Call Me Lefty

At least for a little while.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you've followed this "year of the doctor" that I've been having.  You know about my tennis elbow and the painful, time-consuming, and costly physical therapy that I've geen going through.  You also know that the physical therapy didn't work.

Today I went back to see my Orthopaedic Surgeon.  He's convinced that if the ASTYM therapy didn't work and I was doing the prescribed stretches and exercises (religiously, actually), that there's damage that will only be healed by surgery.

He told me that he could give me a cortisone shot.  It would be painful and would help with inflammation, but according to the latest research and his experience, it wouldn't help with healing.  I would end up in the same position I'm in today in another 3 or 4 weeks.

He told me that he could do an MRI to take a closer look at it, but he said that he thought it would cost around $1200 for the MRI and it wouldn't give him much information, if any, that he didn't already have.

He said that he believed that the best route to healing for my elbow would be surgery.  Yes, surgery.  Ugh.

I'm scheduled to go under the knife on Wednesday.  This particular procedure has a very high success rate.  He's going to use a 2-inch incision, clean up any dead or loose tissue, clean up the epicondyle (the bumpy bone on the outside of the elbow) and re-attach the extensor tendon.  It's an outpatient surgery and isn't very invasive.  I will undergo a "light general" anesthesia during the procedure.

I'll have to wear a brace to completely immobilize my elbow for a week to ten days.  Then I'll need to wear a removable brace that I can take off to shower for another month or so.  Then I'll have therapy to regain flexibility, range of motion, and strength.

All this because I was stupid and played too hard too quickly with a new racquetball racquet.  Hopefully I've learned that this 40-year-old body doesn't take punishment as well as a 20-year-old body.

I should finally be back to normal in 3 or 4 months after the surgery.

Just like I think they finally found the cause of my kidney stones and I'm now taking steps to make those stop, I believe that this is the beginning of the end of the pain in my elbow.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.