Crystal's Tennis Elbow Story

Meet Crystal - an amateur sword fighter, IT pro, and a temporary mom of three kids under 11. After suffering from Tennis Elbow for almost a decade, she signed up to beta-test the Tennis Elbow System for Alleviate.

Feeling the immediate difference the System made - and an accident that could have been tragic - nudged her to finally take ownership of her recovery from chronic pain. This is her story.

My name is Crystal. I've been suffering with Tennis Elbow for the last - nearly a decade. I’m currently working at Kroger in the IT department.

I happened upon a Groupon for sword fighting. A lot of the movements are repetitive wrist and elbow movements.

I figured that it would be something that I would really enjoy because I like grappling, track and field. I am working my way up to having a full kit, and then hopefully one day enter my first competition.

I was standing outside in the yard doing flow drills and the last time that I dipped the sword over my elbow to bring it back, I felt like a shooting pain up my arm, and I was just like, wow I probably shouldn't do that again right now, let me go and take like some Mytol or something but I never thought to like stop what I was doing. I may have been gripping too tight.

The pain is in my wrist and in my elbow, sometimes in the front and sometimes in the back. Sometimes there's some pain up my arm.

What I usually try to do is just take a couple of Advil or something beforehand. I'm left-handed, but at work I type, so I'll usually type a lot more with my right than with my left in the morning.

I'll usually pop two Advil cause they're good for the whole day - but I'd like to not have to medicate daily. I think Advil dulls the nerve so it's not helping but I don't feel it, and so that's helpful. This is definitely band-aiding, Advil and Tylenol and Ibuprofen and everything else, those things are not great for the long term.