Yesterday I saw a post by @handsolo about his tendonitis. Against all odds he has achieved amazing things with his one arm from building beautiful furniture to windsurfing. Tendonitis for him is much more serious than for most of us since he has to rely on his one arm for everything.

All rewards for this post will be sent to @handsolo to assist him in his recovery so consider upvoting at 100%

I don’t know if my experiences can offer some help, but I’m inspired to try by sharing some of the ways I’ve healed arm, hand and shoulder injuries. If you read nothing else here, the recipe for pain relief and inflammation reduction is golden.

I am not a doctor nor profess to be able to offer proven solutions for others, but I do have 30 years of spending my days engaging my fine motor skills to grip, hold and do a variety of repetitive movements. Injuries seem to be typical amongst ceramic artists and given that I work a lot it can be a challenge to remain mobile and pain-free.

Usually my injuries are a confluence of several factors having to do with stress, lack of sleep, overwork and overuse of the area so I have installed in my daily life long-term preventative measures like yoga and frequent breaks/varying activities as much as possible. These have made a huge difference in keeping the wolf at the door so to speak.

But then there are times when the pain and injury are acute. When this is the case the first thing I take into consideration is that muscles, ligaments and tendons need a full 30 days without re-injury to get through the most critical stage of healing. I do whatever is necessary not to re-injure the area during this window of time. Like you @handsolo I’ve had this happen during busy times and it can be very hard to rest but do my best to make jigs, find other ways to do things and most importantly to get help. There have been times when I couldn’t even dress myself or wash my hair and have had to rely on others to help me. Thankfully people can be really amazing sometimes! The alternative is an injury that never goes away and costs me more time in missed work in the long run.

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Solutions and treatments that have helped me when an injury is acute:
- acupuncture can work wonders
- chinese herbs (if you have access to a good Chinese Dr)
- cranial-sacral therapy but ONLY IF YOU have a very good practitioner. If you aren’t sure about the quality of the practitioner or they are new to the practice, DO NOT let them do any work on your head at all!! I can’t stress this enough.
- physical therapy has helped to teach me what needed strengthening and better ways to use my body.
- Advil or the like short-term can be ok, but my cranial sacral therapist gave me an alternative formula that worked absolute wonders for lowering inflammation and pain relief. Everyone I’ve shared it with says the same.

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RECIPE: 
    take 3X a day away from food, in between meals:
    - 2-3 capsules or about 1000mg turmeric powder (curcumin) I bought it in bulk           and made my own.
    - 1 capsule Bromelian  500mg
    - 1-2 capsules Vitamin C 500mg
I recommend starting with 2-1-1 and increasing to 3-1-2 after a week or so. 

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My physical struggles have included reoccurring rotator cuff pain in both shoulders and upper arms that were once debilitating injuries, joint pain in both hands, thumb and finger pain from gripping and miscellaneous hand, wrist, and arm issues. I also have a Lumbar 5 herniated disc from a roller skating accident as a teen. Surgery has been recommended more than once but I’m pleased to say that as long as I do a rotation of yoga routines everyday, stretching and the occasional help of one of the above practitioners, my body is in great condition most days with little to no pain or problems.

As you may know from previous posts, recently I’ve become a student of Qi Gong and this has been the final piece of the puzzle in injury management. Shaking Qi Gong is a simple and powerful tool to activate and unblock the bodies own healing capabilities. This most simple Qi Gong movement done every day has literally removed any residual injury issues in only 6 weeks. Even if I’m sore or in a bit of pain, this exercise takes care of it. I don’t know if this is typical but I’ve been astounded by how much mobility and agility all of my previously sensitive areas have now.

Below is a short video to show you the most basic of Qi Gong practices called “Shaking Medicine”. It is said to be the “cure-all” but you can decide for yourself. What I provide here is only the most elementary way to use this. There are far more advanced visualizations, information and ways of using Shaking Medicine, but this little intro is an entry point. And remember that the benefits of Qi Gong depend more on consistency than on length of practice.

@handsolo, good luck with your tendonitis and keep us posted on your progress.