Good evening everybody. I'm really happy to be on this site. I went to see my pain doctor today and get the results of the MRI I had done in my elbow. The results read as follows:
"Near complete tear of common extensor tendon origin with few fibers remaining.intact and edema in the adjacent muscles and soft tissue"
My concerns are many. I've had surgery on both of my knees and my left shoulder oh, and also have a pacemaker. For some reason I'm more concerned about this elbow. It appears there are a lot of nerves in that area. I've had numbing in my fingertips also. I'm also concerned that the attended could pop off the bone at any moment. The doctor said if that happened that I would have no use of my hand until I had surgery.
Bottom line questions:
1) Should I be in a spling right now?
2) am I correct to assume that since the tendon is almost completely severed, that they will most likely cut it and reattach it to the Bone? If so, will that require anchors?
3) post recovery. I am a full-time single father and I'm also a professional guitar player / musician. I'm assuming I'll be in a splint for a while? Will I be in one of those space-age looking braces? How long before I can lift anything?
4) am I jumping the gun talking about surgery? I'm assuming with a tear this bad that it can't be fixed with physical therapy. Please tell me if I'm wrong.
Thank you so much in advance for taking time to read my question!