Probable torn tendon in elbow... now what?

[topsltennis]

About a month ago was hitting with one of our juniors and had a horrible pain shoot through my outer elbow...

I have a big knot/swelling on the top/outter part of the elbow.... I have continued to teach play at a reduced level because, well, that's how I eat/pay bills.... I don't have insurance but one of our members saw me at a clinic and just on a visual exam, along with explanation of what happend thinks it's more than likely a tendon tear and not tendonitis... keeping in mind she is a physicians assitant and isn't 100 sure, but... despite nightly icing and anti inflammatories the knot and swelling are basically unchanged...

pain is like this.... forehands hit at a moderate level, alterning my swing pattern are painful, but doable... I just can't hyper extend or 'buggy whip' .... have to grip very lightly and swing across the body

my one handed backhand is very painful, almost impossible, partiularly slicing...

fh volleys not horrible, bh volleys almost impossible..


suprisingly serving is the least painful stroke.. as long as I don't try to hit a big kicker...


plan is to try and get into see an orthepedic asap.. until then I plan on continuing to baby it and be as careful as possible... (i don't have insurance, so having to rely on friends/contacts to help me out)

question is.... generally speaking does a tear always mean surgery or can healing take place on it's on? I have had multiple bouts with both inner and outer elbow issues over the past several years so I'm thinking it could possibly be something other than a tear... scar tissue buildup from not healing properly possibly?

thoughts?

 

[Enga]

Swelling sounds bad, I mean its not usual to get any swelling on elbow injuries. In regards to serves, I've noticed that serves tend to hurt the inner elbow rather than outer elbow.

Forehands, serves- inner elbow
Backhands-outer elbow

 

[topsltennis]

yeah, idk if you can even call it swelling at this poing, it never changes, just a big hard knot on the outer elbow..

Just going to protect it the best I can until I'm told by a specialist what to expect... very discouraging, if I'm not on court, I'm not making any money

 

[RogueFLIP]

Yes, depending on several factors, a small tear can "scar" over and somewhat heal on its own. However it doesn't sound like your situation that you can afford to rest and let it do that.

And yes, it's possible that this current "injury" is a ripping open of some scar tissue from a previously old injury.

Hopefully your doctor can shed more light into exactly what's going on and prescribe the best course of action.

Good luck.

 

[topsltennis]

Thanks Rogue.... I've had numerous bouts with mostly golfers elbow... and I think this might be episode 2 of the outer elbow... I've never been able to afford to rest it and they have always gone away in the past after time... this one seems different though, so I am pretty worried.... fortunately I have some great members here at the academy that are trying to help me all that they can... it's probably going to take an MRI to find out what's going on in there...

 

[RogueFLIP]

I had ACL surgery in 1999; everything went fine. Couple years later doing squats on my way up I had this horrible ripping sensation in my surgically repaired knee and it immediately blew up. Scared the living daylights outta me and of course you think of the worse scenario. Got all stiff and swollen for 3 days. Then just like that, boom the swelling was gone, and my knee felt better than ever.

So I can understand your situation.....however unfortunately it doesn't sound yours will be resolved soon since it's been a month.

Also unfortunate that it doesn't seem like you can do anything since your body seems like it was saying something to you. And now its screaming. No disrespect intended.

Hopefully you can call in some favors and get to the bottom of this with little financial cost to you.

 

[Chas Tennis]

Tendon injuries for tennis players can be very bad, leading to chronic permanent injuries. Continuing to stress the new injury, often with the same tennis forces that caused the injuries, is especially bad. Tennis elbow is the brutal example. The problem is that tendons begin healing immediately and in a short time some steps of this healing have completed under stress.

The time it takes to screw up the tendon healing process may be very, very short. The reference below describes the situation and give a time related to an early step of healing. Tendinosis is the term for defective healing. Tendinitis I believe implies inflammation. The publication below says that in animal studies inflammation from a new injury may be gone in 2-3 weeks. Study these issues.

Direct link-to 2002 paper
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122566/

UPDATE 9/23/2013 - This 2012 paper found by andreh discusses the issue and says that tendinitis and tendinosis should be viewed a little differently -


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was a 2002 British article discussing the nature of tendon injuries such as Achilles 'Tendinitis', Tennis Elbow, Golfer's Elbow, etc. , the accuracy of information about these injuries, treatment effectiveness, tendinitis vs tendinosis, etc.

This article discusses the short paper-

http://www.bmj.com/content/324/7338/626?tab=responses

The link to the 2002 paper itself is on the top of the article.

http://www.bmj.com/content/324/7338/626 - but you must be subscribed to view it.

To view the article the British Medical Journal offers a free 1 month subscription. See link on the page.

I signed up and got the article. Is this how things are, mostly...........?

Stop stressing your un-diagnosed injury.

* It should be kept in mind that because of the poor leverage of the human body's - tendons, muscles and bones - very large forces exist at the tendon to provide much smaller forces at the hand. Estimate 10:1 ?

 

[hray4clay]

About a month ago was hitting with one of our juniors and had a horrible pain shoot through my outer elbow...

I have a big knot/swelling on the top/outter part of the elbow.... I have continued to teach play at a reduced level because, well, that's how I eat/pay bills.... I don't have insurance but one of our members saw me at a clinic and just on a visual exam, along with explanation of what happend thinks it's more than likely a tendon tear and not tendonitis... keeping in mind she is a physicians assitant and isn't 100 sure, but... despite nightly icing and anti inflammatories the knot and swelling are basically unchanged...

pain is like this.... forehands hit at a moderate level, alterning my swing pattern are painful, but doable... I just can't hyper extend or 'buggy whip' .... have to grip very lightly and swing across the body

my one handed backhand is very painful, almost impossible, partiularly slicing...

fh volleys not horrible, bh volleys almost impossible..


suprisingly serving is the least painful stroke.. as long as I don't try to hit a big kicker...


plan is to try and get into see an orthepedic asap.. until then I plan on continuing to baby it and be as careful as possible... (i don't have insurance, so having to rely on friends/contacts to help me out)

question is.... generally speaking does a tear always mean surgery or can healing take place on it's on? I have had multiple bouts with both inner and outer elbow issues over the past several years so I'm thinking it could possibly be something other than a tear... scar tissue buildup from not healing properly possibly?

thoughts?

Whatever you do, do NOT SEE A DOCTOR, especially an orthopedic doctor specializing in sports injuries!

 

[hray4clay]

Thanks Rogue.... I've had numerous bouts with mostly golfers elbow... and I think this might be episode 2 of the outer elbow... I've never been able to afford to rest it and they have always gone away in the past after time... this one seems different though, so I am pretty worried.... fortunately I have some great members here at the academy that are trying to help me all that they can... it's probably going to take an MRI to find out what's going on in there...

E X A C T L Y!

 

[LeeD]

You must be REALLY young.
Almost every tennis instructor I know had to learn to hit with the OTHER hand, due to injuries to the main playing hand.
This is YOUR chance to learn to play tennis from the beginning, to apply YOUR teaching methods to yourself, and to experience the pain and joy of learning a sport again.
Think of it as a silver lining! And, since your main hand is injured, you might experience how hard it is to TOSS the ball for a serve, so you LEARN from the experience.