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These problems have to do with accumulated muscular tension which over time becomes "permanent". It can be removed but it will not go away on its own. Muscles will start to stick together and more and more movement patterns are impaired. In the body, everything is connected to everything, so it is more useful to work on realigning the body as a whole.

As you have found, most regular doctors know nothing about such things and have no interest in learning.

You must now embark on a Healing Journey. You can take a self-help approach or you can spend a lot of money paying various
therapists to help you. Or you can do both. The types of therapists that may be helpful will be various kinds of "bodyworkers" - massage therapists, myofascial therapists, Rolfers, Hellerworkers, etc. Maybe some chiropractors. You might look into yoga and other types of stretching. You need to spend time checking into various approaches and helpers to see what and/or who works for you.
You can make all the progress you want on this. Its just a matter of how much you want to learn and how much time you want to spend learning about and working on yourself.

Here are some very special books that I highly recommend:
(there are countless more)

 

• Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries - Sharon Butler
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572240393/
  
• Author's Website: http://www.selfcare4rsi.com
  
   
  
  
  
• Deskbound - Kelly Starrett
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/1628600586/
  
• Author's website: http://www.mobilitywod.com
  
• also search Youtube for Mobility WOD videos
  
   
  
  
  
• Pain Free - Pete Egoscue
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553379887/
  
• Author's website: http://www.egoscue.com
  
   
  
  
• The Endless Web: Fascial Anatomy and Physical Reality - R. Louis Schultes
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/1556432283/
  
   
  
  
• Discovering the Body's Wisdom - Mirka Knaster
  
• "A Comprehensive Guide to More than Fifty Mind-Body Practices
  
• that Can Relieve Pain, Reduce Stress, and Foster Health,
  
• Spiritual Growth, and Inner Peace"
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553373277/
  
   
  
  Note the reviews on these books. And note that you can get them cheaper used.
  
  Have faith. Good luck!
  

All I had to do was read the book, but it was super miraculous and not everyone has it that easy. There's some stuff worth checking out on the tms wiki, you can read recovery stories from others (a fair few for rsi/tendonitis/cts) and there's a programme to help you out there too. The forums are a good place to go too, people are asking questions and getting answers. Even though those answers can be painfully vague, they make sense if you read it through a TMS lense. A big one I see people parroting constantly is journaling, which is important too to understand why you're feeling this way.

There's a book I picked up called The Great Pain Deception by Steve Ozanich, and that's a much better read than most of Sarno's work. Ozanich seems to take to writing more naturally and being more entertaining than Sarno did. The cover looks so terribly bad, but the words are good.

If you're a podcast listener, there are a couple of podcasts about it. The Mindbody and Fitness podcast, and Mindbody Mastery. Also a few more, but I haven't checked them all out yet.

Finally, there's a facebook group you can join for support and ideas, called TMS - The Mindbody Syndrome.

If you can (depending on where you live), try and get an MRI done. That'll tell you if you do have any damage or trauma to the tendons for definite.

https://talonvoice.com/ You might want to look into the Talon's eye tracking stuff even if you're not a coder. They're working on more noise recognition features so you can click without clicking. :) The Talon Slack also does have a channel discussing the health related aspects, if you'd like to talk to others about your diagnosis/treatment. It's a lot more sane than the Facebook groups...

You might find a trackball mouse useful. There are large ones that you can use your palm to click with instead of your fingers!

" take ibuprofen if my arms started to hurt." That's really dismissive and hardly a long term solution. If anything, try ice. Do you know if you have any swelling?

I had a diagnosis of tennis elbow as well. In the early stages I focused on icing and stretching. Once I was able to grip things without pain, I moved on to doing very light eccentric wrist curls. That was paired with some manual therapy to help relax my extensors, which were tight and pulling on the tendon.

This is a list of resources I've found reliable and useful.

General Diagnosis/Treatment -

https://rsiselftreatment.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Its-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Professionals/dp/0965510999

https://www.painscience.com/index-pain-conditions.php

https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/how-truly-treat-thoracic-outlet-syndrome/

https://www.acropt.com/blog/2017/9/6/arm-hand-pain-when-it-could-actually-be-your-shoulder

Trigger Points -

https://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759

https://www.muscle-joint-pain.com/

http://www.triggerpoints.net/

Posture -

https://modernhealthmonk.com/neck-pain-and-shoulder-pain-upper-crossed-syndrome/

https://www.acropt.com/blog/2017/8/17/postural-stretches

https://www.simplestrengthening.com/ (edited)

I have to say my hands feel uncomfortable just reading this. I remember moments when the smallest movements would feel like they are about to break my hands. I hope you are seeing progress though.

Is it the aiming or pressing the buttons that aggravates your condition? I used to switch my hand and used left hand one day and right hand another day. I also used a mouse that is vertical (and it sucks to use it but at the time it was perfectly helping).

This is the mouse: https://www.amazon.co.uk/3M-EM550GPL-Optical-Ergonomic-Wireless/dp/B001H9UGD4/

I further used application to avoid using mouse in general. I have basically the whole linux environment that allows me to rarely use mouse.

For example, in the case of a browser, I use a vim plugin. This means that I can press hyper-links without using my mouse.

I also remember in one review that stress is a factor. I can't tell you what helped exactly, because I have reoriented my life around it, and tried to many things. Was it the tread mill I had? Was it the sport I did all the time?

I am at the point where I am also more happy and slightly less stressed. And that apparently is a factor too. Stress in general - which incrases inflammation - which is the "source" of the issue in hands. I am also taking a bit of aspirin and ibuprofen pills (and occasionally use the topical cream). They are anti-inflammatory which means they might be addressing the source of the issue. Prolonged inflammation affects negatively the cellular environment.

I also have the powerball now (two months) and I should try it more. But I am more hopeful about the back-stretching.

Do you notice numbness/tingling more in some parts of the hand (such as the top or base of the Palm or in certain fingers).

Dr. Scott Fried has a routine in his book: http://www.amazon.com/Carpal-Tunnel-Helpbook-Self-Healing-Alternatives/dp/0738204552/

Nerve flexing is more of a stopgap measure to prevent you from becoming worse. Of course I still recommend only using the routine under the supervision of a physical therapist or chiropractor.

Although this is a short booklet i found it very useful:
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Do-Hurt-Adriaan-Louw/dp/0985718625

At some point there is nothing wrong with your arms and everything that is wrong is the hypersensitivity/pain threshold of your arms/connections to your brain. this book talks about that and can help you start to overcome that.

I recommend getting a lacrosse ball since they are quite cheap and versatile: https://www.amazon.com/Kieba-Massage-Lacrosse-Myofascial-Therapy/dp/B017V7UKW2/ref=sr_1_2?s=team-sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1486000450&sr=1-2

In addition, read up on trigger points and how to massage them. I suggest reading https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECLGALG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

The theraband is here for anyone curious.

https://www.amazon.com/TheraBand-Tendonitis-Strength-Resistance-Tendinitis/dp/B00067E4YU/ref=sr_1_10?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1521694888&sr=1-10&keywords=lateral%2Bepicondylitis&th=1

Here is the mobile version of your link

This one http://www.amazon.com/Mueller-Fitted-Wrist-Brace-Medium/dp/B0027VGB4Y/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1F5BJ2ESYP1QH03HVA60

By mueller sleeve do you mean this one?: http://www.amazon.com/Mueller-Sleeve-Neoprene-provides-wraparound/dp/B001IEXQZ8

Or this one?: http://www.amazon.com/Mueller-Wrist-Brace-splint-Black/dp/B000RZHPOM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397535382&sr=8-1&keywords=muller+wrist+brace

I've been in a similar situation for the last 6 years. First it was fingers, then my outer forearms. I work in IT, love gaming, very depressing, tried all the things. Last year, I bought this book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Treatment-Guide-Relief/dp/B00ECLGALG
It's taken a year of poking around (juggling real life commitments alongside), but recently I finally managed to mostly eliminate the arm pain through the massage prescribed in the book. The problem wasn't my tendons, rather the muscles that controlled those tendons. I worked out the kinks, and I've started to enjoy some late night gaming sessions again.

These links are all examples from a quick google search. I'm not endorsing anything in particular. There is a nice terse discussion of braces at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279596/

There are rigid ( http://verinaegypt.com/shop/rigid-wrist-brace/ ) and soft/nonrigid ( https://www.amazon.com/Comfortable-Adjustable-Arthritis-Tendinitis-Compression/dp/B07PKBCD72) wrist braces. The primary difference is that rigid braces have plastic or metal stays in them to actively prevent the wrist from getting into a bad posture.

Rigid braces are generally bad to use while working as they prevent you from making normal motions that your job probably requires. So, you end up fighting with the brace (increased force) and get into an even worse posture trying to get the job done. Prolonged use of rigid splints also prevents you from going through the normal range of motion that your wrist needs to stay healthy! Only wear a right brace at work if your Dr has recommended it. Often rigid braces are recommended for night use to keep you from bending your wrists for prolonged periods while sleeping.

Nonrigid braces (or "wrist supports"), at least, don't fight you as much when you're moving your hand. Instead, they "encourage" a more straight posture. These are worn more during work.

Unfortunately, the cause of musculoskeletal disorders is generally overuse so getting better means reducing the exposure. "Overuse" here means spending a lot of time doing repetitive work in a bad posture and/or with high force.Depending on your job, doing some work to get a good ergo setup (tips: https://www.rsiprevention.com/rsi_prevention.php) can really reduce the posture/force exposures.

Unfortunately, once the wrist is symptomatic, it may take a while to "calm down." During that time, symptoms can occur with much less exposure. Even the squeezing of the brace on your wrist can exacerbate things. Computer users with symptoms on only one side

I have been dealing with pain in my arms pretty much since I started my first job as a programmer (wrist, elbow, forearm pain) which is 10 years so far. I bought all the exercise tools you can possibly think of and used them on a daily basis to strengthen my arms as many opinions were saying that if it's RSI you need to strengthen supporting muscles. I have Theraband flexbar, Powerball, Armaid, Infra lamp, Resistance bands, dumbbells, Gripmaster Pro, GD Iron Grip Ext 90 (up to 90 kg hand resistance - beautiful grip tool) and of course foam rollers, trigger point balls, electric massagers etc. I tried changing diet, using PC less but nothing made a noticeable difference in the long run. I have also visited physios and chiros where the prescription was a bunch of exercises that I need to do daily but one of them even told me there is no such thing as RSI from the medical standpoint. After doing prescribed exercises it felt better for a time but it went back to the original state - I ascribe that to placebo effect. Oh and I don't want to forget about replacing mouses and keyboard for ergonomic ones and being obsessed with a correct posture.

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Now my journey with TMS. I've been following RSI subreddit for several months now and a few months back one of the members shared his story about RSI and how he got cured by learning about TMS. He was a software engineer as well so I could relate to him. I immediately deep dived in youtube videos about TMS, Dr John Sarno explaining how that works, TMS healing wall where people had a same story and many times same personality which is a very important aspect. I was certain that I have it as well as it fit me like a glove. The pain disappeared by the end of the day. Now, since I know that placebo can trick my brain and reduce pain I didn't want to celebrate just yet. However it's been 3 months now and pain is reduced by 90% on my worst day. It's important to understand that it's not a one time cure that will remove pain for the rest of your life without doing any effort. The effort needs to be focused on your mind and things that you might be bottling up, anxious about, repressed rage etc. In my case, I always like to be the best, everything needs to be perfect, I worry about what people think, I don't like being late or sick and I'm very competitive. That creates a lot of psychological pressure inside me that manifests in pain in various parts of my body (typically where my brain thinks it can hurt because of old injuries or because it knows about diagnosis like RSI).

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The most important bit is to genuinely believe that you have it and stop all the old exercises and treatments that you were doing to fix physiological issue and focus on the mind instead everytime there is pain and try to figure what might be worrying you. There are better resource out there so I'm just gonna toss a few so you know where to start.

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https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connection-ebook/dp/B00FOTRI4S/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KKOZCQPUI4PJ&keywords=healing+back+pain+by+dr.+john+sarno&qid=1558135796&s=gateway&sprefix=healing+back+pain%2Caps%2C333&sr=8-1#customerReviews

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https://www.amazon.com/Great-Pain-Deception-Faulty-Medical-ebook/dp/B0075EVN46/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+great+pain+deception&qid=1558135852&s=gateway&sr=8-1

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VyH1laOd2M