When Every Grip Hurts
Shaking a hand, lifting a coffee mug, turning a doorknob: tennis elbow turns these small moments into a sharp, burning ache on the outside of your arm. It's not only tennis players who feel it. Gardeners, cooks, typists, and parents carrying toddlers get the same irritated tendon from the same repetitive strain.
Rest and ice can dull it for a day, but the ache tends to creep back the moment you pick up a racket, a wrench, or your own child. If that sounds familiar, you're not stuck with it.
What's Actually Happening in Your Elbow
Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is inflammation and tiny tears where your forearm tendons attach at the elbow, caused by repeated gripping and wrist motion, not just swinging a racket. Any activity that overworks those tendons can trigger it.
Rest alone often isn't enough, because tight forearm muscles and restricted elbow and wrist joints keep re-irritating the tendon even after the initial inflammation calms down.
How Dr. Carol Treats Tennis Elbow
Dr. Carol Abel, DC, is also a certified massage therapist and manual osteopath, so your care isn't limited to the sore spot on your elbow. She checks the mobility of your wrist, elbow, and shoulder, using gentle techniques like Activator and Arthrostim to restore proper joint motion.
Then she works directly on the tight forearm muscles and fascia pulling on the tendon, addressing both the joint restriction and the muscle strain driving your pain, not just the ache itself.
What to Expect At Your Tennis Elbow Appointment
Initial Assessment
Hands-On Treatment
Back to Your Grip
Life Without the Wince
Picture shaking hands, opening a jar, or swinging a golf club without that hot flash of pain: a pain-free grip, not just a quieter ache. That's the goal every visit works toward, whether your elbow flares up on the court, at your desk, or in the garden.
As your tennis elbow chiropractor, Dr. Carol builds each plan around your specific tendon, your daily activities, and how quickly your body responds, not a generic handout of stretches. Patients notice the difference in the small things first: turning a key, carrying a grocery bag, shaking hands with a new client, typing through a full workday without that familiar ache creeping in.
Over a few weeks, that progress compounds. The grip that used to give out on you holds steady. The backswing you'd been avoiding comes back. Chores you'd started dreading, hauling the trash bins, wrangling a toddler, wringing out a mop, stop being a gamble on how your elbow will feel afterward.
There's no surgery wait list and no injections required to get started. Your first visit is a $40 initial assessment, so you'll know exactly what's driving your elbow pain, how many visits it will likely take, and what it will take to fix it, before committing to a full plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Use Your Arm Without Wincing?
Get a clear answer on what's driving your elbow pain and a plan to fix it, right here in Schertz.
