Pop on Inside of Elbow

Hoping to see if any climbing WebMDs out there has input on a weird elbow tweak I experienced the other day. 

Specifically, I felt / heard a significant pop on the inside of my elbow while making a hard-for-me move. My left hand was on a crimp with a left heel hook at the same level, the pop in the left elbow happened when going up dynamically with the right hand. 

 After the pop there was numbness / tingling down my forearm and into my fingers for about 30 seconds to a minute. I continued climbing after the numbness went away and ended up working / sending two boulders at my limit. There was almost no pain and no noticeable loss of strength at the time so I didn't think anything of it. 

The next day I had mild dull / throbbing in the elbow (right around where you'd feel medial elbow tendonitis) interspersed with sharp shooting pain in the area when lifting anything or rotating my forearm. That pain has stayed about the same for 3 days now. The elbow / arm feels unstable / weird but I don't have any obvious loss in strength with basic push / pull tests. I don't have any bruising. 

Google says it could be a ucl injury or distal bicep tendon injury but those seem like they would hurt a lot more than what I'm experiencing. 

Any thoughts? I'd like to avoid a doctor visit if possible but this one seems hard to diagnose compared to other climbing injuries I've had. Thanks for reading! 

By avoiding a doctor, you are also avoiding a good diagnosis.

Go to a doctor. I avoided going to a doctor about an elbow injury I had for months and thought I could diagnose it for myself. At first I thought it was golfers elbow and started PTing myself based on online info. But certain symptoms were atypical of what I read online and the PT didn't help, so after more reading I convinced myself I had something worse, stopped rehab out of fear of making things worse, and in general felt bad for myself and stopped climbing. 

I eventually caved and went to the doctor, got a proper diagnosis, and got set up with PT that worked. The assurance and peace of mind were very worth it.

John Goodlander wrote:

Hoping to see if any climbing WebMDs out there has input on a weird elbow tweak I experienced the other day. 

Specifically, I felt / heard a significant pop on the inside of my elbow while making a hard-for-me move. My left hand was on a crimp with a left heel hook at the same level, the pop in the left elbow happened when going up dynamically with the right hand. 

 After the pop there was numbness / tingling down my forearm and into my fingers for about 30 seconds to a minute. I continued climbing after the numbness went away and ended up working / sending two boulders at my limit. There was almost no pain and no noticeable loss of strength at the time so I didn't think anything of it. 

The next day I had mild dull / throbbing in the elbow (right around where you'd feel medial elbow tendonitis) interspersed with sharp shooting pain in the area when lifting anything or rotating my forearm. That pain has stayed about the same for 3 days now. The elbow / arm feels unstable / weird but I don't have any obvious loss in strength with basic push / pull tests. I don't have any bruising. 

Google says it could be a ucl injury or distal bicep tendon injury but those seem like they would hurt a lot more than what I'm experiencing. 

Any thoughts? I'd like to avoid a doctor visit if possible but this one seems hard to diagnose compared to other climbing injuries I've had. Thanks for reading! 

Interesting. Ulnar nerve might have subluxed out of the cubital tunnel. This can be common in people with elbow flex/ext. just pops out of the groove then back in. Strain with the move you did might have put more force through that area. Pronators and flexor tendons attach your the inside elbow so could have strained the area as well. UCL could be involved but usually requires a valgus force. Stretch out the flexors, gentle nerve glides and avoid compressing the nerve (keeping elbow flexed for long periods and resting on elbow. Seeing a Hand therapist is always a great idea. 

This happened to me twice: https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/113140949/loud-pop-on-inside-of-elbow-medial-epicondyle#ForumMessage-113203822

I partially tore my UCL in the L and R elbow on two separate occasions. At least for me, they both healed 100% after 6 weeks, but that was likely because they were partially torn. I also heard a really loud pop and the pain/numbness/aching was delayed. The pop was loud enough that my belayer heard it. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies everyone! I ended up going to the doctor. No clear answer on what caused the pop and subsequent numbness / pain. Recommendation was to rest a few weeks and see how it feels, which seems to be the standard answer when the doctor doesn't really know what happened. He did seem confident that it wasn't a ucl injury so that's a plus because six weeks off would be tough.