Tennis Elbow Surgery. . . PRP Injections . . .

[Obee]

Hi all, I'm not going to bore you with how I got here but hoping for some insight.  I am looking at getting open surgery to fix my tennis elbow or as a last resort trying PRP injections which are crazy expensive and not covered by insurance.  I am hoping to get your experiences on either one, recovery time before you could fish and set the hook again, what you would have done differently if anything and if the problem was fixed and if it came back.  

 

I'm 11 months into this journey so far and have this crap in both elbows, but my right is waaaaay worse.  I usually fish 2-3 days a week but have not been fishing in 5 weeks as no chance i could ever set the hook or hold a rod with something pulling on the other end.  I need to get this fixed as my time is about out before I need my back fused as well.  I am in Northern Virginia if you have a surgeon you would recommend for elbow or back.

 

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Mobasser]

I can't help with a surgeon, but, I'll wish you the best of luck with this. Hoe you can find the right surgeon and get back to fishing.

[Hammer 4]

So, I use to play tennis at least 5 days per week, I worked nights back then. Any how, eventually I got a good case of TE in my right arm. Doc told me to take a long break from tennis and any activities that could cause any pain, which I did. After talking with a few folks it was suggested to me that Magnesium might be of some help, so I started good routine, and after about 2 1/2 months the pain really started to go away.

Now that I play a bit of golf, and have been asked by a couple of guys on the range, about the elbow pain they have, I recommended they get some Quality Magnesium, and give it a go. In  both cases their arm/elbow pain was gone, and never came back as far as I know.

Might be something to look into. 

[throttleplate]

I had golfers elbow and tennis elbow in my right dominate elbow. The golphers elbow was so bad i could not open the twist door to my apartment in 2008.  I had surgery for it in 2008, the tendon was torn and had to be reattached. Recovery time was 2 weeks out of work as a mechanic with therapy for 2 weeks then back to work on light duty for 2 weeks then back to work as normal.

 

The same elbow i had tennis elbow at its worst in 2016, i could not butter a piece of toast without pain. So surgery again, same routine as before to reattach tendon. I was retired at this time and living in the philippines and had to come back to the USA to get the surgery.

[Woody B]

Are you wearing a tennis elbow brace?   They're available everywhere.  Put the brace on and leave it on 24-7 for a couple months.  In addition to the magnesium @Hammer 4 mentioned also take some CoQ10.   According to my hunting/fishing musician friend who's a Dr it accelerates healing.   

 

Like @throttleplate I'm a mechanic.  At some point I've pretty much strained everything that can be strained.  So far I've avoided any surgeries.   I'm curious about PPP injections too.  I've got a shoulder that's problematic at times.   Thankfully it's no where bad enough to consider surgery, but it would be nice for it to be pain free.   

[Obee]

Thanks all for the replies.  I fished 45 days from Jan 1 to April 15 and one day since and it does not feel any better.  I will start taking magnesium right away and hopes that it helps, but not sure I can wait another two months to find out if its helping or not.  I take CoQ10 now with Red Yeast Rice for my high cholesterol (which doint that alone in 1yr droppped it from 290 to 225).  @throttleplate how long after surgery would you say you were able to set the hook on a fish or lift weights with that elbow?  Was the recovery tough?  I'm thinking I need to just get the surgery and be ready in 4-5 months to go again ?

[throttleplate]

@Obee 7 days after surgery i was in therapy doing unweighted stretching exercises with the repaired elbow and week 3 i was doing exercises with a water bottle and progressed on my own from there.

Its was very painfull as all heck after surgery having arm in a sling and when starting stretching therapy but its part of the recovery and i dont mind pain as long as i know it leads to recovery.

Top priority is to keep it moving after the first week to get blood flow to it as the elbow tendon recieves very little natural bloodflow.

I was back to wrenching in 30 days but of course i was cautious to not push it untill i felt it was strong enough and before long i just naturally started to forget about it and to this day my elbow is 100%.