Golfers Elbow & Tendinopathy

[sarah]

Hi
I have been in the beauty industry for 15 years carrying out various treatments including massage, nails, brows, lashes etc. My wrists has been playing up for over a year tightening and clicking a lot and got to the point I was in constant pain and would loose strength in my wrist/arm when doing massage. After various appointments I have been told it's golfers elbow and tendinopathy due to over use most likely from massage. I was told to rest but being self employed this wasn't possible so I cut back and stopped massage and lashes as these were causing most pain. It gets sore from general things like driving, cleaning, texting etc too not just work but that makes it much worse. I was away on holiday for 8 days and the pain completely disappeared which was amazing but as soon as I started back in the salon again it's started playing up. I'm worried I'm going to have to give up my career I've worked so hard for as even nails is causing pain and discomfort now. It's been over 3 months since it become unbearable that I had to stop massage etc and I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and what treatments they managed without causing further injury or delaying the healing? I don't know to invest in learning different treatments or will I be wasting my money and time and have to change career?

 

[RosieR]

Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the forum.

I feel your pain having had the same inflammatory conditions in wrists, elbow, shoulders, neck, knees and pretty much all else from time to time. For me it is "What hurts today?"
Mostly rest and ice ( bags of frozen peas are a godsend) plus a range of physio treatments over the years have helped to keep me going. My go to for some self help is a fab hand held ultrasonic massage unit called Novasonic. I have had one for years and for me it really helps to relieve the pain from inflamed tendons and bursitis.
I use wrist braces on and off plus knee braces when I am troubled. Mostly it goes away thankfully but you seem in an acute phase at the moment.
As time goes by the inflammation becomes more manageable and can go away on its own.

Perhaps you should seek help from your GP if you haven't already just in case you are starting with rheumatoid arthritis. I have osteoarthritis and all my inflammations began with tendinopathy and bursitis... which did get a lot better with physiotherapy. I had the same weakness in my arms and hands as you describe.
If your GP isn't helpful , you should go to a physiotherapist for some treatment, maybe you will be offered ultrasound to help to improve the inflamed tendons.

I packed in massage for several years, but have adopted a more gentle approach to it now. I try and limit the number of pedicures I do in one day as my neck is wrecked, from 40 years of doing them and all the other treatments needing a neck down position.
I am not giving up any treatment, I have a monthly neck and upper back massage to help me and I think you need to examine what changes you can make to help you manage the condition. Can you reduce your hours massively? Or do you want to change your career?
Start with seeking some different outside help, a new physio perhaps plus you maybe need blood tests to check for inflammation markers and take it from there.
I hope you feel that you aren't on your own.... RosieR

 

[Lizziefin]

How awful for you. Can I suggest getting a rpm powerball which you hold in your hand and use it to to do wrist rotations. My husband had tendinopathy like you and used it every day for several weeks made it much better. They are around £30. Not cheap but very effective. Hope you better soon

 

[sarah]

Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the forum.

I feel your pain having had the same inflammatory conditions in wrists, elbow, shoulders, neck, knees and pretty much all else from time to time. For me it is "What hurts today?"
Mostly rest and ice ( bags of frozen peas are a godsend) plus a range of physio treatments over the years have helped to keep me going. My go to for some self help is a fab hand held ultrasonic massage unit called Novasonic. I have had one for years and for me it really helps to relieve the pain from inflamed tendons and bursitis.
I use wrist braces on and off plus knee braces when I am troubled. Mostly it goes away thankfully but you seem in an acute phase at the moment.
As time goes by the inflammation becomes more manageable and can go away on its own.

Perhaps you should seek help from your GP if you haven't already just in case you are starting with rheumatoid arthritis. I have osteoarthritis and all my inflammations began with tendinopathy and bursitis... which did get a lot better with physiotherapy. I had the same weakness in my arms and hands as you describe.
If your GP isn't helpful , you should go to a physiotherapist for some treatment, maybe you will be offered ultrasound to help to improve the inflamed tendons.

I packed in massage for several years, but have adopted a more gentle approach to it now. I try and limit the number of pedicures I do in one day as my neck is wrecked, from 40 years of doing them and all the other treatments needing a neck down position.
I am not giving up any treatment, I have a monthly neck and upper back massage to help me and I think you need to examine what changes you can make to help you manage the condition. Can you reduce your hours massively? Or do you want to change your career?
Start with seeking some different outside help, a new physio perhaps plus you maybe need blood tests to check for inflammation markers and take it from there.
I hope you feel that you aren't on your own.... RosieR

Thank you for your reply and help. I've been to 2 different physios, an osteopath and the GP amd to be honest the GP was the least helpful. She just kept wanting me to take strong pain medication that I couldn't function on but I did receive blood tests that ruled out arthritis luckily as that was one of my concerns. One of the physios did use a machine like the novasonic one you described so I will give this a try. I definately don't want to change my career so I think I may have to accept cutting back my hours more and treatments and that it might be something I'll have to deal with now and again an won't completely heal. It is good to hear that you did get back to massage though as it's something I would love to do again even ightly but at the ment even light hot stone massage is not possible.

Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the forum.

I feel your pain having had the same inflammatory conditions in wrists, elbow, shoulders, neck, knees and pretty much all else from time to time. For me it is "What hurts today?"
Mostly rest and ice ( bags of frozen peas are a godsend) plus a range of physio treatments over the years have helped to keep me going. My go to for some self help is a fab hand held ultrasonic massage unit called Novasonic. I have had one for years and for me it really helps to relieve the pain from inflamed tendons and bursitis.
I use wrist braces on and off plus knee braces when I am troubled. Mostly it goes away thankfully but you seem in an acute phase at the moment.
As time goes by the inflammation becomes more manageable and can go away on its own.

Perhaps you should seek help from your GP if you haven't already just in case you are starting with rheumatoid arthritis. I have osteoarthritis and all my inflammations began with tendinopathy and bursitis... which did get a lot better with physiotherapy. I had the same weakness in my arms and hands as you describe.
If your GP isn't helpful , you should go to a physiotherapist for some treatment, maybe you will be offered ultrasound to help to improve the inflamed tendons.

I packed in massage for several years, but have adopted a more gentle approach to it now. I try and limit the number of pedicures I do in one day as my neck is wrecked, from 40 years of doing them and all the other treatments needing a neck down position.
I am not giving up any treatment, I have a monthly neck and upper back massage to help me and I think you need to examine what changes you can make to help you manage the condition. Can you reduce your hours massively? Or do you want to change your career?
Start with seeking some different outside help, a new physio perhaps plus you maybe need blood tests to check for inflammation markers and take it from there.
I hope you feel that you aren't on your own.... RosieR

 

[sarah]

How awful for you. Can I suggest getting a rpm powerball which you hold in your hand and use it to to do wrist rotations. My husband had tendinopathy like you and used it every day for several weeks made it much better. They are around £30. Not cheap but very effective. Hope you better soon

Thank you for your reply, I've found it on amazon and will go purchase it, it has good reviews and I'm willing to try everything.

 

[Lizziefin]

Thank you for your reply, I've found it on amazon and will go purchase it, it has good reviews and I'm willing to try everything.

Good. Give it go. It certainly helped him. I know you’ve to do the exercises a couple of times a day but it will be worth it if it eliminates your problem. Let us know how you get on

 

[Lizziefin]

Good. Give it go. It certainly helped him. I know you’ve to do the exercises a couple of times a day but it will be worth it if it eliminates your problem. Let us know how you get on

My hubby informs me that he used the powerball for 3 mins, 3 x a day for 6 weeks.

 

[TheDuchess]

Hi Sarah. I am an advanced level massage therapist. I treat medical conditions and can work alongside a physiotherapist or osteopath. You have been diagnosed with a condition affecting the soft tissues and muscles so you need support from someone who specialises in treating these parts of the body. A physiotherapist trained in the U.K. does not really offer recovery treatments for chronic conditions, just exercise advice. Treatments options are aimed more at recent, acute injuries such as a sports injuries. There is a big difference between a professional athletes body (or keen amateur) training for optimal sport performances and someone using their body for their job such as a sous chef chopping vegetables, or a carer - the stresses on the body are totally different.

The first thing is to understand how you have injured yourself. And once you learn your anatomy you can start to think about what actions you do that overuse these muscle structures - (a tendon is the joining end of a muscle that attaches the muscle to the bone or joint that moves) Gripping and lifting activities are suspect, i would query your filing techniques and possibly how you hold your body when you paint or wax. It won’t just be about your massage.

The next thing to do is to try and manage your pain and anxiety. This is essential because at present your body (quite understandably) will be tense and this tension will be sensitising your irritated, inflamed tendon. So we need to take the physical and psychological tension out of your body. Pain killers are helpful because they give you the ease in your body to move normally, rather than awkwardly. Stiff, pain filled movements irritate inflamed tissues. You need to calm everything down. So think about what you can do to ease things. Taking ibuprofen will help - take 3 x daily for several weeks with food, speak to a pharmacist for advice about managing inflamed muscle pain, they are the drug experts.

Warmth is very soothing. Ice can have pain relieving benefits but no actual therapeutic benefits, you want to be boosting the circulation to speed recovery not reducing the blood flow. A warm hot water bottle, refilled part way through the day; a wet towel, flashed through a microwave and popped into a plastic bag as an improvised warm pad; an infra red heat lamp will all warm the underlying tissues promoting healing and reducing discomfort (nothing hotter than 60° or you’ll cook).

Think about posture, perching your forearms on the edge of a desk, using a computer mouse, having your wrists at angles to your hands, or resting your elbows on an armrest can create agony,

When you touch a client, imagine you are gently touching a very young and sick animal that you don’t want to alarm. Think about all the twanging, jangling fibres in your body and breathe, slowly and deeply, with a rest between the out breath and the next in breath, focussing on making the out breath longer than the in breath (this needs a bit of practise) and imagine all the excited cellular activity is settling - like exuberant kids that need settling before handling baby chicks. Don’t focus on the pain, focus on what is happening inside your body and what you might be doing to aggravate things. Be conscious of the ground beneath your feet.

These are the exercises and regimen you should follow 7 Best Exercises for Golfer's Elbow. Some of the advice you’ve been given here will irritate things - it’s good advice, just not the right time to follow it.

The reason I trained is because I had a chronic pain condition for over 15 years and couldn’t find any solution that worked for me. I am now out of pain and loving life again. Stop catastrophising. Learn from what your body is telling you - you need to change how you use your body to do some activities - unlike a golfer, you’ve got options, you can alter your posture, sitting position, massage techniques. No hands techniques for massage will improve your massage and reduce the strain - try Jing school of massage (based in Brighton) 3 day foundation course. They offer an excellent online option so you can study and practise at your own pace. It literally changed my life - I ended up doing a level 6 BTEC with them. Many massage therapists and physios have retrained with them when facing career ending issues, one lovely lady became a tutor with them - she said that she was working just once or two clinics a week which broke her heart and with Jing’s methods she got back to working full time. 12 years on, no problems!

Best
Beatrice

 

[jlsdds]

I owe my 50 years as a nail tech to my first mentor. She insisted on the proper use of wrists, elbow, shoulders, neck and pelvic placement.

I have never had a problem with pain or discomfort thanks to starting out the right way. I will always be thankful for her instruction.

That being said, I am truly sorry for your plight. I know that, since I am the sole income for my hub and me, I would be frantic to find a solution.

Since you can’t go back in time, I agree with the informed discussion Duchess has offered.