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.
Certain types of soft tissue treatment will be of great benefit... Active Release Techniques, Graston Technique, and Ultrasound should all help.
See your local chiropractor, physiotherapist, athletic therapist for these things.
After the pain is gone, you will want to strengthen the area so that it is less likely to happen again.
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I second jambon20's advice. I developed a bit of tennis elbow recently and seeing a good physiotherapist helped significantly.
I went for a few sessions and she used a combination of massage (possibly Active Release Techniques...I don't know enough to be sure), ultrasound, and...speaking of needles...acupuncture and a bit of intramuscular stimulation, aka IMS (for info on the latter, there is a little description at
Intramuscular Stimulation).
The acupuncture / needle treatments made a noticeable difference. Within an hour after the first session with them, I suddenly noticed that things that were painful prior to the appointment were suddenly much less painful. I had had a session with just ultrasound and massage prior to that and didn't notice nearly as dramatic a difference.
A friend of mine noticed similarly dramatic results with just IMS (and exercises). He'd had tennis elbow for years, kept mostly at bay by avoiding racquetball. When it flared up after practicing a lot of slapshots, he saw his physio for about 3 weeks, got the needles and hasn't had a problem since.
I didn't get a cortisone shot but certainly doing something to calm down the inflammation could be very helpful. In my case I didn't feel it was necessary and I felt the treatment I did get addressed the problem more specifically. I was happy with all my needles even if there were a lot more of them than there would have been had I just gone for a shot. Any pain from needles is also pretty much momentary...certainly nowhere near as lingering and debilitating as ongoing tendonitis.
I also wore a brace (a tennis elbow brace -- the one described earlier with the little pad on it) when playing goal or doing other things that could potentially stress on the area, and I mostly avoided activities that seemed to stress the area a lot (stuff requiring a lot of gripping or twisting, or explosive motions involving the forearm, like throwing a frisbee). I'm also doing some stretching and exercises to reduce the likelihood of getting the injury again. The tennis elbow isn't completely gone -- it got about 80% better with the first two or three sessions and the last little bit is slow to heal (I'm at about 95% now, I'd say), but that's the way it is with this injury.
anyway, whatever you decide do, good luck and hope you heal quickly.