Tennis Elbow

One Thursday morning last October I woke up to go to work. I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. As I raised my right hand to turn the knob and open the bathroom door, I was greeted with an excruciating pain in my forearm. It was so intense I couldn't grasp the handle, and turning the knob was out of the question. What was going on? On further attempts to use the forearm, I discovered that just about any movement was going to be met with shooting, stabbing sensations. I couldn't lift a thing. I couldn't rotate the arm. I couldn't carry as much as a kleenex. Something was grossly wrong with my right arm. This was not good and I didn't know how long it was going to last. Fortunately, my annual physical exam was a few days later. The doctor checked it and told me I had tennis elbow. Yes, this woman who refuses to engage in any sports that involve chasing little balls, had tennis elbow. Apparently you can get tennis elbow without the joy---or, as in my case,the aggravation---of playing tennis. Due to a cyst on my right middle finger, I was being sent to a specialist to have the cyst lanced. When I saw him, I asked him about my 'tennis elbow'. He said not to ice it but taught me some stretching exercises to loosen up the area and hopefully help me regain my range of motion and strength. I dedicated myself to doing the exercises at least once a day. Fast forward a year. The pain is greatly reduced. I can carry things, I can rotate the arm, I can reach into the back seat of the car and pick up things. But I still have pain and the arm fatigues easily. Nighttime is the worst. Four or five times a night I am aware of stiffness and pain in my right arm and have to change my sleeping position, extend the arm, and roll over. It was once again time for my annual physical exam. Again I told my doctor about it because now the pain was somehow radiating up to my right shoulder. This time he refered me to the physical therapy department. What used to be a six-week wait for an appointment is no longer. I am in in a week. And what does the physical therapist say? I have pinched some nerves in my neck probably as a result of my Bejewelled addiction last year (one I gave up because it was too painful to play anymore) and my poor posture while reading on my iPad. My thoracic to cervical spinal juncture is getting constricted. What used to be a gentle 'S' in my neck now looks more like a 2. I need to straighten up. Geez. If only I had known that last year....Straighten up, practice turning my head with my chin down and my head aligned with my body, no tilting. Practice turning it to the left and to the right, chin down, no leaning, whenever I am driving and am stopped at a red light. Next appointment, bring 2 tennis balls and a sock.