If she can practice & use the built in voice recognition software on a computer to do the "writing" portions of homework it might be a good thing for her to try.
Depending on how recovery goes, you may want to look into online schools. She can take breaks as needed & no books to carry or backpacks...
The body position used in writing and/or or even reading /holding books is a static posture.
The neck has to hold the weight of the head the farther forward & downward as we use it, that is about 12 or so lbs balanced on top of our neck..and as we lean forward, that can really ad extra stress to those neck & upper back muscles..
Nerve TOS usually takes longer to recover from, perhaps she flared the elbow doing the homework, I would try to have her focus on healing & recovery first and avoid any activities that may stress or flare things..
If there are any clinics or chiropractors in your area that have a low level laser- also called soft laser, cold laser- I would try a few sessions of only that. no adjusting or PT.
Some places confuse LED light with low level laser - works similar but much weaker and less effective.
LED takes 30+ minutes while true LLLT takes 20 sec per spot tx. .. so make sure it is the correct light therapy.
I didn't have surgery but I did have some nasty ulnar sx for awhile.
I had to pad & wrap my elbows so I could sleep, they were so sensitive to just touching the mattress.
I think it was the spasms & trigger points in my neck & upperback that were part of the cause. After some PT & then finally chiro got the spasms resolved- my chiro addressed & treated the trigger points (PTs didn't mention them at all
)
She can still have some lingering issues that the surgery couldn't fix. angry nerves
I would give some time for the elbow to resolve , if pain is bad try the low level laser if you can find someone locally that has it. Also someone that can check for spasm & triggerpoints..and address those if they are present.
TrP sticky thread-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread125577.html
How did Sara acquire TOS?
sports, car accident, extra c rib, or other bony anomaly ?
Is the hand clawing gone away?