Tennis elbow

[watervole]

I've got tennis elbow in my left elbow and it's quite painful.

I suspect the cause is a combination of knitting, weeding, typing and concertina playing, with knitting probably as the main culprit.  Knitting was a new activity for me - I've done a fair bit of knitting recently and carried on even though I was hurting because I was really enjoying it.

I think I probably need to rest the elbow, but also make sure I do some gentle exercise to retain the strength in the muscles.

A quick Google suggests that it could easily lasts for several months and that anti-inflammatory may reduce the pain, but do not help healing.

Comments

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

You move your elbows when knitting?

Can you crochet?

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I don't move my elbows when knitting, but I do twist the lower arm a lot, and all those muscles are attached to the elbow.

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

I have recurrent golfer's elbow, which is the same as tennis elbow but round the other side of the elbow (medial epicondylitis, if you want to sound technical. Yours is lateral epicondylitis). It comes and goes, presumably brought on by a combination of my job (Body Pump probably the main culprit) and hobbies (knitting and crochet), and not helped by the fact that I tend to lean on my left elbow when using the mouse with my right. (I'm trying to break myself of the latter habit, but it's fairly ingrained). Rest helps, and blitzing it with ibuprofen definitely gets it to shift. Taking the maximum dose three times a day for a few weeks is apparently best, according to my doctor, as it builds up in your system and takes a few days to properly kick in as an anti-inflammatory.

I also have a tennis elbow strap, which I use during classes when the elbow's playing up. It presses on the tendon below the elbow, and in effect moves the elbow end of the tendon down your arm, if that makes any sense. Takes the pressure off the inflamed area anyway. I'm not sure how effective it is, I suspect part of it is that it reminds me to go easy on my elbow while I'm wearing it.

Massage and ice packs are good too, and a general compression bandage seems to help - even if it's just reminding you not to use the arm too much.

You have my sympathies anyway, and I hope it eases off soon!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Be careful of that quantity of ibuprofen. A friend of mine was seriously ill with internal bleeding from that cause.

Use your mouse left-handed. many right-handed people do and it helps a lot.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Oh no, my poor friend, I thought you would be all right after those previous problems!
Ouch, this is painful!A year ago I had such a sharp pain in my forearm and an elbow too. My colleague told me that it was a tennis elbow and I laughed and didn´t believe her. But the pain made me visit my GP and he confirmed it. But I didn´t do anything (ha ha, no knitting) that could have caused it - however he asked about my writing table at home and at work. Soon it was clear: both at home and at work I had a glass on a desk, and the problem was caused by exposing my right elbow to a constant hard and cold cover. I removed the glass and for some time I kept putting a woolen scarf under my elbow. After a month or so I was all right again.
You need to keep your elbow warm and definitely you must rest it (I know, I know, easy to say...).
*Hugs*