I've read throught the whole thread and as I see it it could be one of the following:
* A nerve entrapment (compression) from either
-the neck (if you've had your head bent forward and tilted to the left)
-or further down at the elbow (they've mentioned leaning on the elbow)
-or as far down as the hand (if you've held your hand in a very strange angle)
* An overuse injury (called tendinitis, tendinosis) of the muscles in the forearm.
If it's a nerve injury you should be able to provoke the pain in the elbow by lengthening the nerve, -the most easy way is to tilt your head away from the arm and stretch the arm straight out or bend it like those egygian figures (head away, arm 90° with bent elbow and hand up (difficult to explain). You could also have some kind of numbness, pins and needles in your fingers. The thing with the 1st rib is possible, but very unlikely. Why would that suddenly start making a problem?? And an operation in the neck /Thorasic Outlet Syndrome in a 14 year old.... I wouldn't go with that. Stick with the osteopa/Chiro/PT at least a couple of years.
If it's overuse I would stop playing for a while and either go for the gym-excercises (talk to your physician/PT/Chiro) or treatment like cortison (maybe you're to young though) or the rubbing treatment (Deep frictions). An epicondylitis (as it's called) will go away within a year without treatment and much faster with.
To avoid getting it back... Warm up.. Slowly playing more and more.. And learing the correct technique.. But I can't help you with that yet since I'm a newbee at Guitarr
Hope you get well soon Lisa.
/Martz
PhD Physical Therapist
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