Getting worried

[Mythos]

So I've had minor issues with my elbow for ages, but last month I was really active in the gym and out, and my issues with it are reaching epic proportions. It's to the point now where i can barely open doors or jars without shooting pain. I feel like I've practically lost use of this arm.

It's definitely got all the hallmarks of medial epicondylitis..inside elbow pain that sometimes radiates down the forearm. I can feel the tightness in the tendons that run there. Ice, aggressive massage, compression, NSAIDS, I've tried them all and they help, but it's just not getting better. I made the mistake of trying to work through it for a while, now I'm just treating the arm like it's paralyzed, waiting for some signs of improvement.. It's seriously depressing. I even did a transfer at work to try to keep from having to re-injure the thing every other day.

Has anyone had golfers or tennis elbow this bad? If so, how long did it take you to get some functionality back? Is there a chance that this could be something else? At this point im looking to see a doc over this which i hate to do. Haven't seen a doc in many years, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm even considering trying something like tb500 or BPC at this point. I can't afford to be small and im shrinking fast.

Thanks in advance

 

[PillarofBalance]

You need two things. The wrist brace thingy that an ortho can give you. Or hell buy it from Amazon or whatever

And floss. I can disappear tennis elbow in 3 minutes with that shit

 

[Mythos]

You need two things. The wrist brace thingy that an ortho can give you. Or hell buy it from Amazon or whatever

And floss. I can disappear tennis elbow in 3 minutes with that shit

Ok pob, I'm going to pick up floss and a brace asap.
thank fuk this didn't happen while i was on cycle. I wanted to start a run a month ago and have to keep pushing it back. Thank you. I cant exaggerate how crippling this is at this point

 

[Fat Gig]

Id still make a visit to the doc for some piece of mind maybe some good anti inflam but if left it dosnt sound like it will just sort itself out allso you may find yourself overcompensating with other muscles to prote t it

 

[Mythos]

Update:


I was about to go medical and probably pay out the nose for MRIs and stuff when I happened to stumble on an article about elbow tendon issues that said something interesting. This advice along with POBs advice to floss really turned the corner for me.
The advice was not to wear constant compression because it limits blood flow and slows healing. I had been wearing compression for probably 10 hours a day at work. I tried going without it and i noticed improvement almost immediately.
Then my voodoo band came in the mail and all i can say is wow. It works...i don't know how, but it works.
My injury was severe enough that it didn't fix it immediately but the improvement was amazing. It erases any dull ache for at least a couple hours, and improves the sharp pain and weakness a little more every time i use it. I've gotten my strength back to about 50-60 percent, which is great considering that i was basically carrying around a useless limb for a few weeks. Im hoping to start some light rehab movements this week and then start back to getting back in to work on upper body starting light and working up.

So far, the lessons Ive learned from this:
1 obviously, keep an eye on tendon injuries and give them plenty of rest and attention, because they will cripple you. In my case, i took it to the edge in the weightroom and my work activities pushed me over that edge.
2 floss.floss.floss. i can't describe how awesome this feels when nothing else works, and i really feel like it works on the problem too, not just the symptom. (Maybe re-aligning irregular collagen fibers?)
3 Never ever wear compression for long periods. I should have learned this lesson previously when my knee was slow to heal until i stopped all day compression on it. Itz tempting to wear compression all the time..especially to get by at any kind of physical job. IMO, don't do it, not worth it.
4 when it gets really bad, wrist splints and even wearing a sling is probably not a bad idea. I had a hard time wearing the wrist cock up splint but consciously made an effort to limit movements.

Im hoping to recover from this fully..still too soon to say for sure, but hoping. Im confident that if i can heal it up, i can keep it in check with floss and knowing when to back off before i get to dead arm stage again.

 

[BigSwolePump]

I would love to know more about this floss thing. What exactly do you do with floss?

 

[PillarofBalance]

Next step is to restore some balance to your forearm by strengthening the extensors

Quick cheap way is get a rubber band. Put it around the outside of your fingers and thumb. Open fingers into tension

Do a million reps.

 

[Mythos]

You've been right so far..I'll try it.
I was just going to go through my old forearm routine with some reverse curls all at super low weight high rep with stretching in between.

 

[Mythos]

I would love to know more about this floss thing. What exactly do you do with floss?

This video is where i got the general idea of how to use it. Ive been using my band when my knees get a little stiff too, it's incredible. If you do one leg then walk around a little you can really feel the difference in ease of movement. This guy's really going off on digging in to the problem area, but just the band and some light flexing and stretching does wonders

https://youtu.be/F9i26FSwVq8

 

[Solomc]

Floss that shit