I played for an hour or so yesterday morning and then had a break. While I was sitting down I realised my left elbow felt a bit odd and it was starting to swell up. It ended up with a golf ball size lump on it which was soft and obviously a fluid build up. Looks like this:
Dr Google tells me it is elbow bursitis, it’s quite common and will most likely go away with ice and rest. It’s not painful and I can use the arm quite normally, but I guess I should not play guitar for a few days.
Anyone else had this? I’m curious why it suddenly happened. The only thing I was doing differently was I recently added Justin’s slow hammer-on exercise to my warm-up routine.
I agree with @sairfingers on this one in that you should get it checked out properly. I haven’t had bursitis on the elbow but I have had it on the knee before and it didn’t go away with ice and rest. A simple course of medication sorted it pretty quickly for me.
I had this exact thing two years ago. I am not sure how I got it, but I don’t think it was from a guitar. It wasn’t painful, it was just odd felling to have a lump there.
I went to the doctor and they said it will go away after a month or so. I lived normally, played the guitar, even did a ski vacation… but I watch out not to press too much on that elbow. But even after a few months, the lump was still there, so my doctor send me to a specialist. There they pumped the fluid out with a needle and vacuum bag (it was like 50ml or so). The fluid was gone, but some sort of “pillow” (which hold that fluid) stayed inside the elbow. He said that if it would bother me, that they could do the surgery to pull that out. But it never bothered me so I didn’t went back. I also never got that problem again and I am using my elbows normally.
So this is my experience; hope it helps somewhat.
I wish you a quick recovery.
Thanks for that. My “lump” has already almost disappeared. I’m also not sure what caused it, but I don’t think it was guitar-related. I played for an hour or two today and it didn’t seem to affect it.
Not much point going to the doctor now as there isn’t much to see. It’s an odd one. It is also called “student’s elbow” because it can be caused by resting on your elbows a lot. Now, I may not have great guitar technique but I certainly don’t play with my elbows on the table!
