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posted by tendon_tinker OP 2mo ago
Six month writeup. Bilateral lateral epicondyle tendinopathy, four years total history, right worse than left. Prescribed and reviewed through a telehealth clinician, compounded pharmacy. No numbers here, per the rules.
What I tracked weekly: pain free grip strength on a hand dynamometer both sides, worst pain in a day 0 to 10, whether I could carry groceries in the right hand, and hours of computer work before symptoms.
What happened:
- Weeks 1 to 4: nothing I would defend. Slightly less morning ache maybe. Could be noise, could be that I finally started doing wrist extensor eccentrics properly the same month, which is a confound I created myself and cannot undo.
- Weeks 5 to 10: right side pain free grip improved noticeably and steadily. This was the first change that showed up in numbers rather than in vibes.
- Weeks 11 to 20: the plateau. Nothing much moved. This is where I nearly quit and where I think most people do quit.
- Weeks 21 to 26: second improvement, mostly in duration tolerance. Computer hours before symptoms roughly doubled from where I started.
Where I actually am: grocery bags in the right hand, yes. Full unrestricted pull ups, no, and I have stopped assuming that is coming back this year.
The caveat that matters: I changed two things at once. I will never know the split between the peptide and finally being consistent with loading. If you take one thing from this, it should be to change one variable at a time, which I failed to do.
Measure it or it did not happen.
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