A Soldiers Struggle with Tendonitis

by Ian Grant
(#65 Woodbine Trace St. James POS Trinidad and Tobago)

At 18 years of age I joined the military. At 20 years old due to the regular and hard training I acquired tendonitis in my wrists, mostly from doing push-ups right through the day.
I was the highest scorer on the physical training evaluations, but after about 2 years of rigorous training I began to get pain in my wrists that would cause swelling and stiffness. I began to go to the doctor after my range of motion in my wrist became limited. It was a very sad experience for me because my friends that worked in my unit depended on me.

I couldn't go to the gym and work out like I wanted to so I became depressed.

After seeing a few military doctors about my wrists, taking x-rays and other tests to see what the problem was, I was diagnosed with tendonitis in both wrists. So I was scheduled for physical therapy. Because of the role I had, doing so well on the physical training evaluations I was looked down on by my seniors. So it was very stressful going to therapy and not being able to workout like I was before. I had to rub my wrists, ice them and apply heat to reduce the pain and swelling.

It took me about 6 months of therapy to get back to normal. I also had to wear wrist braces. But even though my wrists got close to normal I will never be normal again. The amount of push-ups I used to do is unimaginable now.

I'm just glad it doesn't hurt like it used to.