Eduardo, this doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
I've developed a pain in the elbow about 18 months ago. My usual doctor gave me painkillers but after a couple of weeks nothing happened nothing got better. He also told me to massage the area and even tried to get rid of the inflammation by using ultrasonic but nothing has helped.
Meanwhile the pain moved from my elbow to my upper arm/shoulder as I still tried to keep playing (and losing to far weaker opponents)
The pain wasn't constantly but rather appeared during certain motions. But unlike to you i could still use my backhand but whenever i tried to make rapid movements with the fh it almost felt as if someone stabbed a knife in my upper arm. But mostly when looping or serving.
Since the pain didn't disappear even after more than a year i was pretty close to quit playing, but then i met an old friend who comes visit our club every now and then, and while we had a beer after practice somehow we came to Talk about the pain in my arm, and he told me that he had the same problems a while ago and couldn't hit one fh topspin without pain and told me that he went to see an american chiropractic specialist who made the pain disappear within minutes. So then I went to see that specialist and you probably wouldn't believe it, but after a few minutes THE PAIN WAS GONE!
Before we first had a little chat and she said that the pain most likely was caused by a heavy car accident where my car got smashed by a truck and a few sections in my spine that got dislocated. While adjusting my spine she also found out that my biceps strain was dislocated and that has caused the heavy pain while looping.
Anyhow.... now I'm fine and more motivated than ever.
[Emoji12]
Here's an example of what it looks like
[video]
Maybe you can find someone in your area. Over here are quite a few. You definitely should at least give it a try.
Good luck and less pain.
I'm currently with pain in my shoulder, and it has some similarities to what you had.
It doesn't hurt all the time, the pain appears in some movements too, and is an acute pain.
My doctor gave me an anti-inflammatory, but didn't work. X-ray exam didn't show anything wrong, and neither the ultrasonic exam.
In my case it didn't started on my elbow tough, it was on shoulder since the beginning.
My pain started in november and I played till december. I rested almost all January to see if it would get better, but nothing changed, I still have the same level of pain.
I will go to my doctor again. If he doesn't find a solution, I might try to go to a chiropractic too.
Thanks for sharing this!