I had knitter's elbow, the same thing as tennis elbow. It did indeed take forever to really heal, on the order of the year somebody else mentioned. I did all the rest, ice, compression strap, ibuprofen and finally just pretty much quit knitting for about three months. Thumb quilting helped me more than anything, since it's an opposite kind of movement to knitting. I also got a red FlexBar, magnifying glasses, and put my light on the other side so I wouldn't be leaning over to see and winging out my elbow like a chicken wing.