any ideas.

[millgirl]

I am an old member with a new user name. I have several pain problems. The one that i am trying to focus on now is severe tennis elbow that i have had for over 10 yrs which causes me disability. I can't even write.

This summer i consulted 2 doctors about it. One is a shoulder and elbow surgeon and the other is an upper extremity surgeon. The difference is that the upper extremity surgeon does surgery involving soft tissue including tendons and nerves. Both of these specialists did the exact same thing which is to say nothing. there was no physical exam, no x ray, nada!

I finally got up the nerve to email upper extremity guy. He had operated on my elbow twice and my wrist once so i felt that i had some kind of relationship. I told him basically that i didn't see how he could decide that nothing could b done without even looking at the elbow. He called back immediately to apologize. I am going to see himin 10 days for a new evaluation.

In the mean time, i saw the shoulder/elbow surgeon again. The consult was regarding my rotator cuff which requires surgery. I asked her to revisit the elbow issue and she did. I had an x ray and a physical exam. Her assessment was that there is an operation that can b done which ordinarily has a decent success rate but because I have scar tissue from 3 elbow operations and 2 transposed nerves near the elbow she estimatied that my chance of success would b around 50%. She doesn't do this operation. It is the domain of an upper extremity surgeon. It would require a long arm cast on my dominant arm for a month. Inconvenient, but I had that twice b4 already. Then the estimated recovery time would b 6 t0 9 months. Not a pretty picture but she also said that i probably wouldn't b any worse off for trying.

I really want to go ahead with this. If it works at all, my quality of life would b so much better and if it doesn't, i am no worse off. I have afeeling that the upper extremity doc won't want to do it. What would u do? I could find another upper extremity doc but of course i want someone who is very competent. Maybe i am putting the cart b4 the horse and i should just wait to see what happens at my appointment.

[joy]

hi there! I will be of no help to you at all but since I was/am in the same boat I couldn't help but wonder why they will not do any surgery on you, or are reluctant to. In 2002 I had an injury that partially tore my rotator cuff. I guess because I wasn't just screaming in pain my regular doctor did not take it to serious until he had the mri (I think) that showed the results. My local doctor did not want to do surgery and sent me to a specialist in a larger city. Because I have peripheral neuropathy, he did not do surgery either. My odds were just about like yours or less for it being successful. It has been a long drawn out process with both my shoulders freezing up very easily still if I am not careful. Mine was from an accident at my local builders supply store, a box falling on me. I thought at first it was because of the accident that no one wanted to do anything until the specialist explained about my not healing. Any reason given for you? A month in a cast would have left me really froze up I'm afraid! As it is I have to never forget to move my arms, shoulders around every day. I feel sorry for you as I know how painful it is, even trying to move a steering wheel is painful. Physical therapy three times a week for the longest with me doing exercises at home finally got me to where I can raise my arms above my head. Raise my arms AND squeeze a curling iron tip, just about impossible even today. Hope someone else can give you some help. I would like to know what they tell you if you make the appointment in 10 days.

[millgirl]

Joy, thanks for posting. The reason my chances of success are poor is that having had so much surgery, there is a lot of scar tissue. The scar tissue can b debrided but it gorws back and it interferes with healing. Also there are 2 transposed nerves ear the elbow and one near the wrist complicating the healing problem also. That is, the 3 major brachial nerves: median, ulnar, and radial have all been transposed on account of entrapment.

A risk of elbow surgery is frozen shoulder. My shoulder did freeze after the last elbow operation and I had 5 months of painful intensive pt so i know where u r coming from. The rotator cuff surgery i am having is my first and it is on the right shoulder (not the one that froze). It is arthroscopic and my chances for success are over 90%. I am hoping to b able to swim again.

I will post again after my surgery.