A 42 year old self-employed plumber had a 3 year history of recurring
Tennis elbow. His GP had injected the muscles attachments at his elbow with a cortico-steroid on three separate occasions. Each time the pain went away but within 6 months the same symptoms would return.
As a side effect of the last injection, the muscle tendon shrunk away from its attachment to the elbow and the GP advised the plumber that no further injections could be performed and recommended he take extended time off work to rest the injury or consider surgery.
The plumber was very worried as taking time off work was not an option for him yet the pain and symptoms going down to his hand and up to his shoulder were making it very difficult to do his job. He hired an apprentice to take the pressure off him but there were still some jobs only he could do. These activities caused him pain and suffering lasting days afterwards. He attended a private physiotherapist several times who had massaged the elbow muscles and given him stretching exercises to do at home but he didn't feel these were giving him any immediate relief or helping him in his work.
He attended Hand Kinetics and straight away the therapist focused on the types of movements which are known to cause tennis elbow in the tasks he had been performing daily in work. He learned how tennis elbow can also result in muscle weakness at the hand and wrist in trying to avoid movements that cause pain at the elbow. The therapist talked him through which movements to avoid or modify and which muscles to strengthen to prevent recurrence. The therapist made a wrist support to wear for a few weeks in work and taught the plumber how to tape up his elbow to reduce muscles repeatedly tugging from the elbow bone. The therapist checked he could still use his tools comfortably to keep working during the healing process.
The therapist also taught him very gentle exercises to help his muscles relearn the correct way to make the movements he needs to do and how to reduce the risk of recurrence. He was surprised how such simple exercises were able to make such a significant difference to his grip strength and reduced his pain.
