Tennis Elbow

Ok I got the official diagnosis - tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis - and the cortisone shot into selfsame common extensor tendon - painful!  After the pain of the injection subsided over a couple of days, the general pain subsided somewhat but more practice over the weekend for a performance at Chestertown guitar festival (great fun - workshops, concerts, fun with friends) put me right back at square one -   which is -  I can play just fine without pain, but gripping or twisting or even extending my left arm at all other times is quite painful, and the common extensor tendon and associated muscles down the forearm are sore when pressed.    So this is finally making me contemplate a serious change in my practice attitude - probably long overdue - only youngsters can go at something with abandon until they quit from mental and physical exhaustion and not suffer consequences!  Fortunately we have a month long break from orchestra rehearsals after this week, which will allow me to rest it pretty much entirely.  The question is, how can I accelerate recovery and change what I'm doing to prevent it happening again?

While waiting for medical, advice about what to do next I've been reading up on tennis elbow.  Yes Google to the rescue - however I'm only reading posts from physical therapists or MD's - so much misguided information out there, particularly on medical issues.  It seems the current thinking is that tennis elbow is not so much an "tendinitis" but more of an "tendinosis."    Tendinitis indicates inflammation (pain, swelling, redness, heat) whereas tendinosis just means there is something wrong with the tendon but we don't really know what it is.  Hmm.    The post by Paul Ingraham was the most informative I found - a list of therapies that have been found in some cases to work (or not), including the original study references.   I tried a bunch of them - I think in my case I have a bit of both tendinosis and myositis because the muscle hurts in addition to the tendon, so I have tried icing, and when it was particularly sore it did seem to settle it down.  However the 2 things to date I have found to be most beneficial are massage (both longitudinally along the muscle and the so-called "friction" massage across the tendon) and stretching or stretching with mobilization (read the article to find out what this is - but easy to do at your desk at work).  Plus rest of course.  This  means not using the left hand on the guitar.  Or does it?  I found out today that if I don't use the thumb (at all) finger pressure does not cause any pain, either on or off the guitar. Thus I have a potential way to practice finger placement without exacerbating the condition, with the added benefit that I will hopefully learn to lighten up with the left hand.  Also I fear if I just do right hand exercises, though I know they are good for me,  I will either die of boredom or mess up the right hand or both!

Accordingly, things will probably be quiet for the next month, but I'll post again when I have more input on what I'm doing that caused this in the first place (actually I/m pretty sure I know what I was doing wrong - too much pressure when repetitively practicing a sequence of slurs) what I really need to know is how to change things so I don't do it again!