Water on the Elbow

Whenever I need information I google it.  I may be looking for the nearest bar, oil change, convenience store, doctor, whatever – Googling saves time and allows me to quickly get up to speed on whatever topic I am interested in.  Well – I came down with water on the elbow, and despite my proficient search skills, there was virtually no information to help me out.  So I’m posting this to help the next googler that has a freakish blob of unknown contents hanging off their elbow.

Water on the elbow is very similar to water on the knee.  Somehow your elbow got banged up and its response is to sprout a blob off of the joint.  Look at the picture of my elbow – Yikes! 

I was having dinner Wednesday night and my elbow itched.  I went to scratch it and felt this blob on the elbow.  My first thought was either a sock or a racquetball had somehow got stuck in the sleeve of my shirt and miraculously settled at the elbow spot.  I rolled up my sleeve expecting the foreign object to fall out and nothing fell out.  That is when I recoiled at the UEO (Unidentified Elbow Object) protruding from the elbow joint.

I immediately used my UEO to freak out both my girlfriend and my waitress. The waitress reacted like she was in a Halloween house of horrors and I was a menacing ghoul.  Showing my doormen later on produced winces and exclamations of fear.  But the elbow didn’t hurt at all, so I decided not to spend any time worrying about it.

At the doctor’s office the next day I kept my cellphone on.  I figured I could get some gruesome pictures of water on the elbow drainage to share with my faithful readers.  Unfortunately both doctors refused to pierce the elbow bubble.  With water on the knee, treatment is most commonly having your knee drained.  I know this because I got my knee stuck in another player’s football helmet once, and another time I fell off a couch flush on my knee.  Both times I had a tennis-ball size sac of fluid that required a HUGE needle piercing and squeezing to drain out the fluid.  It was like popping a ginormous zit. 

Draining water on the elbow is not usually a course of treatment because it greatly increases your chance of having the elbow get infected.  If you get water on the elbow, take a bunch of advil and compression wrap the joint.  That was the prescribed treatment.  I did both of these for 2 days, but it stopped being fun rather quickly, plus my stomach did not need advil while I was coordinating and participating in my brother’s bachelor party.  The swelling will go down and everything will be fine as long as the joint pain doesn’t increase.  Hopefully my elbow will look normal again soon.  It is now magically half the size after a week, hopefully I do not re-injure it playing football tonight.

Update post UEO-dispersal: I am updating this 8 months later because I realized I never concluded the story on my UEO disappearance. At football that evening, one week after my water on the elbow appeared, I made a diving interception which caused me to land on my UEO. It felt a little sore but nothing out of the ordinary. I got home and took off my wrap. The water sac had exploded internally and I had a very gross bruise. There was almost no pain. My bruise cleared up over 10 days time and my elbow was as good as new.

Comments

[Todd Robinson]

disgusting bro. was that blog really necessary?

[Stef]

This was SOOO helpful and reassuring. I have it! For months now! Banged the elbow and yes, a bit of hard stuff is floating about in there in a big squishy lump. And it goes away? I love you, guy, I am so glad to know it!

[Kim]

OK- that was great... I went through the
same thing last Wed. evening before Thanksgiving. My UEO totally freaked out my extended family who were arriving in from out of town. Although I told them it didn't hurt, they were horrified and thought I'd been bitten by a lethal spider. I was wisked to a 24 hour med center where I learned what my UEO was.
The best was coming home and telling them when they squeezed it a bunch of baby spiders came out !

[Don]

Had an 'itch', scratched and discovered a soft, moveable and painless 'sac'.

Hmnn, guess I'll try advil.

Thanks

[John Warner]

Many thanks for your account of your UEO. Within five minutes of first noticing my UEO, I read your account. What a relief to get an immediate answer and at no cost. There is no entry for UEO in my The American Medical Association Family Medical Guide. I googled it with "water on the elbow". Your report was the first entry on Google. I have no pain, just an enormous ball of jelly under the skin of my elbow.
Thanks again. John W.

[benjamin]

Interesting. I just returned from a month-long trip where I was surfing 2x / day and halfway through I developed water on the elbow after a really long paddle out through some solid waves at low tide (lots and lots of repetitive motions -- duck diving).

Used ibuprofen & ice to reduce it initially. Aggravated it a couple times thereafter during the trip, now its bigger and badder.

Wearing a compression sleeve and taking advil while staying "off" of it now, hoping it goes away w/o having to get it drained.

I actually think this condition started prior to the trip, due to other activity placing a lot of stress on the associated tendons/ligaments/muscles (rock climbing).

[John C]

Mine started last week, and, living in France everyone I spoke to was convinced it was a spider bite!! I've never seen a biting spider in England or since I've been in france (maybe they only come out at night??) anyway unlike most people here mine did hurt, it's not so much painful now, unless it's knocked, but uncomfortable, itchy and 'tight' when I bend my arm, I was prescribed anti bios and anti inflammatories, after 4 days now the swelling has greatly reduced but still don't know if the doc will let me go back to work next week as it is likely to flair up again if not completely rested

[Ken Nelson]

Thanks for all the information about your UEO ... "Water on the Elbow"... especially for the picture.

Your elbow looks exactly like mine.

However, I have had the golfball size swelling for over a week. How long does it take to go away? Or will I have to see a doctor and have it drained.

Thank you.
Ken

[AAAAANDRE]

Wow, My dog has one! (for about a week)
Male German Shepherd "puppy" (11mos/90+lbs).
From jumping at the fence I guess?
My girlfriend wants to take him to the Vet$$$
Hah! I think I'll wait another week or two.

My best hit page had one picture from the Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Contest (get ready!)

[Tom Erstad]

I was getting ready for work this morning and appling lotion on my legs and arms. I felt a weird blob on my elbow and just about fainted. I don;t like this kind a shit happening to my 56 year old body this soon.
I showed my normal elbo to my wife and said, hey, look at my elbow, and she said yeh, so what, looks good to me. Then I said right, this is a normal elbow.... now look at the other one, and she just about fainted too. Which made me really feel worse. Riding to work, absently placed my left elbow on the door arm rest and, yup, you guessed it, I was immediately reminded about my elbow again. Then at work, I can't seem to get my correct placement on the key board because of my UEO. I'm going to put an Ace commpression sock on it when I get home. Thanks for the advice. And, this is the first site I opened when I Googled this first thing when I got to work.

[june gillam]

thanks for your pic and text!!!! my husband has this UEO and now we both feel better to know he is not alone--not sure when we can get him to the doc, but for me too, your bit here was the first to come up on google--thank you.

jg

[John Zavatsky]

This past week I've grown an elbow exactly as pictured and described. Today I've used one of my insulin needles to extract some of the liquid. I easily pulled aprox. 1250 units from
the slushy area. I'll keep in touch to let you
know the outcome.

[John Zavatsky]

This past week I've grown an elbow exactly as pictured and described. Today I've used one of my insulin needles to extract some of the liquid. I easily pulled aprox. 1250 units from
the slushy area. I'll keep in touch to let you
know the outcome.

[ragwd]

That looks just like my elbow!!!! I lift weights daily and I dont want to take the time off guess I will try a wrap and some ibuprofin. Thanks for showing that I was starting to think I was a circus freak now I know there is a bunch of us.

[Leighton Garner]

Me too. Three days ago I put my elbow on my desk and it felt weird. Like a cushion on my elbow. So I looked at it and OH MY GOD! A huge lump that felt like it was full of water on my left elbow. I looks just like your photo. I freaked out. So I went to Google and put in "water on elbow" and here I am. I will try your remedy. If that doesn't work I am off to the doctor for a draining. I have no pain though. Thanks.

[Leighton Garner]

By the way. I you want more information on this go to: Olecranon Bursitis. That is the medical name of what this water on the elbow is called.

Leighton

[Paul Rebillot]

I woke up yesterday morning with this large liquid lump on my elbow. I became quite concerned since the only stress that i have placed on that elbow is in helping me elevate my rather considerable body weight Since I have just had my doctor changed by my Health Care provider, I was concerned, but now I think I can wait for it to dissipate, at least for a week or so without worry. Thanks.

[Ken]

Well. Here I am again and my UEO has finally gone away ... after 4 1/2 weeks. Thank goodness I did not try and drain it.
I did try and put an ace bandage around it.
Not a good idea! In the morning my forearm
and hand were both swollen. It never hurt ... so the best advice is just to let it go for 4 to 5 weeks. Everything is back to normal again.
Ken

[Jason]

I have the same thing, going on two weeks and no sign of it getting any better. No joint pain but it's uncomfortable. How long until I should see a doctor?

[pg]

My dad had this elbow thing, he was an avid tennis player, and years ago it was called tennis elbow. Well last time he had it about 3 years ago, he didn't notice it until it opened and leaked water on him! Not to be gross but it was water and then cloudy gush liquid. THen he skipped the dr. and iced it and left it alone, he wore a band aid until the wound healed. It just flared up again last friday, and leaked again! He went monday to the dr. He was prescribed the compression pad and 20 days antibiotics and a follow up appointment. My dad is always working around the house and banging his finger, elbow and such, so my opinion is the liquid was close to the skin surface and just came out of an already existing wound. There is nothing on the internet, as I was wondering if he should see a joint doctor like an orthopedist or something. Well, so far so good except keeping my dad from being active is the remaining challenge!

[GF]

Hi Everyone. Thank you for sharing your epxeriences. I fell on my stairs about 4 weeks ago and needed stitches for my elbow. At two weeks after the fall I went to get the stitches out and told the doc I noticed some of that feeling that someone mentioned of having a gel pad on my elbow and discovered the UEO. Some liquid was also comeing out of one of the stitches. Doc said water on the elbow and he could either lance it now or let it reabsorb naturally. I chose the latter. I'm now at 4 weeks after the fall but only 2 weeks from noticing the UEO. It has gotten a bit better and then a bit worse. Now its probably as big as it has ever gotten but I'm hoping in another 2-3 weeks it will reabsorb. I'll keep everyone posted. No pain unless I lean on it but just anxious for it to depart!

[Jim]

Have the same as in the picture. Fell on the elbow two weeks earlier with laceration. The doctor saw that the wound was closing witout pus, he medicated it and prescribed some antibiotics. Now two weeks later after bumping it a bump as pictured in the previous message appeared, and I am playing the wait and see game. If not improve in a few days will see the dop again.

[rick]

just googled water on the elbow for the same reason as everyone else. was going to call my doctor; now i'll just wait (it was a coin toss). got mine using my chin up bar as a gymnastic bar, reverse swings i haven't done since high school (i'm 50). well i think i pulled the tendon and it didn't like it. oh yes, everyone laugh, i sure did, stupid 50 year old acting like a kid. oh well. not as bad as your pic, but it is spongey and i can feel the fluid. really no pain either. i started bayer a couple of days ago. thanks for the post, peace and coexist..

[Robert Durdle]

Hey guys my question is this, mine popped inside the next day and the whole area a huge gruesome bruise, is this safe>?

[Dee]

I am so happy to find your picture and story. Indeed, I also have a lump just like yours on my elbow, but breathing much easier knowing what it is. The human body is full of surprises and knowing I am not alone helps also.