I've got it pretty bad. I can't even shake hands or pour coffee. I'm sure some of you have experienced this & I hope there's a way to fix it FAST!!!!

What can I do about this? I haven't played or lifted weights since Tuesday & I'm already starting to freak out. I can handle a week (Maybe 2) of no racquetball, but I have to get back to the weights.

Am I being unrealistic? I'd like to start lifting again this weekend. Any thoughts?

Depends on many things: Acute injury or chronic? Your age? Lateral (outside), Medial (inside) or both? Will you do what is needed to get yourself better? etc...

From my experience: you've got to lay-off, and reduce the inflammation & pain so that you are not hurting while doing nothing. That means rest, ice, advil, stretching. Could take a week or two. If you do repetitive tasks with that hand, take this time to learn how to do it with the other (computer mouse, painting, etc.)

Next the physical therapy/re-strengthening can be phased in. I very much suggest an evaluation with an orthopedic doc before any of this. Expect many months before you're back 100%...

-Jim

Thanks, Jim. That's not the answer I wanted, but that's about what I expected. Many months???? Really??????

SoulPuppy

I've got it pretty bad. I can't even shake hands or pour coffee. I'm sure some of you have experienced this & I hope there's a way to fix it FAST!!!!

What can I do about this? I haven't played or lifted weights since Tuesday & I'm already starting to freak out. I can handle a week (Maybe 2) of no racquetball, but I have to get back to the weights.

Am I being unrealistic? I'd like to start lifting again this weekend. Any thoughts?

Not a chance. Tendonitis generally takes a long time to heal and consistent PT in order to prevent it from coming back. I've battled it both in it's lateral and medial forms in my elbow. Weight training is a bad idea. You can easily hurt yourself or someone else by dropping a dumbbell or barbell, and it's going to be extremely painful just to grip anything.

If the pain is excruciating, which it can be with this sort of injury, consider a cortisone shot. It will help reduce the inflammation and jump start the healing process but REST is still necessary. Otherwise it will just flare back up.

I've been having a bout of this this week and last as well.

I think with mine it must have been acute. I've been playing for a year now, and this is the first time I've had elbow pain. It started right after I played a dude who was a hard hitter. I think I must have been hitting harder than I'm used to in response to how hard he was hitting it.

I've been icing, advilling, and wearing a brace. It was feeling a lot better, until I played again, but it still doesn't feel as bad as it did right after playing the dude.

I'm going to try to play again tomorrow, but if it gives me any pain I'm going to take a week or two off.

Okay, that was no help to you, but I thought I'd commiserate.

At least you can go to the gym and do some cardio and maybe leg workouts while it heals?

Tennis Elbow is tough because it doesn't just go away. You have to rest your arm and allow it to heal. A lot of times, it ends up being a recurring problem. Most of the time its a form of tendonitis, and it sounds like you have lateral epicondylitis, problems with gripping, lifting, and carrying. There are a lot of websites that give you remedies, but the main solution is resting it and not aggravating it. With tendons and ligaments, the main problem is that they don't receive very much of a blood supply which is what heals our bodies and carry nutirents to the injury.

So commonly, you would allow it to rest first. Usually you're looking at several weeks to rest(sorry to be the bearer of bad news). You can also get an ultrasound machine for $100 online, depending on how important it is for you to get it healed quicker, to use while you rest. Ultrasound is used by physical therapists to give a deep penetrating heat to the injury increasing blood supply to the area in order to assist the healing process. You can also alternate the ultrasound with icing as well for a cold/heat combination. The idea is that you don't want prolonged inflammation.

When it is healed, you want to warm up and stretch the area properly before playing and lifting weights. There are also exercises to strengthen the area in order to prevent further injury.

Other than that, you have to rest. Otherwise you risk long-term injury and that would suck. Just type Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis in Google or Yahoo search and you'll get more info than you'd ever want to have on the subject. I hope that helps.

I had the same thing goin on...long time on the sidelines and no improvement, my doctor recommended a type of injection called Proto Therapy (I think) anyway it is the latest deal in the treatment of tendon injuries, I got an injection, similar to cortisone, and within about 3 weeks I was good to go, now I won't sugar coat it, it hurt and if you can get the doc to give you a mild pain killer do it, but after the first day or so you will see that you are on the road to recovery. Funny thing was I hurt my ankle running, went in right away to get an injection and within 1 week it was resolved. Def worth checking into.

I had the same thing almost 2 years ago. I ignored it and continued to play. Once I saw a doctor, he recommended surgery, but I tried an injection first. That lasted for a few months and in October of 2008 I had surgery to repair the damaged tendon in the elbow. Six months of PT and I was back on the courts. No problems since. I recommend you see a doctor ASAP and they can offer the best suggestions.

prbofficer

I had the same thing almost 2 years ago. I ignored it and continued to play. Once I saw a doctor, he recommended surgery, but I tried an injection first. That lasted for a few months and in October of 2008 I had surgery to repair the damaged tendon in the elbow. Six months of PT and I was back on the courts. No problems since. I recommend you see a doctor ASAP and they can offer the best suggestions.

Any idea what caused the damage that necessitated surgery, or anything you can do to avoid the injury recurring?

Matt