Tennis Elbow? Or worse?

aceroberts13

aceroberts13

Professional
I have been playing a lot of tennis this year and for the past week I have had an extremely sharp pain on the back of my elbow when extending my arm. It's right about where the funny bone is. I've had tennis elbow before but it was never this painful, not even close. This is ice pick sharp shooting pain. Should I make an appointment or am I over reacting?
 
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charliefedererer

Legend
First of all, give your elbow a rest - no tennis right now.

Certainly, seeing a doctor will give you a proper diagnosis and outline of treatment.


When you say it hurts where the "funny bone" is, this usually connotes the inside of the arm.
If so, you may have "golfer's elbow" rather than "tennis elbow".
"Golfer's elbow" does occur in tennis players, and if you do a search, you'll see plenty of threads on it here in the Health and Fitness Forum.

arthritis_tennis_elbow.jpg



a9a.gif


Here is a site that gives a fairly good overview of golfer's elbow:
http://www.concordortho.com/patient...aspx?topicID=a5c83611d9c77c48b5493b5bf9826c52




I would urge you to check out the multiple threads on golfer's and tennis elbow on this site.

Unfortunately all-too-many are of epic tales of players returning too quickly while still in pain.

The first step is to rest until the pain has totally, or nearly totally improvec.

The second step is to do some range of motion exercises meant to just get the forearm muscles moving again. A low tension (red) Flexbar has helped many:

tennis_elbow_flexbar.jpg


Gradually, actual strengthening exercises can be added in.

Finally, a slow return to tennis starting with short sessions can begin.



Good luck!
 
aceroberts13

aceroberts13

Professional
I appreciate the detailed response. The pain is most definitely in the back of my elbow. I guess I am mistaken on where the funny bone is. The pain is right above my elbow joint, mostly in the join, but on the back side of my arm. Extremely painful when I extend my arm. It feels like its extending too far and over extending and creates a very very sharp pain.
 
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Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
Initial healing times & abstract on rat tendon healing times

In many recent threads Charliefedererer has posted replies on healing times and the nature of tendon healing.

Regarding healing after an acute injury (as opposed to an on-going chronic condition):

1) I read a description by Dr John Cianca in the Repetitive User Injury Handbook of tendon healing after an acute tendon injury. Using Tennis Elbow as an example of tendon healing, he said that playing on it for more than a few weeks may lead to permanently failed healing. The healed part of the tendon may become too disorganized - fibrosis - on the microscopic level. I believe that this may be what happens to healing tendon tissue that is over stressed especially by the same activity that caused the injury. Chronic TE.

2) Wikipedia Fibrosis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrosis

3) Wikipedia Tendinosis with lots of reference links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendinosis

4) Paper "Deciphering the pathogenesis of tendinopathy: a three-stages process"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3006368/?tool=pmcentrez

5) This reference (only the abstract is available free) discusses experiments on rat tendons. Read it just to get an idea of the rapidity of healing times for rats. Humans?

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jor.20067/abstract

Sorry for the downer viewpoint but I believe you may be taking a big risk of developing a chronic condition playing with pain. Stop playing and see a Dr.
 
Last edited:
Ronaldo

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
aceroberts13 said:
I have been playing a lot of tennis this year and for the past week I have had an extremely sharp pain on the back of my elbow when extending my arm. It's right about where the funny bone is. I've had tennis elbow before but it was never this painful, not even close. This is ice pick sharp shooting pain. Should I make an appointment or am I over reacting?
Click to expand...

Switch hands and play on.
 
mikeler

mikeler

Moderator
Ronaldo said:
Watched a poor soul play three yrs lefty with a bad rt elbow. Dedication
Click to expand...


I tried hitting serves lefty a few years ago when I had GE. All it took was 1 set worth of hitting serves and I started feeling the beginning signs of GE in my left arm!
 
D

dman72

Hall of Fame
mikeler said:
Ha, I guess you'll never know until you try it.
Click to expand...

I guess that's part of thinking like a tennis player but having the conditioned arm of an absolute beginner. Your brain is trying to execute a stroke your arm has no business attempting.

I'm lucky if I can even hit the ball on the strings with my left arm only.
 
Ronaldo

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
dman72 said:
I guess that's part of thinking like a tennis player but having the conditioned arm of an absolute beginner. Your brain is trying to execute a stroke your arm has no business attempting.

I'm lucky if I can even hit the ball on the strings with my left arm only.
Click to expand...

Use one of those red and green balls.
 
C

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
mikeler said:
I tried hitting serves lefty a few years ago when I had GE. All it took was 1 set worth of hitting serves and I started feeling the beginning signs of GE in my left arm!
Click to expand...

Ronaldo said:
Only took a few BHs for my left elbow.
Click to expand...

Whoah........ What you guys are saying about the left arm might have important implications for conditioning and warm up issues. ? I guess that you have gotten over these injuries. ?

Two months ago I had some trees taken down. My job was to move the wood. Some of the logs & limbs were heavy and awkward to move. I slightly injured my left (non-tennis) elbow to give me mild GE pain. Mild pain when used for heavier movements but no pain in normal activity. I stopped doing anything that caused GE pain and dropped a forearm supination-pronation exercise that hurt - rotating a heavy hammer. I don't notice pain now and will try the exercise again in a month or two.
 
D

dman72

Hall of Fame
Ronaldo said:
Use one of those red and green balls.
Click to expand...

I have a few that I bought for my son.

If the doctor gives me a bad prognosis this week, I'm starting from scratch with my left hand. Yes, I like tennis that much. I'll drop out of the 4.0 league and play the 3.0 league if I have to.

Did you find yourself reverting to your dominant hand instinctively some times? I wonder if it would pay to train with an oven mitt on one hand to keep you from grabbing the racquet. :)
 
Ronaldo

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
dman72 said:
I have a few that I bought for my son.

If the doctor gives me a bad prognosis this week, I'm starting from scratch with my left hand. Yes, I like tennis that much. I'll drop out of the 4.0 league and play the 3.0 league if I have to.

Did you find yourself reverting to your dominant hand instinctively some times? I wonder if it would pay to train with an oven mitt on one hand to keep you from grabbing the racquet. :)
Click to expand...

Could just strap the offending arm behind your back. Decided to save both elbows after discovering a new sport, http://www.demundus.com/wp-content/...ontortionist-Archery-Girl-with-a-Nice-Ass.jpg
 
Devilito

Devilito

Hall of Fame
aceroberts13 said:
I appreciate the detailed response. The pain is most definitely in the back of my elbow. I guess I am mistaken on where the funny bone is. The pain is right above my elbow joint, mostly in the join, but on the back side of my arm. Extremely painful when I extend my arm. It feels like its extending too far and over extending and creates a very very sharp pain.
Click to expand...

Bone Spur. I have the same issue. An xray will confirm it
 
C

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
A bone spur is not necessarily a problem. ?

Devilito said:
Bone Spur. I have the same issue. An xray will confirm it
Click to expand...

Is a bone spur often a problem?

I had an X-ray taken of my elbow but not for an elbow injury. On the back, near the point of the elbow, was an unusual feature, a sort of Devil's horn coming off the back of my elbow, maybe 3/4 -1" long. (I had had a broken elbow at age 6, probably unrelated?)

The Dr finished our discussion without mentioning it. I ask and he said that it was a bone spur. He did not think that it had any importance if it did not cause pain. I had found studying plantar faciitis, which is often accompanied by bone spurs, that bone spurs are often not related to the pain of plantar fasciitis.
 
Devilito

Devilito

Hall of Fame
Bone spurs can occur from constant strain of tennis strokes, working out ( bench presses etc) or a combination of both factors. It’s the tendons way of trying to strengthen itself but it doesn’t really work well (right where it connects to the bone). Lots of people can live with them if on the elbow if its not inflaming the bursa and causing infections etc. Biggest problem is you rest it, ice it, take some supplements (Curcumin, Omega 3s), Advil and it starts to feel way better, but the minute you tweak it again or hyper extend it, it can add another week or 2 or even longer to a recovery time. I would recommend you start out with resting, stretches, icing, etc and wait to see if it gets better. You can’t really hurt it if you play with it so don’t worry about that. If it becomes a real issue or if you’re a top competitive player that cant afford downtime then surgery is an option. See your doctor first though to make sure it is a bone spur and get his recommendation.
 
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Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
Speculating on bone spurs - it looks as if the tendon has separated from the bone over a small partial area and the body has remodeled itself by extending the bone to reconnect. A problem I would guess is that the spur is located within the tendon and surgery might be disruptive to the rest of the healthier tendon area connecting to the bone. ?

See reply by Gaelic for some interesting discussion on tendon fibrosis and surgery.

http://ehealthforum.com/health/chronic-fibrosis-scar-tissue-of-the-triceps-tendon-t237173.html

Anyone had bone spur surgery?
 
Last edited:
mikeler

mikeler

Moderator
dman72 said:
I guess that's part of thinking like a tennis player but having the conditioned arm of an absolute beginner. Your brain is trying to execute a stroke your arm has no business attempting.

I'm lucky if I can even hit the ball on the strings with my left arm only.
Click to expand...

I used to play the lower level guys on my high school team left handed. I'm fairly close to being ambidextrous.


Chas Tennis said:
Whoah........ What you guys are saying about the left arm might have important implications for conditioning and warm up issues. ? I guess that you have gotten over these injuries. ?

Two months ago I had some trees taken down. My job was to move the wood. Some of the logs & limbs were heavy and awkward to move. I slightly injured my left (non-tennis) elbow to give me mild GE pain. Mild pain when used for heavier movements but no pain in normal activity. I stopped doing anything that caused GE pain and dropped a forearm supination-pronation exercise that hurt - rotating a heavy hammer. I don't notice pain now and will try the exercise again in a month or two.
Click to expand...

I got over my injury probably a year and a half ago. Then I got tennis elbow last winter. I'm pretty well over that but have some forearm weakness still at times. I've switched to a 2 handed backhand for the last 2 months to relieve some of the stress on my right arm.
 
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