Re: from anjil

[Guest guest]

wow, i couldn't sleep most of last night due to " tennis elbow "

pain. it was horrible! as soon as i woke up, i went on the hunt

for the little neoprene doo-hicky that you pull up your arm & in

about an hour, all better.

diana, i had botox injections a couple of yrs ago in trigger points

in my neck. they cost a fortune (insurance will pay some, but you

still have to pay a lot) & i didn't feel any improvement. ... (at

$500 cash per patient, we were in a big hurry alright!).

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A couple of things.

Painful Elbow:

That Polarity " X technique " that I have described in previous posts

is good for relieving pain in any joint. I prefer being able to use

both hands (like working on the knee or on someone else) but it is

possible to do it with just one hand using either your thumb and a

finger or spanning with two fingers.

For the elbow, there are two " knobby " little bones on the sides of

the arm just above the elbow. The outside bony protrusion is called

the lateral epicondyle and the inside one is called the medial

epicondyle. Lateral epicondylitis is the technical name for

golfer's elbow and medial epicondylitis is the technical name for

tennis elbow. They get their nicknames because the bulk of the

general population is right handed. The impact force from swinging

a golf club is predominately on the outside of the left elbow. The

impact force from hitting a tennis ball is predominately on the

inside of the right elbow. Just a bit of trivia by way of

explanation. These bony protrusions are the attachment points for

the extensor and flexor muscles of the hand.

Epicondylitis, which is a strain or inflammation of these extensor

or flexor muscles, typically takes 3-4 months for recovery with

standard treatment protocols (primarily rest and ice). I find that

I can usually knock the pain (my right elbow sometimes drives me

nuts) using the X technique on myself by simply grasping those two

knobby bones between the thumb and middle finger of my left hand and

then just focusing on it.

Trigger Point Injections:

I am going to put out another separate, more detailed post on

trigger point treatments after I finish this reply, but trigger

points are something you can work on yourself (if you can reach

them) or have someone at home work on for you.

Five Hundred Dollars a shot? What a rip-off. For $500, my " retail "

fee schedule would cover ten one-hour sessions of any kind of

treatment someone wanted -standard Swedish, Jin Shin Do Acupressure,

Polarity, CST, LDT, MFR, any combination of the above - and trigger

point work would just be included in any of them as part of the

session. After ten sessions (and probably fewer than that), the

trigger points would probably be gone. And " my " retail fee schedule

is about the norm for what you would expect most places in the

country for massage and/or bodywork.