Repetitive motion injuries

[bean]

So this is a bit of a sticky question.

I'm pretty sure I've developed "tennis elbow" - a repetitive motion injury to the elbow tendons. If I move my wrist, my elbow feels like someone's doing a tap dance on the not-so-funny bone. If I extend my arm, same thing. Retract, same thing. I use that arm for the same thing for 8 hours a day. As long as I keep doing the motion it doesn't hurt, but once I'm off work it irritates the hell out of me.

How would you deal with this at work? I do plan to talk to my boss about it, but I also get my medical benefits in less than 2 months and have pretty much zero out of pocket for exams (thanks to the wellness account). Think I should try to do a workman's comp claim or just tough it out until my medical kicks in? It's certainly tendons hurting, so I'm not sure what a dr could really do anyway. Ibuprofen (Advil) takes care of it for a few hours, so it's certainly not anything major. More than anything, I don't want to be moved to a different section, I really enjoy what I do now.

[The Gatekeeper]

I know you are trying to save some money by waiting for your benefits, but you really don't want to ignore your body when it says it has pain. I know many office workers who have developed "tennis elbow" and have had great and quick relief with Chiropractic. I find with this kind of injury our regular medical system can't seem to help much except with drugs, and possibly surgery.

Chiropractors are sometimes covered under insurance but are pretty reasonably priced if not. Ask around at work and see if someone can refer their doctor.

Good luck

[Gurndigarn]

How/why did you get it? If it was because of work, let your boss know and SEE IF ANYTHING CAN BE DONE TO CHANGE THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM. If your boss is anywhere near competent, as soon as you mention tendonitis because of something at work, he ought to be picturing workman's comp claims and should JUMP to fix the problem.

If it's caused by something out of work, you're mostly SOL until your benefits kick in. You could try to claim workman's comp, but, aside from it making you a sucky employee, it could also lead to legal issues if you get caught.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I have something akin to carpal tunnel syndrome (my pain is generally on the other side of my hands than the "typical" CTS symptoms). It started in college from typing a lot. Some days are worse than others; yesterday I was fine all day but I did a lot of typing and on my way home it was bothering me enough to make me nervous driving.

The doc may give you some kind of brace and/or exercises to do that may help relieve it, or refer you for physical therapy. I did PT for a while and some of the stretches help when it gets bad. My doc also gave me a wrist brace that helps somewhat (sometimes). And if you do have some kind of claim at work you'll at least need the doc to back it up. If it's bad enough that you're asking, it might not be the best idea to wait...

Hope that helps some and you are feeling better soon

-ams-

[Antisocial_Worker]

As BookstoreEscapee mentioned, a brace might help, or wrapping the problem area tightly with something. A doctor would know more and I hope you get to see one quickly.

[LewisLegion]

I have tennis elbow, also from repetitive use. Anti-inflammitories help because its basically an inflammation of the tendon inside the joint itself. I agree with the wrapping. A tight brace or ace bandage helps a lot. Also, you may want to ice it up in the evenings.

I went through physical therapy about six months ago and that really helped, though now its flaring up again and I'm heading back to the docs. The problem with this type of injury is that sometimes it stops hurting even though its still injured, and you forget about it. Doing something as simple as closing a car door can reinjure it all over again.

[Talon]

Not long after I started my first call center job I started getting wrist pains too. Fortunately I found a great web article with some simple wrist exercises. Once I started doing them regularly, pain was gone in less than a month. The article's too big to post here, but I can email it to you. Send me an email/PM/smoke signals etc. if you want it.

[DarthRetard]

Sure you don't have tennis balls?

[AFpheonix]

He didn't mention walking funny as a symptom