I reread your post, and noticed something.

Are your symptoms now confined only to the arms?

If so the fact you are always lifting children, and doing strenuous things for them with your arms, may also point to another condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. This is where the brachial plexus of nerves becomes compressed/inflamed and refers down the arms. Ulnar pain is one sign. Also massed in the upper chest are blood vessels which can become compressed from repetitive motion.

Here is our TOS forum:
The stickied posts at the top have illustrations to show this more clearly.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html

I'd confine the cold treatment only to your spine, where the ganglia are located. It really serves no purpose lower down the arm. You will want to cool off the inflamed dorsal roots. The Herpes Zoster virus lives in those roots too, so if you have had chicken pox as a child, you may also have Zoster activating there. This can be tested for with a blood test. High H.Zoster titres (antibodies) suggest maybe a course or two of antiviral may help.