I am 37 years old and started working out around the age of 14. I started doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in my late 20s. I've put quite a bit of strain on my body and began dealing with elbow pain in my early 20s. Most pain was from tendonitis but as I got older, continuous repetitive motions and wear and tear led to tendinosis, osteoarthritis and bi-lateral enthesophytes aka bone spurs at the olecranon.

Using the TheraBand flexbar was extremely helpful in relieving medial and lateral epicondylitis symptoms, but I still have constant pain at the olecranon. The pain seems to come from deep inside the elbow joint, not the surface. For example, if I bump the tip of my elbow into something, I am totally fine. The pain usually comes from full or near full extension of the arm. When I grapple, it hurts to extend my arms and push or frame against my training partner. When the pain is especially bad, it's hard to grapple at all. Pushing motions like bench pressing or shoulder pressing are also a killer. Swimming is a no-no too. Heck, even using my arms to push off and turn in bed, or push down the soap pump can be excruciating. My research (and conversations with orthopedic surgeons) has led me to believe that the elbow enthesophytes dig into my tendons or ligaments during physical activities. And since this appears to be a mechanical issue, surgery seems almost certainly necessary if I want to continue physical activities (albeit, in a more restrained way).

I initially thought that I could have minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery, but multiple doctors have told me that, while the procedure is fairly straightforward, the surgeon will make about a 3-4 inch incision at the elbow, then split the triceps in order to get past it and into the olecranon so that the bone spur can be removed. The triceps then gets reattached with a bone anchor suture. I'm told that it takes about 2 months to heal and a 6 month break from physical activities.

Curious to know if anyone has experienced similar elbow problems and what was done to address it.