Anyone have problems with this?  Since May of this year, I have been having problems with my wrist. At certain angles, my wrist hurts.  But more importantly, I feel weak.  I drop the ball more often than not when trying to throw at a corner pin because I relax/break my wrist.  It feels great until I get to the foul line and I just drop it.

I talked with Paul Fleming this past weekend at a regional and he told me he has had tendonitis in the wrist since 2000.  He takes anti-inflammatories and some other stuff to help with it.  He took my arm and starting applying pressure to a few pressure points in my forearm and it felt like it was on fire. I have a doctor's appointment today to look into it.

Anyone have these kinds of problems with their wrist?  Or anyone with a medical background who can chime in here?

Thank in advance,

Tony
http://www.allBowling.com

Tony,

If it was on fire, woops!
You can have tendonitis anywhere. In the wrist, the carpal tunnel, where some of the tendons and some of the nerves pass thru a small space and go into the first 3 1/2 fingers. True; 1/2 of the nerve to the thumb side of the ring finger goes thru the carpal tunnel; the nerve for the pinky side of the ring finger goes outside the palm. I know this esoterica because I had Carpal tunnel surgery in 1994. And a fun time was had by all!

This is the explanation I got:
The tendons are swollen and inflamed from over-use, or misuse. They get large and squash the nerve fibers into the fingers, basically cutting off in part and gradually most of the flow of electricity/electrons along the nerve bundles. They have some tests that can measure the actual reduction. What you feel can be numbness, especially at night while sleeping, or real pain. Anti-inflammatories help, surgery is good but can need to be done a 2nd time; I've heard of some chiropractic techniques that can help also.

Rest is the best medicine and can be essential if it gets bad.

A bowling wrist brace can help, A LOT, while bowling; some doctors prescribe wearing the medical version of it (not sure which is more expensive, the bowling one or the medical one! ) when you're sleeping at night.

Of course, you must stop hitting the ball so darn hard! That aggravates the problem, in the truest sense - it makes it worse.

GOOD LUCK!
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"Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it."

Edited on 12/22/2003 12:10 PM

I have wrist problems, not as severe as yours and i find a gyro-ciser very good at excercising my wrist.
I dont know if you call them something different over your side of the pond, but it has certainly helped me add a bit of strength and reduce the pain in my wrist.
Here is a link to what it is.
http://www.petesproshop.co.uk/products/gyro_ciser.htm
You will probably find it somewhere in the USA.
Hope it is of help.
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Happy go lucky bowler from the UK.
   Did someone say tough luck

Hey, I feel your pain. I have carpal tunnel also. I wont have the surgery because it only has a 50/50 chance of helping mine. But i agree with allot of what everyone has said. Exercise your wrist after you heal up and try to build the strength back up again. If that doesn't seem to work I am going to reccomend trying a wrist brace. Something like a scorpion. It is a very simple brace but provides great wrist support and is not that hard to get used to. It is not one of the fancier ones but it will get the job done. That is just my opinion as always ask your doctors advice.

Good Luck, cooksey
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" Focus the next shot is critical"

Well, it's official.  I have tendonitis.  Doc put a wrist brace/splint on me and prescribed an anti-inflammatory called Mobic.

The x-rays showed my bones were ok, which I wasn't worried about.  

Doc tells me no bowling for two weeks.  YIKES!!!  I think I'm going to take up crack cocaine to get my fix until I can bowl.  

Sucks to be me.

Tony
http://www.allBowling.com

I have tendonitis in my elbows, and I think Im getting it in my wrist. I deffinitly need to look into getting a wrist gaurd/support, wutever there called
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15 years and still going strong! 15 years old that is!

This is the type of brace I use.
http://www.bowling.com/display.asp?SKU=23048r
I've tried the columbia one, the ebonite one, and the master one. I don't really care who makes it, as long as it is 4 inches from the wrist joint UP my arm.
I don't use any of the really fancy ones. Don't need 'em - they don't contribute any more support than the ones above, and do hinder any flexibility I need.

I also use a tennis elbow strap. This basically works to keep the tendons in place, so they don't pop out and overstrain while compensating for the wrist.

Edited on 12/22/2003 7:46 PM

I agree about the tendonitis never going away.
I first flared up 8 years ago.
Then 4 years ago.
Now today.
Hopefully with a couple of weeks of rest, it will get better and go away...

By the way - I took in my wrist brace, elbow strap and bowling ball to the therapist this morning.
She thought the wrist brace was excellent. She had me change the way I wear the elbow strap.
And - most importantly - she watched me release the ball. Her expectation was quite different from the reality. She expected to see a lot of twisting, or breaking of the wrist, and was surprised at how "unstressful" my release was compared to what she'd actually imagined.

So - she has revised the plan of treatment based on what she saw this morning. I would suggest that anyone else do the same. Because the non-bowling or occasional recreational bowling folks really don't have a clue how us "real bowlers" do it...