This is my end-of-the-year shout out to everyone who visits regularly, semi-regularly, or even who's dropping in for the first time.
Thanks for coming by, and best wishes for your knees in 2020. If you've been on a program, whether designed by you or someone else, year-end is a good time to reflect on how well it's working. Beating knee pain can involve a frustrating amount of experimentation. Sometimes you have to look at what you're doing, in a very clear-eyed way, and say, "Hey, I'm not getting better."
That's different of course -- very different -- from "Hey, I'm getting better, but it's taking soooo long." That unfortunately is par for the course.
My knees this year have been very, very good. I think I sprained a ligament on the inside of my left knee, and because I stubbornly refuse to curtail my cycling much, it has become a bit of a nuisance injury. Still, I plan to shut things down for about a month this winter, and hopefully that will take care of it for good.
What about all of you? Anyone out there want to share the progress you've made this year? What are you resolving to do more of/less of in the new year? Leave your comments below.
Cheers, and best to all!
I just read the Washington Post article.
ReplyDeleteFor years now, my thinking has been (based on N=1, myself, but with lots of reading on others suffering), that the 'chronic burning pain' symptom is almost always overlooked by the experts and just regarded as 'knee pain'.
But in my opinion it is a clear indication that the problem is less about cartilage damage and more about chronic synovial inflammation, or as Dr Dye called it 'loss of knee tissue homeostasis'.
However, I think this inflammation can be caused by cartilage damage which has been pushed too far (in my case by triathlon training up to 14hrs/week).
The problem is this synovial inflammation sort of presents as cartilage damage, but the difference is that there is no focus point(s) to the pain/burning, it is more diffuse (all over the front of the knee, but esp. under the kneecap), and the pain tends to move around.
I've suffered cartilage damage (torn medial meniscus, a worn spot on the end of my femur & patella chondromalacia) and that type of pain is far more focused/localised, and sharper, and clearly made worse by easily identifiable movements.
Synovial inflammation is not focused at all, more of a constant burning, and it is almost impossible to figure out what makes it worse/better.
I think 99% of 'knee experts' are completely missing the difference between these two different pain signals - and almost always look at solutions related to cartilage damage (surgery, muscle strengthening), rather than considering synovial inflammation - which can only be cured by rest, very careful knee movements, and in my case a long-term course of anti-inflams to get it under control (i.e. the Dr Dye approach).
And the current methods for detecting synovial inflammation (palpating the knee, perhaps MRI) appear to be woeful at diagnosis.
For me, the widespread burning/stiffness came on very quickly in BOTH knees after surgery for torn meniscus in my left knee. It felt like all my cartilage had magically disappeared within a month, but I knew that was just not possible, hence my search for other causes, which led me to Richards book, then Paul Ingraham, Doug Kelseys work and finally the key - Dr Scott Dye.
Good luck to everyone battling this frustrating & very depressing condition, keep the faith, it can improve a lot. I'm 7.5 yrs in and much much much better - doing leg work in the gym (deadlifts, kettlebell swings etc.), solid single-track mountain biking for 45-90mins, and trying a little running again (though running does flare my cartilage damage, but not so much the synovial issue).
Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteMy knees are still doing amazing! :)
I had this sorta “realization” today. I feel like all these years of knee pain have been like being in jail inside my own body. My heart and spirit wanted to dance and hike and bike and ski, but my knee pain was very restrictive. I just had to sit. Or just walk slowly but not too far. Thus, I had to develop other hobbies and interests that did not require much movement.
But. Now that my knee is doing so well and I’m not hurting....it’s like I’ve been released from jail and I want to do literally EVERYTHING! Everything that I haven’t been able to do for years and years.
Next year I want to focus on overall fitness. And. More dancing. :)
I should change my name from “knee pain” to.... “no more knee pain.” :)
ReplyDeleteBut. I won’t because I’ve learned that it’s absolutely critical to remain vigilant! I’ve gone through this before where my knee appeared to be healed and I was back to being active....and then I had a catastrophic setback which lasted for yearssssssssss.
And I’m sorry to say that type of catastrophic setback has happened to me Twice!!! In 2006 and 2012. Devastating. Crushing.
Do!! I am fanatically determined to remain vigilant and careful and to NOT have a third catastrophic setback. I can’t go through that again.
Thus. My moniker will remain “knee pain” as a reminder of all that has happened on my long long long long long journey to knee health and to always be cautious and grateful for the knee health I now have.
Thank you for sharing your upbeat comments and message of hope! What was the cause of your knee pain, and what was the key to your recovery?
DeleteCheers,
Pax
Hi Pax! I wish you well on your road to knee health.
DeleteAs for me, every time I try to just write a short explanation about my knee issue... I end up writing the length of novel. Lol. But it’s because I’ve (unfortunately) been through so many knee ups and downs. Mostly downs. For years and years. Ugh. Deep sad sigh. But.... amazingly, now my knee is doing really well as I said. I get teary-eyed thinking of all I have been through and how now I’m able to do fun things again like dance. However, to avoid writing a long post to answer your question, I have another idea....
In January 2019 Richard featured my story in his blog post about “success stories.” This was so exciting! So, I’m thinking it will be simplest if you can check it out that blog post.
http://savingmyknees.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-success-story-of-overcoming-knee-pain.html?m=1
And. My update is that my knee has continued to do well all through 2019 and in January I have started .... taking even more dance lessons. LOL! I feel like I’m “dance starved” after my knee has prevented me from dancing since 2006. So. I have a LOT of dancing to do to catch up! :)
(I am trying to be smart about it though. I try to leave a “rest day” in between dance days to give my knees and chance to recover — just in case they were thinking about having a flare up.)
Best wishes to you in 2020.
Thanks for your response, Knee Pain! I will definitely go back and read your story from last January. How wonderful that you can dance again. Having to give up dancing has been one of my biggest regrets about injuring my knee.
DeleteCheers,
Pax
Happy holidays y'all!
ReplyDeleteI've shared my story several times on this blog: I suffer from an overuse injury in my left knee. For four years I've had daily diffuse burning and aching under and around my kneecap that seems to have been caused by overdoing it with the hill-running and mileage. I stopped running entirely when the symptoms started, but by then it was too late. The cause of the pain is elusive. X-rays, MRIs, and arthroscopy have revealed no "smoking gun". During the arthroscopy the surgeon excised a small piece of inflamed synovial tissue, which improved the burning pain when flexing my knee, but didn't cure the problem. The follow-up muscle strengthening and stretching regimen did nothing but exacerbate my symptoms. An elastic knee sleeve with a hole cut out for the patella has significantly helped reduce irritation from day-to-day activities like gardening and house cleaning, etc., but that (and lots of slow walking on even surfaces) is the only concrete thing I've found that makes any difference.
I've arrived at the conclusion that the doctors don't really know what's causing my pain, and they've acknowledged as much. So I have to be my own advocate and think outside the box. I've decided to dedicate this year to trying some unconventional methods like acupuncture, diet changes, and kinesiology. There's something that's keeping the tissues around my kneecap chronically irritated, and I'm determined to figure out what it is through trial and error. Everything in my knee is structurally sound, and the doctors are telling me I don't have arthritis, so theoretically there's no reason why I can't get better.
If anyone has had success with the therapies I mentioned above, please share!
Cheers,
Pax
Read my post above. What you have sounds exactly like synovial inflammation. I tried all those unconventional therapies you list and none of them worked. The only thing that worked was following a Dr Dye type of protocol:
Delete- stop doing what irritates & stay within envelope of function
- anti-inflams to control the inflam
- icing
- gentle knee movements
- time & an incredible amount of patience
- be prepared to fail and try again multiple times
BTW as I live in Australia I never saw Dr Dye, but just reading his papers & watching his videos online was enough to get me on the right track.
Hi TriAgain. Thanks for your response. I definitely think my pain is an issue with the soft tissues under or around my kneecap--possibly the synovium, possibly something else (tendons? bursae? retinaculum?). However, I'm hesitant to call it an "inflammatory" condition per se. I don't have any of the hallmark symptoms of joint inflammation (swelling, redness, warmth). Also, I've read that synovial inflammation is typically not an injury/disease in and of itself, but rather a secondary condition connected to some systemic problem like rheumatoid arthritis or autoimmune disease, which I don't suffer from. Plus, only my left knee is affected, which is unusual for inflammatory disease. Because of these things, and because there's disagreement within the medical community about what "inflammation" actually is, I prefer to think of this as an issue of chronic irritation. (When talking about my synovectomy above I know I used the term "inflamed", but the way the surgeon described it was actually a piece of tender, abnormally thickened tissue that was getting pinched when I flexed my knee).
DeleteI'm very familiar with Dr Dye's model and find it a refreshing alternative to the tired old muscle strengthening and stretching advice that has failed so many of us. However, I don't find his "envelope of function" advice to be completely convincing. It is impossible for me to avoid irritating activities because everything is irritating, even mundane daily life activities. To stay within my "envelope of function" according to Dye's model, I would have to lie in bed all day (I actually tried this and it made my knee worse because it got so stiff). For four years I have eliminated all activities that cause my symptoms to flare above base-line, but that hasn't changed anything. No improvement whatsoever. That is what's made me feel adventurous in seeking unconventional treatments. I don't have much to lose. TriAgain, if you have any additional insights or advice for me I would be glad to hear it.
Cheers,
Pax
Hi Pax
DeleteI too could not stay within my envelope of function (partly due to life getting in the way, partly due to chronic impatience), hence eventually went the 6mths on anti-inflams route (Celebrex) which broke the cycle after about 5yrs.
My knees never swelled either, but they did get hot and red around the kneecaps. I did not have any other systemic problem that was diagnosed (I was tested for RA).
I'm not sure about the distinction between irritation and inflammation. In my experience, all irritation involves a degree of inflammation?
Of the alternative treatments you mention, I probably never tested diet change enough. Acupuncture was sort of relaxing, though he put the needles in my elbows as apparently they are on the meridian for the knees ?????
Kinesiology was pure witchdoctor BS IMO, may as well go out in the garden and burn three $100 notes! - it was all about the power of placebo as I saw it, and placebo was never going to work on me. He concluded I had an iron deficiency and put me on iron tablets - which did zip. If you want to know how he concluded that, I can elaborate, but is was laughable.
Thanks for sharing these details, TriAgain. I've tried over the counter ibuprofen but it didn't seem to do anything. I've thought about trying a prescription strength anti-inflammatory, but I worry about the risks of long-term use.
DeleteAs for kinesiology, my hope is that a well-trained practitioner might be able to identify a maladaptive movement pattern or leg-length discrepancy or something like that that might explain the persistence of the irritation. One of my concerns with Dr Dye's approach is that it doesn't seem to place much importance on addressing the underlying cause of the knee inflammation/irritation. My understanding of his model is that knees get stuck in a chronic state of pain once the tissues get irritated, and the best way to get "unstuck" is to rest the tissues, and then over time the knee becomes less sensitive. This sounds perfectly reasonable. But what about in cases like mine where I've avoided all flare-causing activities and yet years have gone by with no improvement? I feel like there must be some underlying cause for the pain that I've failed to detect and address. It may even be that, yes, after years of minimal use my left leg muscles are atrophied and need to be built back up to provide proper stability. The muscle-strengthening exercises are irritating, but maybe I need to just endure that. I think it's unlikely that I'm going to see improvement from more resting. I'm at the point where I have to make the difficult choice: do nothing or do something that risks making things worse?
Cheers,
Pax
Hi Pax
DeleteI should elaborate on the kinesiologist. Mine (recommended by a top triathlon coach) described himself as an 'applied kinesiologist' He did not look at movement at all. He had me hold my arms out and resist while he pushed them down, putting different foods under my tongue. For some foods, he would not resist much at all and declare 'look, that food makes you strong', but I could tell it was all trickery. It might work for some people based on the power of persuasion, but not me. It would have been funny if it had not cost me $300 and a trip to Brisbane which is 600kms away!
Regarding anti-inflammatories. It is a common theme in knee pain threads that people are worried about the impacts of long-term use. I get that, but frankly after 5+ yrs of pain and a life not worth living, I was happy to try them as per Dr Dye's protocols and they were the only thing that broke the inflammation cycle for me (Celebrex). Over the counter ibuprofen did not work for me. I had no side-effects what so ever from Celebrex, and even if I did, it would have been worth it to get the result I did.
My synovium was so chronically inflammed, pretty much all movement kept it that way, so avoiding flaring activities did not work for me either. Pure rest I never really tried, but I would always walk for 15-20mins (easy, flat) every morning to maintain some movement.
After a few months on Celebrex, I was able to start strengthening work, specifically deadlifts as part of a 20-25min circuit which also involved upper body work. I've never done deadlifts before, but they really are probably the best all-round body strengthening exercise you can do without over-working your quads - they get your hips, glutes, hammies, quads a little, core. They helped further take the load off my knees by building stabilising muscles (esp. hips, glutes, hammies). My deadlifts were 3 sets of 10 with 40-50kg.
In fact I think quad-focused exercises are 100% wrong for people with PFS, though I can now do some (kettle bell swings, wall squats). I'd never do 1 leg squats however, not even now - too much force thru the knee joint.
cheers, TriAgain
Knee Post
DeleteHi Pax, TriAgain,
Like you Pax I am very much 'stuck' in a situation where pretty much any daily life activities cause pain or a flare up. I injured my knees three years ago from skiing where I repetitively went from a sitting position on the back of the my skis to standing (with all the pivot force being pushed through my knees). My best way of explanation of what then happened is to follow Richard Bedard's story however instead of stopping to address it I ignored it and played sport quite intensively, followed by one leg squats to ‘strengthen the quads’ at about 2 years in. That was the final straw and since then it’s been pretty high level chronic aching that’s led to me stopping working.
I had a few telephone consultations with Dr Dye and, like you, am a little frustrated when being told “stay within your envelope and do whatever it takes to be pain free” when just walking around the house and general rest is painful. Also I’m dubious as to some of his recommendations as under his guidance I got a steroid injection and noticed nothing at all. I too am reticent to try anti-inflammatories for an extended period, and after talking to Dr Dye I did try ibuprofen for 2 months before switching to a curcumin extract as I was worried about the health issues associated with long term use of ibuprofen. Neither of them have really helped. Having read what TriAgain has said about their experience I am thinking of going to the GP to start celebrex long term, but again, the question of would this work if a steroid injection didn’t affect it?!
I’ve seen pain specialists who’ve set me on capsaicin cream for some local sensitisation, and who wants to give a sympathetic lower lumbar chain injection (basically an epidural) but this is going to cost a smooth £1100 which I’m not too keen on going for given it’s for nerve related pain (which granted I think I have) and not going to specifically help my joint which is the basis of the pain.
Acupuncture - I had a few sessions but didn’t really feel it was helping and it was all very static just lying on a bed with needles in my leg, toes and hands! What has helped in the past was more dynamic needling from a physio who used it to loosen muscles in my hip and back so it might be an idea to pursue this.
Osteopath - this has helped in the past when they loosened my popliteus muscle (any physio should be able to do this too).
Supplements - glucosamine, msm, chondroitin I have just started taking these so yet to find out.
Quad exercises - 100% agree with TriAgain here, one leg squats are what tipped me over the edge in my condition and I’ve since (rather naively and foolishly) tried split squats as recommended by my physio. Again, this causes about a five week flare up a few months ago, but on the positive side meant I stumbled upon Richard’s ebook and from here Kelsey’s book too. Both of which I think are very helpful in framing what is going on and that low load high repetition movement is critical!
Continued in next comment...
Continued...
DeleteIn all honesty, I don’t think I can truly say to myself I have given a full-hearted effort at sticking to the plan advocated by Richard and Dr Kelsey (the arthritis book Richard recommends), that is gentle movement and not exceeding what your joint is capable of. I am trying now to do this better (hourly intervals of 300 steps or so with small movements in between) though it’s still so difficult as just a journey to see a specialist is enough to exceed my envelope or sitting still for 30 minutes with legs straight (legs bent in a normal seated position hurts in 10 seconds and really exacerbated my symptoms over the first 2 years so that’s an important one to avoid for me).
To put a little of that in to context, I am 27 and, like you I have had multiple scans with all clear signs from MRIs (though a SPECT-CT did show tracer uptake (“hot” as it’s known) specifically at the tibial tuberosity but Dr Dye and others have said without mechanical evidence of anything out of line there’s not much to do about this.
As you say for yourself, in theory, I should be able to heal and I am going to do my best to increase gentle movement as from experience resting alone is definitely not helpful.
Sorry for the long message but thought it might help to have someone in a similar situation share their story here.
Matthew
Hi Matthew. Thanks for sharing your story. What a frustrating condition to have to deal with at such a young age. I was 40 four years ago when my knee pain from running started, and I think age was definitely a factor because I ran track and cross-country in high school and then ran recreationally in my 20s and 30s without any knee problems.
DeleteThat's interesting that you think your pain may be nerve-related. I've wondered the same thing about myself--if my lower back may be involved.
Here are the things that have provided me with some relief:
Partial synovectomy
Avoiding sitting for long periods with my knee bent
Swimming in lieu of cycling and weight-bearing cardio
Elastic compression sleeve with a hole for the patella
Lots of slow walking on even surfaces
Icing
Good luck to you and keep us posted on your progress!
Cheers,
Pax
Hi Pax, yes I think the nerve or central sensitisation element is definitely something that creeps in when one deals with the chronic aspect of the knee injuries that most of the readers here talk of. Ironically, one of the best remedies for it is exercise (I suppose this is where something like swimming has come into play for many people). I actually did manage to get a scan of my back as I've always had lower back problems (fairly minor) and fortunately this was clear (i.e. no pressing on nerves).
DeleteSounds like you've had a frustrating few years as well, out of interest have you tried the high repetition low load for an extending period of time? I'm aiming for about 6 walks a day of 800 steps or so at the moment.
I'm going to start on celebrex as championed by TriAgain and see if that can give me a leg up onto recovery road.
Likewise, keep us posted!
Cheers,
Matthew
I'm an advocate of the high-repetition/low-load model. My knee tends to feel best when I'm doing lots of gentle, non-irritating movement. The challenge is to figure out how to incorporate that more regularly into my day-to-day life. When I go on vacation and walk, walk, walk all day long for site-seeing, by the end of the week my knee feels better than ever (Richard describes having the same experience in his book). But that's obviously not something I can do as my normal routine because of work, life demands, etc. I have Doug Kelsey's book and should go back and re-read it for some suggestions on this.
DeleteCheer,
Pax
I've posted my story on here before as QSTEW and chatted with Matthew on another site. I wanted to post an article I came across, you can read it here:
Deletehttps://www.patellofemoral.org/pfoe/PDFs/VICENTE_2.pdf
To summarize the authors findings, they hypothesize that the lateral retinaculae could play an important role. They agree with Dye and others (Paul Ingraham) that malalignment is not the cause or source of the pain. They summarize that specific unloading (aka staying in the envelope of function) but also medications that affect neural pain transmission could be on interest. When I look this up it comes up with antidepressants which is used for other chronic pain syndromes. However, I don't know if the side effects would be severe, the dosage is suppose to be lower. I guess I wanted to post these findings since I'm coming up on a couple years with AKP and have been sticking to approaches you guys do as well but considering whether medications could get me over the hump however both Celebrex and ADs could come with some serious side effects.
They also had findings that anoxia or ischemia (lack of blood flow) could contribute to the lack of healing or cause the movie goers pain. Yet they say that icing could exasperate symtpoms, although some find relief with it on here.
I will comment that the psychosocial side could also contribute to the reduced pain during vacation since I've had similar effects - change of environment, reduced stress, distractions, etc.
Anyway, interested to hear your guys' opinions on the article or what I've posted. I plan on sticking to my envelope as best as I can (bought a fitbit to make sure I walk enough while at work and switch to standing occasionally) also might try to stick to a Keto or eliminate most sugars/gluten from my diet. I have a feeling the majority of pain relief from these diet changes is more to do with weight loss (which I'm not overweight) as shedding lbs does equate to multiple lbs off your knees.
Pax - what was your recovery period from the synovectomy? how much pain relief do you think it offered? was it worth it?
QSTEW
Hi QSTWE. Thanks for the link. I have been following Sanchis-Alfonso's work for several years now. I find him to be the most comprehensive, objective, and persistent researcher out there today on chronic anterior knee pain. I like how open-minded he his, instead of sticking to one dogmatic model. When I read his studies, however, I do have to confess I come away feeling a bit overwhelmed by his "It could be this, or it could be this, or it could be this, or it could be all of those things" conclusions (except that he does a great service by unequivocally opposing the dubious trend of surgeries for "correcting alignment").
DeleteTo answer your question about my synovectomy: Recovery was quick and not a big deal. Purely from a pain standpoint, it definitely helped. Before, I experienced burning pain with ANY amount of sitting. Going to the movies and the like was out of the question if there wasn't a way for me to elevate my leg, and sitting through work meetings was a misery. I still have some discomfort with knee flexion, but it's less severe and takes longer to develop than before the surgery. So it helped, but did not "cure" the problem." Also, it did nothing to improve the pain I felt (and continue to feel) during weight-bearing activities that involve large amounts of knee-load or pivoting movements). Also, sometimes I wonder what kind of long-term side-effects can be caused by a synovectomy (i.e. one of the roles of the synovium is to cushion the joint, and if you remove part of it, do you reduce the cushioning effect, possibly leading to a worsening of symptoms down the road?). In retrospect I should have asked more questions. But the short answer is that two years after the surgery, I feel better off than I was before the surgery.
Cheers,
Pax
QSTEW, quick answer from experience I went on amytriptaline 10mg a day for three months (anti-depressant in 40mg+ doses) but I don't think this did anything for me. There were no noticeable side effects at all though either.
DeleteI've just started celebrex 200mg a day and plan to start gabapentin (similar to amytriptaline) as maybe a different type will help me. This is also the type Dr Dye seems to recommend and have experience with but I don't think there is much between them.
Unfortunately I've just recently had signs of peripheral neuropathy coming on with numbness, tingling and discolouration/bloodflow problems in my foot of the affected leg. I'm intrigued whether anybody else in this forum has suffered from similar things, as far as I can tell I seem to be the only one with starting signs of CRPS and other fairly serious nerve issues alongside the chronic knee pain and inflammation.
I'm going to go for the sympathetic lumbar injection that I previously noted along with the other medications I'm on as it seems to be getting rather serious! Probably should have listened to the specialists I saw 6 months ago rather than thinking I can beat it all myself...
Thanks for posting the article as well, it certainly makes some powerful points backed up by study about the interlinking problems of ischemia, innervation etc.
On the synovectomy note, just as a word of caution as this was noted to me as a serious barrier to me getting such a procedure, if you do have any signs of nerve irritation or hypersenstivity (discolouration in the form of purple/orange mottled appearance for example) it could be a very risky thing to do as nerves will be on high alert and may keep that way following any outside irritation like that. Just be aware of the surgeon you deal with and his 'care' level.
All the best!
Matthew
Just thought it might be useful to get some updates from various people on this chain as they (we) seem to be the quintessential chronic knee pain sufferers with quite a lot of experience mixed in.
DeletePax - you mentioned you were making the difficult decision to push through and commit to more walking and exercise or continue down the rest route in December - any updates on how this has gone would be useful. Happy to provide my story for the past six months also which hasn't gone far but going to aim for the increased walking route once I'm satisfied I've recovered from a recent op.
Cheers,
Matthew
My knee is better. I hurt it years ago. Exercises didn’t help. So I stopped and the knee is better. I’m taking Jamison collagen + turmeric. I’ve been taking it for 2 months. It may also be the reason I’m feeling better. I often wear an elastic knee support for part of the day.
ReplyDeleteI usually swim 10 laps 3 X a week. Not sure if that helps or not. Sometimes my knee hurts after swimming.
All in all, I do feel better. Glad to have this forum.
Please send details on Dr. Dye. There are so many Dr. Dyes!
ReplyDeleteDr Scott F Dye in the US. Sadly, he has retired but you can pretty much get all you need to know from these vids:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fybd4MZe3jk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGLisqHx8sM
Also some more info here:
http://aoj.amegroups.com/article/view/4438/5056
And you can Google much more from him.
I think he uses bone scans to detect loss of tissue homeostasis? MRIs etc. will not.
In a nutshell, his protocol for chronic inflammation of the knee structures (i.e mostly the synovial lining) is usually:
1. Stop doing what aggravates - stay within your envelope of function - though this can be almost impossible if your envelope is very very small like mine was.
2. An anti-inflam injection into the knee to kick things off (I think he uses something called Kenalog?). I never had this though.
3. A long-term course of oral anti-inflams to keep the inflammation at bay. This was the secret to my success once I convinced my GP I should try it - he was very open to the idea luckily as everything else had failed and I'd seen numerous experts in Australia.
4. When things have started to settle, slowly, slowly.....ever so slowly! reintroduce various movements (e.g. gentle walks). I must admit, I never quit my short daily walks though and did them before, during & after getting on the Celebrex.
5. If this goes well, slowly, slowly, ever so slowly introduce strengthening exercises, but only very simple ones. Physios who prescribe single leg squats for PFS sufferers should be de-registered IMO!
6. Expect setbacks, lots of them. Expect lots of trial and error. Keep the faith. If things go bad, back right off and try again, try something different, maybe less.
7. If you problem is as bad as mine was, expect years of recovery. BUT, having said that, I got enormous relief within months. It just took a long time to get back to normal (and I'm really only 80-90% there, but I'll take that!).
TryAgain I am so happy to read your posts. Your list of symptoms sound exactly like what I am experiencing in the left knee. I will look for Dr Dye's work and try getting Celebrex from the GP (really resent going to GP's). I live in Melbourne Australia
DeleteGood luck suezan. Just be smarter than me and once you get on the Celebrex, don't try to push the knee too far too fast (i.e. nothing strenuous for prob 3-4mths). Probably just gentle walking, knee swingers & (if you are into swimming like me), swim but with minimal kick. I used a pool buoy between thighs and ankle band to reduce kicking to basically zero. Still get a good aerobic workout, but just upper body & the pool buoy means you keep a good body position in the water (i.e. legs & butt don't sink).
DeleteSome people get gut problems from Celebrex & they will also want to test your liver & kidney function while on it as it can cause probs there, but I had no issues at all.
Hi Richard and all.I wish you all a great 2020!I would like to thank you and everyone that shares their experiences here. Thanks to this blog and your book, i now believe that one day I will be able to have a normal life and return to do the things I love without pain. My knee problems started 8 months ago so I am still trying to figure out what works for me. I know it will take time but at least now I have hope. I wish us all a great year, with stronger and healthy knees.
ReplyDelete