My elbow has been hurting for a couple of weeks. The pain is on the outside of the hinge, but my knowledge of anatomy isn’t such that I could name the bone. It’s not the knob that one thinks of as the ‘elbow’, but the other knob to the outside. The pain is in the little depression between the radius and ulna. I mentioned it to my cow-orker, who knows less than I do about such things, and she said, ‘Oh, tennis elbow. My sister had that.’
I looked up the symptoms, and they seem to match. Wiki says typical treatment includes rest. My RN roommate suggested lots of ibuprofen. I don’t know whether I stressed the joint by spending too much time on the computer in the reclining position, which is how I normally surf the web and read the Dope and such; or whether it’s from my upright position when I’m telecommuting. My ever-present cuppa joe is to my right, and there is a bit of an angle so that I can reach it. I also tend to extend my right arm when I sleep.
So I’ve been trying to rest it, I’ve been taking ibuprofen, and I smear it a couple of times a day with Tiger Balm. I’ve put the small pillow my roommate gave me at Christmas (What is it with women and little pillows?) on my bed to keep me from fully extending my arm. If it doesn’t start feeling better in a couple of weeks I’ll schedule an appointment with my doctor. (It’s about time I met him. I put him down as my PCP for my insurance, but I don’t like going to doctors. If you go to a doctor, he might find something wrong.)
I’ve had mouse elbow since moving to a new building last October. I changed my ergonomics a bit and it’s getting better. I think I might be getting mouse shoulder now though.
Hold your arm out completely straight and and push the palm of your hand down so you can feel the stretch across the top of your forearm. Then switch your arm palmside up and do the same stretch the bottom of your forearm stretches.
Also, ice the elbow a few times a day for 15 minutes at a time.
You can get it from typing and mousing. Another way you can get it is by using a hammer.
You can ice it twice a day, rest it as much as possible from typing, mousing and hitting things with hammers, take anti-inflammatories, and seek physical therapy if it isn’t feeling much better after a week of that. It will take as long to feel better as you’ll been feeling the pain so don’t put off treatment if it isn’t improving.
My cure for everything pretty much never includes rest. That’s probably good to, but I look for pro-active measures with near immediate results.
Last time I had tennis elbow, not caused by tennis either, I learned about using wrist curls to tighten some offsetting tendons and relieve the pain. It worked within a day or two. I suppose you could either do them with small weights, soup cans, or added reps with no extra weight.
As always, you test things out and if it’s making things worse, quit. Your are in pain now so be ready to accept a little strain before giving up. And don’t mistake muscle tension from a new exercise as pain.
Roomie asked me to move my Seca II, which hasn’t been moved in four years, off the patio as she has some ideas. (Wait. Why did she ask if I could move it today? Is she getting me a fire pit for my birthday tomorrow? And she cleaned the patio chairs the other day. She said she should get me a food processor, but…) Having been sitting for so long, the tires are very low. It was difficult – very difficult – to move. Now the elbow is hurting as much as it did when I first posted.
At least now I have an idea of how I must have injured it. When I work from home I bring files home in my backpack. I tend to pick it up from the passenger seat somewhat awkwardly. I guess it finally got to me. So, back on the ibuprofen. And there’s fresh Tiger Balm on the joint.
The good news is that the YZF-R1 started right up.
I had a bout of tennis elbow actually caused by tennis and too much typing at work. The doc gave me a cortisone shot, which masked the pain for a bit. She also wrote me a prescription for some topical steroidal (?) cream to rub in but that seemed like hokus-pokus to me, so I never used it.
I ended up resting it from tennis for 6 weeks. That was probably the main thing. I also endured 3 sessions of a massage targeted to that area. This wasn’t a Swedish “ahhhh” massage, but a therapeutic “OWWW!” massage. At times she dug in so hard that it brought me to tears, and my arm was black and blue from the bruising. But it actually seemed to help. The masseuse said that blood doesn’t normally flow into these areas so she was encouraging blood flow.
At the doctor’s order, I also did six sessions of PT. They had me do exercises to build up my forearm muscle, in order to protect my elbow. In addition, she rubbed in some steroidal gel via this little ultrasound device, but honestly I thought that was more of the hokus-pokus.
Whether it was the rest, the shot, the massage, the ibuprofen, the PT or a combination of all of the above, it did get better after ~ 6 weeks.
After, I wore a tennis elbow band (constricts the muscle in your forearm) for 2 or 3 months, but haven’t used anything in over two years. I switched to an ergonomic mouse, which looks like a really large joy stick. (Where’s that 12 year old when you need a tasteless joke?) I also have learned to listen to my elbow. Now when I feel twinges, I rest it for a few days before playing tennis again.
Hyper-extension can certainly be painful. I injured my shoulder last year after trying to swat a spider for the Ms. :rolleyes: After a couple of days of not being able to lift my arm, I saw the doc, who gave me a cortisone shot in the joint. Things improved markedly within a couple of days, the pain subsided, and within a week I had full range of motion back.
Johnny, both my sister and best friend used the tennis elbow band. Just looking at them and how they are worn, it doesn’t seem like they would accomplish anything.
Then, a couple of months ago, my elbow started to hurt. I tried ibuprofen but it didn’t seem to help much. The symptoms seemed the same so I went to the brace & wrap section of the drug store and bought my own. It took four or five weeks until the pain reduced enough to stop wearing it but now I’m pain free.
Different bands use different methods to put pressure on the arm. My sister’s used a thick felt pad, my friend’s used a small air pillow. I liked the one that had a conical rubber disc (it fit in a pocket in the band) since it seemed to give better targeted pressure.
