As you guys know, most of what I can offer back to the group is basically nothing more than what a dumb ass buddy could offer: moronic comments, support when needed, maybe some tittie pics etc. I see an opportunity for me to compile some data into one place so it is easily searched. What I have is one person's experience with an injury and subsequent healing process, drug use leading up to and through out the process, and issues that may have occurred. Some of this is actual science based info and some of it is broscience but it's all very legit either way.
I see this question arise from time to time, "Does GH really help with healing?", And I've often wondered the same thing. The magical healing power of these little vials I have can't be true, can it? Well, if you think about it you need two things to happen for someone to find out for themselves. You need a supply of GH and of course you need injury. Needless to say this is an undertaking that nobody wants but given my recent injury I can add some data to the pile.
I'm figuring most of you guys know about my biceps tendon tear. If you don't know, now you know. Early August of this year I had my left distal tendon come completely off. I was one month into a training cycle for a local PL competition and things were starting to pick up in the gym, weights started to move up on the bars and on the scale. My goals were lofty but I have the drive and refuse to let myself fail but yeah dude, my body had different plans.
Basics about the training cycle and my stats at that time...
-265#
-1g test cyp ew
-600mg deca ew
-Approx half a #30 black top ed
-5500 calories daily approx
-POB training plan
When the rupture occurred I consulted some guys to ask what they had done during their injury in regards to cycle and doses. Basic consensus was to continue trt at normal doses and also continue the blacks. High test and deca were discontinued immediately. This gives me one solid month of GH going into the repair process, safe to assume my levels are pretty high although I have zero bloodwork to back that up.
Surgery goes very well, pain is minimal. I start rehab as prescribed and everything seems to be going well. Grey sky's are going to clear up and all that shit, right? Not so fast mother fucker! My arm is slowly developing an internal discomfort that I can only describe as a burning feeling. Really it feels like bad arthritis, somewhat debilitating when it's at its worse. Much worse pain than the tear or surgery. Things like rehab are becoming a burden physically and I can tell there is something wrong by the look on the therapists faces. Graston therapy about made me cry. Silly pain. My biggest concern was my lack of ROM. My pronation and flexion was poverty at best.
About 2 months later I have my 2nd follow up with the surgeon and we talk about what's going on and have some xrays taken. The xrays show a bone growth inside my arm, inside the skeletal muscle specifically. Medically it's called a heterotopic ossification and it's a small chance that you get one. When they occure it seems to be most likely to happen in a hip but elbows aren't unknown to get them either. All I know is this seemed to have my surgeons attention. I was started on Indomethacin at 75mg ed as a form of treatment for the HO. This med seems to be a Swiss army knife of meds in a way as it treats a wide variety of issues. I believe the medication slows and or stops the growth of a HO.
Treatment for a HO once it's not growing anymore is to just leave it alone or remove it if needed, basically as mobility and pain dictates. Mobility is still poverty, very concerning.
Up to this point I have maintained the same GH dosing protocol but decided to drop down to a quarter vial ed. I was growing suspicious of the GH use and the HO.
I started requesting opinions from some of the guys on Meso that I feel would have a good opinion if not a realistic clue as to what my new concerns were true; had GH been a contributing factor to this new arm issue? After getting some good insight from Dr Jim about how it is very possible for the GH to contribute the the growth of HO I decided to stop all GH use.
The issue wasn't the use of the GH itself, but it certainly did seem to contribute to the secondary issue. Now, looking at the bright side of life I was 2 months post OP and ready to murder the gym but my arm was on fire from the bone growth. It's safe to say the tendon was healed up nicely by this point but the issue I still had was killing me more and more by the week. I was slowly loosing the use of my arm in the gym.
So the indomethacin continues and I try to make headway at the gym. Life drags...
I hit another follow up with the surgeon after another 6 weeks or so and to his surprise the HO has all the characteristics of being a candidate for removal. Usually they take some time to calcify and xrays easily show when they are ready. He had originally told me at least 6 months before it would be ready. Is this fast tracked calcification due to the GH? He really seemed surprised that it was so far along. Broscience....
Just over a week ago the HO was removed. It was a big one to say the least and to throw the surgeon a curve ball it had grown around the newly repaired tendon. I hate going to the gym and putting as much effort as I have in me and fail because of pain. It makes me feel inferior, not mentally hard enough. I kept calling myself a pussy and I'd pull and push and keep failing. The location of the HO gave me such a hard time physically and I was justified now. I knew I was being forced to deal with something that was holding me back and now things would get better.
4 months and a week after the initial injury, 2 surgeries and a bunch of rehab later I have a game plan for the gym. I have no real issues holding me back. My arm works like it should and I can flex my bicep and pull with that arm. ROM is now basically back to 100% and I couldn't be happier.
What I am taking away from this experience is that shit happens. Life kicked me in the balls with the distal rupture and I believe the random HO growth was absolutely exacerbated due to the GH. I also firmly believe the HO had nothing to due with the GH use, I just drew the proverbial short straw. I know a handful of guys that used GH during the same injury and had zero issues, I am the outlier.
A lot of real world science here and also a lot of speculation and broscience. I have no clue if this could help someone or if it's even worth anything at all. I did feel like it may serve a purpose so I decided to put a little time into compiling it. For more detailed interactions during this timeline visit my log, it has everything related to this event in much greater detail, including puctures and stuff.
Thanks for reading guys. Stay safe, keep that mobility work on the up and up and for God sakes focus on your nutrition and training before the drugs.
Here's to a happy and healthy 2018!
Ickyrica
I see this question arise from time to time, "Does GH really help with healing?", And I've often wondered the same thing. The magical healing power of these little vials I have can't be true, can it? Well, if you think about it you need two things to happen for someone to find out for themselves. You need a supply of GH and of course you need injury. Needless to say this is an undertaking that nobody wants but given my recent injury I can add some data to the pile.
I'm figuring most of you guys know about my biceps tendon tear. If you don't know, now you know. Early August of this year I had my left distal tendon come completely off. I was one month into a training cycle for a local PL competition and things were starting to pick up in the gym, weights started to move up on the bars and on the scale. My goals were lofty but I have the drive and refuse to let myself fail but yeah dude, my body had different plans.
Basics about the training cycle and my stats at that time...
-265#
-1g test cyp ew
-600mg deca ew
-Approx half a #30 black top ed
-5500 calories daily approx
-POB training plan
When the rupture occurred I consulted some guys to ask what they had done during their injury in regards to cycle and doses. Basic consensus was to continue trt at normal doses and also continue the blacks. High test and deca were discontinued immediately. This gives me one solid month of GH going into the repair process, safe to assume my levels are pretty high although I have zero bloodwork to back that up.
Surgery goes very well, pain is minimal. I start rehab as prescribed and everything seems to be going well. Grey sky's are going to clear up and all that shit, right? Not so fast mother fucker! My arm is slowly developing an internal discomfort that I can only describe as a burning feeling. Really it feels like bad arthritis, somewhat debilitating when it's at its worse. Much worse pain than the tear or surgery. Things like rehab are becoming a burden physically and I can tell there is something wrong by the look on the therapists faces. Graston therapy about made me cry. Silly pain. My biggest concern was my lack of ROM. My pronation and flexion was poverty at best.
About 2 months later I have my 2nd follow up with the surgeon and we talk about what's going on and have some xrays taken. The xrays show a bone growth inside my arm, inside the skeletal muscle specifically. Medically it's called a heterotopic ossification and it's a small chance that you get one. When they occure it seems to be most likely to happen in a hip but elbows aren't unknown to get them either. All I know is this seemed to have my surgeons attention. I was started on Indomethacin at 75mg ed as a form of treatment for the HO. This med seems to be a Swiss army knife of meds in a way as it treats a wide variety of issues. I believe the medication slows and or stops the growth of a HO.
Treatment for a HO once it's not growing anymore is to just leave it alone or remove it if needed, basically as mobility and pain dictates. Mobility is still poverty, very concerning.
Up to this point I have maintained the same GH dosing protocol but decided to drop down to a quarter vial ed. I was growing suspicious of the GH use and the HO.
I started requesting opinions from some of the guys on Meso that I feel would have a good opinion if not a realistic clue as to what my new concerns were true; had GH been a contributing factor to this new arm issue? After getting some good insight from Dr Jim about how it is very possible for the GH to contribute the the growth of HO I decided to stop all GH use.
The issue wasn't the use of the GH itself, but it certainly did seem to contribute to the secondary issue. Now, looking at the bright side of life I was 2 months post OP and ready to murder the gym but my arm was on fire from the bone growth. It's safe to say the tendon was healed up nicely by this point but the issue I still had was killing me more and more by the week. I was slowly loosing the use of my arm in the gym.
So the indomethacin continues and I try to make headway at the gym. Life drags...
I hit another follow up with the surgeon after another 6 weeks or so and to his surprise the HO has all the characteristics of being a candidate for removal. Usually they take some time to calcify and xrays easily show when they are ready. He had originally told me at least 6 months before it would be ready. Is this fast tracked calcification due to the GH? He really seemed surprised that it was so far along. Broscience....
Just over a week ago the HO was removed. It was a big one to say the least and to throw the surgeon a curve ball it had grown around the newly repaired tendon. I hate going to the gym and putting as much effort as I have in me and fail because of pain. It makes me feel inferior, not mentally hard enough. I kept calling myself a pussy and I'd pull and push and keep failing. The location of the HO gave me such a hard time physically and I was justified now. I knew I was being forced to deal with something that was holding me back and now things would get better.
4 months and a week after the initial injury, 2 surgeries and a bunch of rehab later I have a game plan for the gym. I have no real issues holding me back. My arm works like it should and I can flex my bicep and pull with that arm. ROM is now basically back to 100% and I couldn't be happier.
What I am taking away from this experience is that shit happens. Life kicked me in the balls with the distal rupture and I believe the random HO growth was absolutely exacerbated due to the GH. I also firmly believe the HO had nothing to due with the GH use, I just drew the proverbial short straw. I know a handful of guys that used GH during the same injury and had zero issues, I am the outlier.
A lot of real world science here and also a lot of speculation and broscience. I have no clue if this could help someone or if it's even worth anything at all. I did feel like it may serve a purpose so I decided to put a little time into compiling it. For more detailed interactions during this timeline visit my log, it has everything related to this event in much greater detail, including puctures and stuff.
Thanks for reading guys. Stay safe, keep that mobility work on the up and up and for God sakes focus on your nutrition and training before the drugs.
Here's to a happy and healthy 2018!
Ickyrica
