Quote:
Originally Posted by jambon20
For now... lots of rest, stretching, avoidance of the activity (or motion) that causes the problem, ice, an "good" brace that will basically give you an new insertion point for the muscle, thereby giving the tendon a rest.
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I had a problem that came on gradually that I too thought was tennis elbow. I think it started from getting hit with pucks a lot on my stick arm. Those caused bruises, or contusions, which if untreated result in the formation of scar tissue. Scar tissue formation causes the muscle to shorten, which resulted in the muscle pulling on its insertion point(s). It is that pulling that causes pain. In my case it started to feel like I was getting stabbed in my stick arm with a knife everytime I grasped the stick paddle.
I took two months off (which hurt the most of all) and got massage therapy to reduce the scar tissue; in addition, I iced the heck out of the area on a regular basis and wore a tennis elbow brace that changed the insertion point and let the ligament rest. The result is that now the pain is gone, and I didn't have to have surgery.
A friend of mine, who plays forward, was not so lucky. He kept playing and playing and playing and developed a serious case of tennis elbow that got so painful that it prevented him from sleeping at night; finally, he had to have surgery because an MRI revealed he had shredded his ligaments beyond repair.
Recently, I reinforced the padding on both arms of my Vaughn Epic 8000 c/a with extra-heavy foam and hope to continue to play pain free.
My point is that you might want to look at what is causing the pain and take some preventative steps before you have to go under the knife.