Another Tennis Elbow Thread . . .

Bones, joints and muscles
1

Hi, all! I recently injured my right elbow - not participating in sports, but apparently by doing some heavy duty sanding on my kitchen walls! sigh This was about a month ago and I've been having elbow/forearm pain ever since. I haven't been to my doctor yet, but I may have to.

I have sharp pain on the end of my elbow bone (right at the lateral epicondyle) and a duller pain in my upper forearm when I try to fully extend my arm. Rotating my forearm away from my body also causes the dull upper forearm muscle pain. I work in a biomedical research lab and do a LOT of pipetting of chemicals, cells in culture, and various reagents - this involves a lot of hand dexterity and thumb pressing (kind of like pressing the top of a mace cannister or a handheld gameshow buzzer). I also do a good amount of typing and mousing when analyzing data. All of this seems to exacerbate the issue and I can't just rest the elbow or I literally would get NO work done and would have to take a month off of work and just sit on my couch and watch tv.

I have been wearing this elbow brace for about a week and half and it doesn't really seem to help at all: (EDIT ok the forum won't let me post a link but it's the Amazon Choice/Best Seller 'Tomight Elbow Brace with Compression Pad' on Amazon.)

I was reading that if one of these arm braces does NOT help then you don't have tennis elbow OR your injury is severe. Well every description of tennis elbow I've read sounds just like what I have and the pain isn't absolutely terrible or anything, so I can't imagine I've terribly disabled myself. I've also read that the elbow brace should be at least 3" wide, but mine isn't even 2" wide! Could that be why it's not helping? When I put it on, I wiggle my fingers and look at my upper forearm to find where the tendons are moving and I place the pad part of the brace right over those moving tendons. I've tried putting the thing at various distances from my elbow, but no spot really reduces the pain.

I've got two wrist rests for my mouse - one back under my elbow and one under the wrist and that seems to help a bit. Don't have one in front of the keyboard though.

So what should I do? Am I using the brace right? Should I try a wider one? Do I even have tennis elbow? What else could it be? Should I just bite the bullet and go see my doc who will probably refer me to an orthopedist? SO over this already . . . thanks, guys!

Cynthia

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HI i am a 50 year old athlete and competed nationally and internationally for over 25 years during this time i have had numerous bouts of tennis elbow and every time its down to overuse, my training involves numerous disciplines and most with gripping as part of the exercise, once my tennis elbow starts playing up its already gone past the stage of resting and to be honest resting has never worked for me and my work would not allow me to take long periods off without using my hand as im a plasterer, ive tried pain killers, the elbow braces like you described and even cortisone injections without success, the only thing that had worked and gives me months and sometimes years of pain free relief is to find a very competent physiotherapist locate the trigger point of the damaged tendon and use friction massage to break down scar tissue this method is extremely painful and i have in the past vomited as a result but they have get their thumbs to squeeze really hard up and down and across the tendon, you will be sore for a couple of days and will need another 3-4 visits by which time the physiotherapist will no longer be able to locate the trigger point and pretty much sorted, im not sure if you got it sorted as your post was a long time ago but if your still having issues try what ive described