After having a break of a few months from seeing any doctors and instead trying the ‘if i ignore it maybe it will get better on its own’ treatment (very holistic), I’m now having yet more physiotherapy for my arms in Brussels. Weirdly this time it seems to be working!! It involves digging around in my arms with hooks to loosen the muscles, and then taping them up in between sessions. I’ve had 4 sessions over the past two weeks. My physiotherapist is French, so the terms for the technique she is using ‘crochetage‘ and the muscles she is digging into she only knows in French, but I’m going to ask her to write them down next time so I can translate them using that most dubious of methods – Google translate.
I’ve previously had courses of acupuncture, deep tissue massage, ultrasound, current passed through them, and very briefly shock wave treatment which was so painful the physio stopped immediately. This ‘hook’ treatment was not offered to me in the U.K. and I can’t find anything about it in english on the internet (well using the search terms hooks+physiotherapy anyway, if anyone knows what it is called in english please let me know ) so I don’t know how widely it is used in the U.K. , but the improvement in my typing ability after just four sessions is frankly amazing, and vastly superior to any of the other treatments I’ve had. Of course this could be because after nearly a year of not working and therefore not using the computer very often, and limiting my physical activity with my arms they may finally be starting to heal by themselves, but even a few weeks ago if I tried typing for a long period (i.e an hour or so) I would have pain afterwards and (touchwood) I haven’t so far after having a few sessions of this treatment.
I’m going away on holiday tomorrow, and then my physio is going away on holiday when I get back, so aggravatingly I’m not going to see her again until the beginning of September , but if anyone is also suffering from RSI/an overuse injury/tennis elbow and your doctor is telling you its psychological and you should see a psychiatrist, cough *BULLSHIT* very loudly at them and try and find a physio who is good at wielding hooks.
laratheescapeartist 
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