‘Reining in’ Elbow Pain
Richland Township man rides again, free from elbow tendonitis
At age 30, Rob Clifford sat on a horse for the first time. Later that year, he was sitting inside a steakhouse when he looked up at a TV and saw competitive horse reining, a type of precision riding now featured on the popular show “Yellowstone”.
“The second I saw it, I knew I had to do it,” says Rob, now 53.
Reiners like Rob guide their horses through circles, spins and stops. It takes agility and physical strength to do it well. Which is why Rob grew concerned in 2020 when pain in his left elbow began limiting his ability to rein, feed his horses, and clean out the stalls on his Richland Township horse farm.
“It got to the point where it was almost impossible to do a curl with a five-pound weight or hold a shovel with my arm straight,” Rob says. Rob officially had lateral epicondylitis, an overuse injury more commonly known as elbow tendonitis or “tennis elbow” (which can happen even if you don’t play tennis).
Seeking conservative treatments
Rob turned to Upper Bucks Orthopaedics at Grand View Health for help. Years earlier, Rob had a good experience when he trusted the team to repair a torn meniscus.
Orthopaedic surgeon John Minnich, MD helped Rob find relief from elbow pain with physical therapy and a series of corticosteroid injections, but after nearly two years of treatment, “they stopped working, Rob says.
That’s when Dr. Minnich gave Rob two options: have traditional open surgery on his elbow or choose a minimally invasive approach. “I said, let’s start with the less invasive route first,” Rob says. So, Dr. Minnich referred Rob to his colleague, sports medicine physician Dale Bautista, MD, who is an expert in a treatment called percutaneous tenotomy.
“While conservative treatments are effective in more than 90% of people with elbow tendonitis, Rob fell into the 10% of patients who need additional treatment,” Dr. Bautista says.
Cleaning out the tendon
Rob underwent the 30-minute percutaneous tenotomy treatment at Grand View Health. Dr. Bautista used ultrasound to guide a fine needle into the part of Rob’s elbow tendon that was causing his pain. He then removed the diseased tissue from the tendon, making way for healthier tissue to grow.
Rob returned home that same day and says, “the soreness from the procedure wore off after a couple of days.” He wore a wrist brace and elbow strap for the first four weeks of recovery, which is typical. “Most patients regain full range of motion at six weeks,” Dr. Bautista says.
Rob’s recovery took slightly longer due to the demands of keeping up his horse farm, “but today, I don’t have any pain,” he says. “I’m back to feeding my horses three times a day, cleaning their stalls every day, and training them with both hands.” He’s also sharing his passion for horses with his family; his wife, Paula, and two daughters, Dani, 24, and Amelia, 15, all participate in ranch riding events.
His recommendation for other active people who experience elbow pain from repetitive motion injuries: “Definitely go see someone like Dr. Bautista for pain management,” Rob says.
Learn more about care for hands, wrists, and elbows at Grand View Health. Visit GVH.org/ElbowPain.