I have done very heavy physical work in the past and this work gave me a tennis elbow. I have been to the physiotherapist more than thirty times, but the stretching and exercises have not helped me.
My doctor sent me to the hospital. There I got a splint and they told me to stretch.
I now have a lot of pain in both hands and because of this I am powerless. What else can I do?
jamal
Mark Chen, physiotherapist
A very annoying situation, I can imagine it is very frustrating. There are a number of things that need to be looked at. I strongly recommend that you go through this next process with a therapist (possibly a different one than the one you had).
1. Determine via differential diagnosis whether the place where you have pain is indeed the cause of the complaint. We often focus on where the pain is, but complaints such as these can also come from, for example, the shoulder or neck. The fact that you have pain on both sides could indicate an origin in the neck.
2. If a treatment does not give results after four to six times, it will probably not have any results after thirty times. In that case, there is often something wrong with the diagnosis, treatment or the patient’s behaviour/recovery capacity. Look closely at these factors with your therapist and make sure there is constant progression in your treatment.
3. As soon as it is known whether the treatment should be aimed at the arm, shoulder, neck, or all three, a treatment plan will have to be drawn up. Since stretching does not provide the right relief for you, there will most likely be a greater focus on strengthening certain regions.
By the way, I would reconsider or only wear the splint during the night because while the splint forces you not to use the arm, it creates more weakness in the long run.
Do you also have a question? Then ask one of our experts. Always go to your doctor with urgent questions, the experts are not the right person for that. They don’t diagnose either. You can find the other conditions here.
Mark Chen is a physiotherapist, personal trainer and the brain behind Physio101, an online platform where you gain insight into where and why complaints or injuries can arise, why they do not seem to disappear and what you can do yourself to get rid of them.
