Fishing elbow

I took 4 months off from casting over the coldest period of winter up here
in Michigan, and when I returned to the water this month, I instantly
developed a severe case of tennis/fishing elbow. As I write this, I am
wearing my new elbow wrap I just picked up from Wally's earlier today.

My questions to the group a 1) has this happened to any of you, 2) did
you get over the condition, 3) how long did it take, 4) what treatment
did you use, and finally, 5) did you begin casting with your opposing arm?

Sorry for the laundry list of questions, but this thing is killing me and I
have absolutely no experience with this injury. I have read up on it over
the net, and all the sites say the same thing, namely rest, exercise and
behavior modification. Behavior modification is usually cited as cessation
of the causal activity. Fat chance on that, eh?

So, I am strongly considering switching exclusively to spinning gear for the
season and switching the reels around to cast left handed. Since I am only
moderately coordinated, this will be a challenge to say the least. Still,
it will be better than not fishing at all. I would be very interested to
hear if this is something from which I can eventually recover.