that and I am still waking up with sore shoulder, arm, wrist, finger joints, etc. If I sleep on my right side it gets worse and I wake up with no feeling until the pins and needles start and stay for 2-3 hours. I have no strength in my right hand, it hurts when I squeeze it and I have had enough.

Anyone fought this and won the battle? If so, what did you do besides the usual strengthening exercises afterwards? Is there any treatment yet that actually works besides curling up in a solid immobile ball when you are in the absolute screaming pain part of bursitis?

Hi Riverwild,

Its a joint conspiracy!

I don't know if what has been going on with my joints is bursitis, but I've been dealing with pretty much the same symptoms as you since around July as well. I even had my hands/wrists X-rayed...but apparently everything is OK according to that.

I'm now into the 3rd week of taking Serrapeptase: 120,000 U two-three times/day and that seems to be helping both the inflammation/pain/stiffness that has been affecting the joints as well as my digestive tract. The numbness hasn't changed much since the beginning of the year, and like in your case it is usually greatest for the first couple of hours in the morning. Mine seems to come in cycles though...a couple of weeks of waking up because of it or with it and then a couple of weeks when it is better.

NSAIDs take the edge off the joint Sx but set off my screwed up digestive system (long history of regional enteritis), so I can't take those too much.

I tried a pureed elimination diet/vegetable juice cleanse and thought that I had found a trigger in foods that are high in oxalic acid (rhubarb, beet leaves etc), but that didn't hold up.

Although my MS is classified as secondary progressive, in my case it is likely that the joint inflammation is part of a relapse that first appeared as autonomic neuropathy in June. That slowed everything down abdominal organ-wise and in turn, set off my regional enteritis.
I called it quits on any more diagnostic or surgery procedures on the guts in July because that just seemed to be making the digestive tract angrier, but by then the joints were doing pretty much the same thing that you describe.

There's lots of info on Serrapeptase on the web but in a nut shell, it is an enzyme derived from the carcasses of silk worms (yeah, I know...gross), but it has a fairly good track record of decreasing the effects of excess inflammation; without the usual side effects of the NSAIDS.
I get mine from the health food store but it can also be purchased on-line.

Might be worth a try.
If you find something else that works that isn't a NSAID please let me know.
I'm tired of it too.

With love, Erika

Sounds like the ITIS boys are doing a number on you.
Aleve is the only med I can think of, sorry. Feel better soon.

Are you 100% sure it is bursitis?

What you describe sounds a bit like it could be a start of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) or a related condition....MDs often don't learn much about TOS so ...

Has your cervical spine been checked lately, those arm/hand sx could be spinal related and that would need to be ruled in/out before looking into more into TOS.

Can you get any PT or massage therapy, possibly expert chiropractic?
Could even be trigger points/spasms causing the problem..I would try this first unless you think you might have some c spine issues, but often at the 1st appt/evaluation - PT /DC will test to check for c spine or soft tissue causes..

We have a thoracic outlet syndrome forum if you want to read more about it & various therapies.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions!

Erika, I never heard of Serrapeptase, I'll have to look into that. I wonder if it can be derived from a vegan source, I don't know if I could swallow it knowing it comes from worm carcasses!

Sal, I have eaten bottles of Aleve, Motrin, Extra strength Tylenol, done heat therapy, both dry and moist, try not to sleep on that side and it's still there. I wake up and do my usual stretches before I get up, including new ones for the hand, arm and shoulder but it doesn't seem to help. My doc is at a loss, he insists I am not allowing it to heal, but there are things one HAS to do daily-dressing, hygiene, eating, etc. It's one of the reasons I am not doing any paddling these days, except for limited quiet water paddling with slow, easy strokes designed to stretch it out rather than put pressure on the shoulder. I don't even put my own boat in the water and for me, that's hard to give up.

Jo, I had the usual tests done back when it first started. I had the usual 2 year brain/spine checkup/MRI and it showed a slightly bulging lumbar disc, I've had sciatica before but again, stretches, backsaver exercises, etc seem to have alleviated that for a few years. Everything else was fine. I've done damage over the years from the whitewater paddling, but I've always been more of a finesse paddler rather than trying to bull through with muscle ( I use currents to get where I need to be) but the years of repetetive strokes have to have taken their toll. I will look into TOS.

I know I am aging. I hate not being able to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I have days when I forget about the shoulder until it starts aching again and then I pay, so I have definitely started limiting the things I do and/or changing the way I do them (like carrying that cooler with my left hand/arm!), but the limits frustrate me. I'm working on it, but it isn't coming easily to me!

"I wonder if it can be derived from a vegan source, I don't know if I could swallow it knowing it comes from worm carcasses!"

Oh, I hear you. I found it creepy too. I'm a vegetarian so there was an ethical debate going on in my mind as well about the thousands or ultimately millions of little lives that would be taken if I chose to use the stuff (demand drives supply). But when I started waking up with some of my fingers painfully cramped into the fist position and two of them started doing the trigger finger thing, I became desperate. So much so, that I would have ingested doggy doo if there was some validation that it might help .

Quite honestly, it was quite an emotional struggle to try it.
Ever since the first capsule went down the hatch, I thank the little silk worms that died so that I might regain some function every time that I swallow a capsule.
I also wish and pray that they will come back as a better thing .

With love, Erika

the person to blame for your case of "-itis" is also the same one who gets the blame in my house! So many of us have issues with this little twit that we have formed a club...

Feel better and soon!! It just isn't right to have to deal with yet another medical thing, eh??