Judith Proctor's Journal

Went for a lovely walk along the river close to Wimborne.  Starting by Eye Bridge is a lovely walk along the bank.  This is what I pay my National Trust membership for every year.  I rarely visit the houses, I could do the walk for free, but I'm happy knowing that some of my membership is helping the National Trust maintain these lovely areas of countryside for everyone to enjoy.

Saw the usual little egret.  Ten years ago they were rare, twenty years ago they were almost unknown.  Thirty years ago they probably didn't even consider England worth visiting.  Now, there's breeding pairs of these lovely little white herons all over the south of England.  That's global warming for you.

I'm trying to do a few minutes poi every day as a way of stretching out all the odd muscles left weak by the tennis elbow.  Finding the right balance is tricky as over-doing it is a real danger.  Right now, the joints ache, but there are no 'ouches' so I think I've got it about right.  My mobility is definitely improving, as I can do figures that were giving me trouble a week ago.  I can do hip reels both clockwise and anti-clockwise now.

The next problem is the concertina.  I desperately want to be able to play it properly for Wimborne Folk Festival in a few weeks' time, but pulling back with the left hand gets painful after only a few passes through a tune.  I'm hoping that playing a little every day may help with this, but again the risk is doing too much.  Fingers crossed.

I think I'm starting to defeat the tennis elbow, so I'm going to record here what's working, so that I'll be able to look back to it in the future if I get a recurrence.  We're not totally there yet, but there's a significant reduction in pain levels since two weeks ago.  I'm now starting to try and rebuild the muscles that have vanished in the two months I've been unable to use my arm.  The trick is to do that without setting off a fresh bout of tennis elbow...

1.  Do stretches.  In particular the one given me by the physio which basically involves crossing wrists, bending my hands forward, interlacing fingers  and then twisting the hand  of the sore arm round in an outside direction as far as it will go.  Hold for 30 seconds.  Do three sets three times a day.

2.  Do no lifting or twisting motions with bad arm.  Also avoid actions that need you to hold onto something with a strong grip.  Especially avoid opening jam jars, turning door knobs, knitting, washing dishes, concertina playing, weeding and sewing. Minimise computer use.

3.  Find the sore tendons joining the elbow.  Massage them several times a day.  Find the muscles attached to them and massage those too.  They will be sore before you massage them and easy to find with probing fingers.  Follow the sore muscles all the way to wrist/shoulder and massage every bit that is sore.

4.  Do all arm exercises that do not trigger elbow pain (so as not to let the rest of the muscles atrophy)

5.  Once elbow pain subsides, start (with no/minimal weight) doing the arm exercises that trigger the elbow pain.  Especially the one using the wrists to raise and lower weights with the palms down and the elbows at right angles.  Very gradually increase weight over time. Do three sets three times a day. If muscles ache continue.  If elbow pain recurs, immediately reduce weight to a level that does not hurt.  Carry on doing this for three weeks after elbow pain is gone.  Go swimming, but stop if elbow pain (as opposed to muscle ache) starts.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that either the doctor mis-diagnosed what was wrong with my elbow, or that millions of people are suffering when there is treatment that will help.

On reading the NHS site, I noticed that physiotherapy was one of the possible treatments.

So, I decided to run through all the exercises I do for my neck, shoulder and arms - which I realised I'd neglected for quite some time.

One of the exercises in my set is to dip  a handweight down behind the back of the neck.  Two sets of ten for each hand.  I think it targets the triceps.  Almost as soon as I'd finished, I noticed a distinct reduction in my pain levels.

I'm also working on massaging all muscles that lead to the elbow.  Following them with my fingers, it isn't hard to find the ones that are sore and give them a good rub.  This relaxes the muscles and stops them pulling so hard on the tendons - that's what actually causes the pain at the elbow, it's the tendons hurting.

After two days, pain levels are down by 50% and I'm using my arm a lot more instead of trying to let it hang by my side to avoid using it.

Playing the concertina is still painful, though not impossible.

I'm hoping that a full week of exercise and massage will cure the problem totally.  I'll keep you posted...