The pain of tennis elbow can be a serious hinderance to your activities of daily living. Ever try to pick up a coffee pot, or some such object, and you had to put it down because the pain in your arm was so intense?
I remember attempting to answer a phone that was ringing. I went to pick up the receiver and promptly but involuntarily dropped the handset and hung up on the caller. The pain from that simple movement was so bad I couldn’t bare the weight of the handset!
Many of you are asking how did my arm get in such a tortuous condition?
Massage therapy. Yes, back in those days I had a very active and thriving Naturopathic and body work practice and my massage specialty was athletics and sports massage. In other words, deep tissue. I gave 5, 6, 7, even 8 massages a day, all with serious down force. It really took it’s toll on my arms and back. I used to go home at night and fill a large plastic storage bin with very hot water and pour in eight pounds of epsom salts and soak my arms in it.
When I went to bed I had to sleep with my hands out stretched under my pillow in a palm open manner because I couldn’t stand to curl them in a fist. It hurt that bad. The arm fatigue was excruciating. God forbid I had to go out and shovel snow in the winter.
I tried other things besides epsom salts to get relief. Vitamins, massage, pain relieving oils, creams, gels and goo. Those things all helped to an extent but nothing helped like what I discovered later on.
As a matter of fact, I used to pester my wife to massage my arms on a daily basis. Then one day she said to me, “hey, that must really be working, you don’t ask me to rub your arms any more”. Indeed she was right. The relief I got was dramatic.
I know, you want to know what I discovered. OK, go to my tennis elbow specialty section and read on.
Live Like You Love Life
Dr R
