tennis elbow

Hi, I hope this helps you. I have been a tennis elbow sufferer for the past two years - both arms - and probably due to 25-odd years of secretarial work. The pain was so bad and the condition so debilitating that I reached the stage where I could not do normal day-to-day things without an awful lot of pain. I had two cortisone injections (one worked for around 3 months and the other didn't work at all) and tried all the gizmos, straps etc. I also changed my working arrangements including headphones etc. Ice rather than heat, helped for a very short-term fix. I ended up having physio at my local hospital and the doctors were starting to look at operating on my worst arm. I don't know why but I asked my physio one day whether she felt that swimming might help - she wasn't sure but thought it would be worth a shot. I then started swimming at my local pool once a week with some friends who wanted to get fit. I could only do ten lengths at first - all breaststroke - but I have kept it up for the last six months (if I can I sometimes go twice a week) but I have now reached around 20 lengths a session and I am virtually pain-free. Please please try it - it'll take a month or two but you will soon notice the difference - I am so glad I did it because this condition is so miserable.

Hi Im Olivia Im only 16, Ive had tennis elbow for around a month and my tennis elbow is due to too much swimming. I swim twice a week and used to swim every day for 5 years. So swimming doesnt necessarily help. The NHS claim that swimming causes tennis elbow. And my doctor has told me it is due to swimming. Sorry to say this. Olivia xx

About 30 years ago I developed tennis elbow when I was a secretary. I couldn't even pick up the telephone with my right had to put to my ear. I had several injections and ended up have surgery to move the tendon and re-attach it further down. Post-op was very painful but I have been painfree until six months ago.

Then tell tale symptoms of the elbow but on the opposite side of the joint. GP injected the sore spot and it was fine for a few weeks. I have to agree with Olivia, I had been swimming three times a week, half a mile on each occasion for about three years. I have just got back to doing lengths and the pain has returned, mainly breastroke (pulling down through the water) and freestyle, although backstroke not so bad. Aged 69 with hypertension it is a brilliant exercise but now I have to stop as the pain is too debilitating. What is a poor girl to do?

That is a difficult situation, as you do need to rest your elbow so your work doesn't seem to be very helpful. You should definitely try and be up front with them and say you need to be on light duties or something like that. In the meantime try stretching your forearm flexors and extensors and also massage the muscles at home. Also try icing the elbow or using some ibuleve gel over the painful area.

Good luck with it all, hopefully you can get some rest from heavy duties at work.

Best wishes

I've been having a similar problem with my left inner elbow. I think it's from improper form when lifting weights. Icing and rest don't seem to be helping too much and it's been a couple of weeks. Other posts say this can last up to a year!! I'll see the doc next week and hopefully I can get a cortisone shot. I'll post if he gives any tips or advice that might be helpful.

I also got tennis elbow from lifting weights, that activity is hard on the small intricate muscles around the elbow. I got special wrist bands for weight lifting as I did not want to take one year off. They work great, especially for the heavy lifting. I bought them at a specialty sport rehab store. They are not the epicondylitis bands that you wear around your elbows, tried those they did not work, just made my wrists and elbows really weak. They wrap around your wrist and then wrap around the bar before you lift. Good luck and I hope this advice helps you.

I'm glad that that this wrist band works for you. If you want to strengthen your grip you'll have to exercise your your extensors, the muscles that open your hand. Research shows that a muscle's contractions will be stronger and more powerful if these muscles are exercised.

Hi, after suffering with tennis elbow for several years I used these kind of forums to look for advice and information. Being now pain-free, I thought I would share my experience. Over several years I had numerous Cortizone injections which I now think may have exacerbated the problem, although they provided short-term relief at the time. I had bouts of physio, did icing, exercise, used supports… it was only when I moved house that I got referred to a new consultant who told me about PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections. This is where they take your own blood, spin it in a centrifuge to separate the platelet rich plasma and inject that back into the tendon areas. It was uncomfortable at the time and painful for a few days with my arms feeling like deadweights and aching a lot. I had to avoid pound down lifting and anything strenuous for six weeks. The consultant did advise me that for some people it takes 2 lots of treatment. This was the case for me. I had a follow-up appointment some months later and I was still experiencing some discomfort although it was much better than before. I had a second lot of injections in January this year and can now say that I am pain-free. The improvement was very quick too. I am now back to playing golf and have almost forgotten what it was like to live with permanent discomfort and pain, when depressing a door handle or pulling up my jeans was agony!

The injections work by helping your body to heal itself. The PRPs Speed up repair of the damaged tendons, which are very slow to repair normally. I wish I had been able to have this done in the first place instead of steroids because I think they did more harm than good.

I don't know how widely used this treatment is. The consultant told me that some hospitals won't do them because there isn't enough evidence of their success but as he said to me, how will we get that evidence unless people like me have it done?

I hope this has been helpful. All the best.

Hi to all,

I have tennis elbow after a wrist fracture in april really sore to move and want to keep my elbow in bent position.

i ha