Hi Mark

I am a new colleague in the office of Dr Kerry Pawluski. After you had lent him the Tennis Elbow Armlock brace, we got to talking as I saw it on his desk. He was telling me, fortuitously, that it was a brace designed by yourself, a PT, for treatment of patients with Tennis Elbow. I told him how my partner Chris, who is a sign language interpreter for a video relay system (similar to the old TTY system but with Skype-like video capability), was currently suffering from tennis elbow. He has been an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter x 17 years and was raised with two deaf parents so essentially he has been using ASL for most of his 41 years. Probably because he recently ramped up his hours, he’s developed significantly worsening tennis elbow and has found the condition quite debilitating to the point where I was massaging and stretching his right arm several times a week after longer shifts and he was resorting to ice/anti inflammatories. This would help temporarily for a day or two but his pain would flare during the next long shift. When Kerry lent us the brace, I didn’t tell Chris much about it so as to get the most objective opinion. After one use of 20 minutes after an 8 hour shift (during which, due to the nature of ASL, his wrists were often extended), he reported he was feeling much better. He rated his change in discomfort a 7/10 to a 1/10. During this trial and subsequently since, he took no pain meds or ice, and I didn’t do any massage or stretching. He used it again about a week later after another long 8 hour shift and he rated his pain reduction from a 6/10 to a 0/10. Since that time, which was a few weeks ago at the time of writing this message, he has not complained of any pain and has not had to use it or other modalities. He’s been quite happy with how it has helped him, especially in a job which makes a person extra prone to developing tennis elbow.

I haven’t mentioned yet but he is quite an accomplished guitar player and when his right arm was bothering him from his job, this would limit his functioning and he would opt not to practice guitar, which I know was tough for him.

Thank you for your creative thinking and motivation in regards to helping patients with tennis elbow. Please email, text, or phone me if you would like to discuss further.

Sincerely,  

Dr Renee Nason, MD