Racer X Virtual Trainer

I have been suffering from lateral epicondilytis for 3 riding seasons now.
I've healed it (or so I thought) and then re-injured it about 5x since august of 09'.
I'm 34 now, B motocross racer. I've been to 2 doctors, had 1 xray, 2 MRI's and 1 cortizone
injection, ART treatments etc. I've researched extensively all there is to know about this injury. Each time I've healed it, was through the Flexbar exercise and wrist, bicep & tricep eccentric exercises.
The most I've been able to ride is the past 3 months, I rode 18x doing 3 or 4 motos, up to 20 minutes
at a time. And I used one of those elbow straps each time I rode until last week. I thought I was
over this, didn't use the strap one night riding and now I'm back to 09' pain level. I had read that relying
on the strap is not ideal as the tendon would get used to having that security. When I lift weights I
was not using the strap however. I guess motocross puts a stress on the elbow you can not replicate anywhere.

Over the past 3 years I've learned a lot about this injury.
1) I'll never have my old elbow back.
2) Wear the strap every time I ride, forever.
3) Each time I re-injure the tendon, I'm just forming more scar tissue and it's prone to re-injury again.

Sorry for the long post, my question boils down to:
Would you search for a doctor willing to surgery on your elbow at this point, knowing that you may lose
overall strength and never get it back, in addition the surgery may not work?

P.S.
I went throught the majority of your work out program you guys posted this winter and it
got me in amazing shape. My performance on my bike in the past 3 months has surpassed the level I was previously at, and for that I thank you guys.

I'll forward this to Dr. Augustine and see what he says.

_________________
Tim Crytser
Your Virtual Trainer
www.racerxVT.com

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Let me start by saying that this is how posts seeking medical help should be written. Good history lots of useful information and to the point.
Your problem is not at the elbow. Your symptoms are at the elbow, but your problem is somewhere else. I say this because your symptoms continue to come back no matter what you do. My suggestion is you seek someone experienced in performing a Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) this can be an Athletic Trainer or Physical Therapist. The following link should help you find someone. http://www.functionalmovement.com/SITE/
DO NOT SETTLE FOR SOMETHING ELSE or you will be right back to where you started.
The stress you are putting on your tendon can be due to having a problem with one ankle. I am not saying it is your ankle, I just want you to understand the complexity of the situation.
I use both of these tools in conjunction with other evaluation techniques to help a large portion of my athletes and non-athletes.
The other thing you have to realize is that this is not going to be an overnight fix. Not something you want to hear I am sure, but nonetheless patience will get you through.
If it truly is a problem away from your elbow then the further away it is the longer it will take to fix. Reason being is that there are a lot of muscles and neuropathways that need to be reprogramed.

The great thing about using FMS and SFMA it will root out all problems and you can begin fixing them. Basically you will find the most dysfunctional movement pattern that is not painful and start by correcting that dysfunction.
By doing it this way you avoid unnecessary pain and millions of useless exercises.

If you have any other questions email me at ichorsportsmedicine@gmail.com

Eddie Casillas

_________________
Eddie Casillas A.T. CSCS
iCHOR Sports Medicine

And the light bulb goes off.
The shoulder of the same arm has been painful for about 5+ years.
1) I can't sleep on it.
2) I can't perform military presses exceeding 10lbs (without paying the consequences for 2 months).
3) When it's real bad I can't reach back to grab my seat belt.

I have just mentally pushed the pain off in my shoulder and learned to live with it.

The now critical info I left out in my original post, is that while doing the above stated recovery
exercises for my elbow, I was also performing the thera-band shoulder exercises posted on Dr. Mark's
(of Houston, TX) website. In fact I've periodically have done them over the years when my shoulder
would get real bad. After a couple months, I could sleep on the shoulder again. But it's always short
lived as I would stop doing the shoulder thera-band exercises after the pain subsided.

Right now my shoulder aches.
I asked my one ortho if it could be my shoulder pain causing my elbow problem last year and he said "no
that would not cause your elbow pain." Ironically, both ortho's couldn't find significant inflammation
in my MRI's and neither had suggestions on how to solve this. My last visit I decided to try a small dose
of cortizone, my suggestion not the ortho's, he was apprehensive saying "it's hard to give cortizone to
an area with minimal inflammation". He did however give me a small dose. It had a negative effect on my
elbow for 2 months, made the pain worse.

Sounds like my first course of action is to get to someone knowledgable enough to perform the Functional Movement Screen.
Go to ortho get an xray & then MRI of the shoulder to see if the
problem warrants surgical repair. If not, I'll perform the thera-band shoulder exercises every day
of my life if that is what it takes to get me back riding.

I cannot thank you enough for your time and for contributing to this post!!
I am very grateful.