When it's pitch black all around, and there is no light source within reach, it can be rather terrifying to say the least.
One impression I got reading recent comments: a lot of people out there are struggling, and they're scared about what an uncertain future holds for them and their hurting knees. They see darkness all around and don't know where the light will come from.
What do you tell people in that situation? Well, first, I must admit to a weakness of mine: I'm not really a rah-rah kind of guy. I'm a poor cheerleader. I'm naturally skeptical and scrutinize and think about claims of knowledge and rightness carefully.
But, in a way, I suppose that makes me a better "cheerleader." I'm not falsely pushing some snake oil. I stand behind things I believe in (but am open to the fact that my beliefs may be wrong, though you have to prove that to me, too).
So what is it important for people to remember when they feel like their life is being ruled by the misery of knee pain, and their plight will never improve?
First, it can get better. Not that it will. You have to work hard at healing knees. There's a lot of sliding around, going forwards and backwards, and sometimes not knowing why, and it becomes hard to resist that temptation to throw your arms up in the air and say, "None of this makes sense; I'll never get better."
Second, the amount of patience you need is truly Job-ian. There are people on this forum who have spent years (and not one or two years either, but a lot more than that) figuring out this puzzle of their knee pain, only to finally triumph (more or less) over it. I'm grateful they're part of this community.
Third, you have to commit to doing something. And that something is movement, of some kind. I really believe that inactive joints are soon-to-be-dead joints. You have to move, but it has to be the right kind, and the right amount. I don't like the gung ho, never-been-injured therapists exhorting patients to push, push, push, and suck up the pain.
Fourth, you need to nurture hope, optimism, belief, like a fragile sprout sunk into a hostile soil. One way to help do this is not to become knee obsessive (says the man who was definitely knee obsessive!). If your mind is in a good place, that will help in healing. Laugh at a comedy. Enjoy a friendship. Tell someone you love them. Get out of your own skin, your own worried mind, for a little while.
Anyway, just a few simple thoughts today. Remember the saying, "it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." That's what we're trying to do here, light candles. Happy wishes to all!
There were times in my 5-6 year journey where I was sure I'd have to put up with the horrible burning knee pain for the rest of my life. To be honest, I was not sure I could do that. Dual amputation above the knees crossed my mind.
ReplyDeleteBut occasionally, I'd find stories about someone who had recovered, and that gave me hope. Now that I have recovered, I'd really like to add to the store of hope for people going through this knee pain nightmare.
As Richard said, progress was not a linear journey. There were many times I made a little progress, then went back to square one. But finally after following the protocol of Dr Scott Dye (as my own research led me to the conclusion I had chronic knee synovitis), I found the solution.
TriAgain - Could you remind me of your plan again? I reaggravated mine doing stupid lunges and then found out 10 months later I had undiagnosed Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
DeleteHi Josh
DeleteThere is no doubt I had some cartilage damage (meniscus, back of patella) but my main problem - undiagnosed by numerous experts - was chronic inflammation of the synovial lining in both knees. Even the most benign movements would keep things inflammed.
The only way I could get on top of it was by 5-6 months on the prescription anti-inflammatory Celebrex, then very very carefully strengthening the leg supporting structures (hips, glutes, core etc.) but not with a quad/VMO-focus which most experts are fixated on.
There was still a lot of up and down, but the Celebrex allowed me to progress to a point where I could stop taking it.
Even so, I still iced regularly when things felt a bit twitchy, probably for another few years. And I avoided exercises which I knew could take me backwards (e.g. squats with anything other than bodyweight. Lunges have always been out for me).
TriAgain - Can you do weighted squats and bike uphills again? My knees are so inflamed that even basic walking right now more than 10 minutes is terrible. What do you recommend? I need to ask about Celebrex too!
DeleteI've never done weighted squats, even before my knees went badly south.
DeleteYes, I can bike uphills, even on gnarly MTB single track.
And yes, at my worst, pretty much everything including flat walking made my inflamed knees worse.
Despite all the concern about prescription anti-inflammatories, they were the only thing that got me on the path to a cure & I had no side-effects. I simply could not drop everything (work etc.) as Richard did for 12mths. That might have worked also, but was not an option for me.
Thank you I'll do the same!
DeleteKeep posting you give me hope!
ReplyDeleteCymbalta helped me a lot...it doesnt have the serious anti-inflammatory effect if you have concerns about that..It's more about the pain signal from the knees to the brain
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea --- Thanks!
DeleteRichard: I used your book once to get better from this Chrondomalacia curse. I jumped the gun a year ago and did a set of bodyweight lunges when my knees were not ready. Re-injured everything! However, according to my SportMed Dr. the cartilage looked better on the MRI than from the first time. I think I just hammered the articular cartilage and set up a inflammation firestorm. Did you have elbow tendinitis?? How about nerve flareups in the legs and feet -- numbness, burning? My back MRI like yours was negative; same with the Rheumatoid and Lyme Tests.
ReplyDeleteTriAgain- I hate to keep bothering you, but when you were in the accute/inflammatorystage (where walking on flat surfaces was impossible), what did you do for movement? I remember you took Celebrex for 6 months, hip/glute/core strengthening, but what else? I read Richard's book and was on the way out of it after 2 years and with stupid bodyweight lunges re-aggravated everything. The MRI was unchanged (not for sure how), but it has been a year of knee popping and nerve pain hell! I even have nerve inflammation hit the underside of my foot. I can do the standard PT crap plus some easy exercise bike cycling and that is it. I can't walk beyond 45 minutes in the morning (including at home). I don't see anyway out of this and would love to hear ideas if you could sir. Thanks JH
ReplyDeleteNo bother at all mate. We need to help each other through this nightmare. I was always able to walk, but before I got on Celebrex, even that was not good afterwards. But I always walked about 15-20mins every morning. Longer walks were worse.
DeleteI could never do the PT stuff or even easy cycling however, not until I got the inflammation down with the meds.
Thank you sir! I am on Celebrex now and am going to follow your path.
DeleteI'm celebrating the one-year anniversary of my latest knee rehab this week with a major set back. By major I mean that my knee scores have dropped to the level they where three months ago and my life is again more limited. So what caused this setback? I overdid it big time. I cycled outdoors my maximum capacity of indoors cycling (approx 1 hour) and walked over 12 000 steps (also my max capacity) during the same day. This was not the first time I cycled outdoors though. I have been mixing training on an exercise bike and outdoors cycling for some time now but combined with walking it was too much this time.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading all those messages by Knee Pain & other people who wrote often to this blog telling about their setbacks and about overdoing it once again. And I admit that I wondered where does such overconfidence come. Now I know. I honestly thought that my knees would agree with the load during that day. They had been so great for some time and I had been increasing my steps and cycling regularly.
What did I do when I sensed that things have gone south? I got my crutches back from the storage and used them on and off during one week I could not otherwise reduce my step count. I have been more on my exercise bike and cycling less outdoors. Mentally I'm ok considering the circumstances. I'm frustrated and disappointed but not panicking. And here I come to the topic of this post. First of all, I have my knee and load scores from one years time to comfort me. I know where I have been and how much I have been able to walk and I'm confident that I can get there again. It might take time, hopefully not the three months though, but I'll get there. The only thing I'm doing differently this time is no taking the kind of risk I took when overloading my knee, and also when things seem to get better I will add some exercises Doug Kelsey and Laurie Kertz Kelly recommend. For the second, I'm getting help for my knee related anxiety. I remember an old post of Richard going through chondromalacia DOs and DON'Ts and the readers were warned against becoming med heads. While I totally agree that we should not just block the pain and keep on living as we did before knee pain we should be open - with our doctors - to consider if we would benefit from some sort of medication, obviously depending on our specific knee issue and general wellbeing. For many of us meditating, crafts, dedicating our time for helping others, meeting friends, good physiotherapist etc. can be enough to keep us together during the very trying and long time rehabbing our knees. For some no amount of relaxing breathing will take the anxiety away. I'm one of them. If your knee situation makes you utterly hopeless and miserable you might benefit from therapy, medication or both.
I'm not advocating medication as a solution to the knee problems - there I trust the low load high rep approach more than anything - but to be able to have the courage and energy to push through the setbacks and insecurity we need to be relatively balanced.
Thank you for sharing Honeyblush..i hope you keep improving
DeleteThis gives excellent insights into this dreadful journey and I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say. Hoping you are recovering from your setback.
DeleteHello everyone! Been reading this blog for many years ( since 2018) and I went through so me ups and downs and recently a slight down. ( nothing like thinking you’re done with knee pain and then doing a bunch of stairs and walking at once to get a flare!).
ReplyDeleteI just wanna say I have more tools right now thanks to all those years of knee pain! And thanks to all of you and Richard for your book!
I’m reading this as I do ‘ knee slides’ like the ‘ good PT’ recommended. Forgot his name but he’s the author a book on Knee OA and Richard often mentions him on this blog.
Safe healing everyone! And keep up the hope! ❤️