Hi Jeff, I highly recommend checking out "trigger point therapy", specifically the "Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Clair Davies (~$20 online, third edition is best). The thesis of the method, based on research by Janet Travell (known in part for having been JFK's personal physician) is that much joint/soft-tissue pain is referred from small muscular contraction knots in other parts of the body, and that the pain can be fixed by finding those knots and massaging them. I used to suffer from a wide range of chronic pain (elbow, knee, ankle, wrist - you name it), and I would say that self-applied trigger point massage as described in the book I mentioned has reduced the severity of my problems by ~80-90%. I understand that you might be skeptical, and of course there's no guarantee that it will help you the same way it helped me, but from what you've described it seems like the bet of a few dollars for the book and a few hours of your time to read it might be one worth making.
Hi Jeff, I highly recommend checking out "trigger point therapy", specifically the "Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Clair Davies (~$20 online, third edition is best). The thesis of the method, based on research by Janet Travell (known in part for having been JFK's personal physician) is that much joint/soft-tissue pain is referred from small muscular contraction knots in other parts of the body, and that the pain can be fixed by finding those knots and massaging them. I used to suffer from a wide range of chronic pain (elbow, knee, ankle, wrist - you name it), and I would say that self-applied trigger point massage as described in the book I mentioned has reduced the severity of my problems by ~80-90%. I understand that you might be skeptical, and of course there's no guarantee that it will help you the same way it helped me, but from what you've described it seems like the bet of a few dollars for the book and a few hours of your time to read it might be one worth making.