Knee Pain
When knee pain dictates what you do each day, it can really make your life difficult. However, you do not need to be a slave to that type of pain. There are ways of helping your knees feel better so you can go back to living the life you love. If you have gotten to where your pain calls the shots, it is time to give us a call instead. Here at Epic Healthcare & Physical Medicine, we can help diagnose what is going on with your knee, and then come up with a plan to treat the pain.
Where Do Most Types of Knee Pain Come From?
When knee pain kicks in, it can come from anywhere. You may have fallen down, or you may have simply stepped poorly and twisted your knee accidentally. No matter what caused your knee pain, the fact remains that now you are in pain. The problem is, you need to figure out what caused your pain if you want to treat it most effectively.
If you fall down or get into some type of an accident, then trauma is likely the cause of your knee pain. This means that you will need to rehabilitate your knee if you want the pain to go away. For those who struggle with an ailment that causes their knee pain, then you need to get the ailment under control to minimize the pain. This could be something like an issue with your immune system, or even an ailment like arthritis. Each of these ailments will need different treatments to get under control so your knee pain can also be managed.
You may have knee pain if you are overweight. This puts a lot of excess pressure on your knees when you move around, and can leave them hurting. Losing weight can help with this type of knee pain. In fact, if you even have a small amount of extra weight, losing that weight can help with your pain. Some people have knee pain from repeated activities from work or hobbies. This can be kneeling or squatting for extended periods of time, or even sitting with your knees bent and feet beneath you for too long.
What Types of Treatment Options Do You Have for Knee Pain?
When your knee pain gets to be too much, you need to find relief. This can come from many different options. A lot of people find relief from putting an ice pack or heating pad on their knees. This helps the joint heal up and reduces how much swelling you have.
Braces are a good way to provide stability to the knee as well. Walking around with a brace around the knee gives it strength when otherwise it may be weak. It also helps hold the knee in the right position to feel better for an extended period of time. Physical therapy can help relieve many forms of knee pain, especially those caused by trauma. They often use braces in how they treat the pain, giving you added relief.
Do You Need to Consider Surgery to Relieve Your Knee Pain?
While surgery may be right for certain situations, it is not always the best answer. When something in your knee is broken, such as a torn ligament or a snapped tendon, you need surgery to fix it. However, if your knee pain comes from straining the ligaments or muscles, surgery is not an effective treatment. The same goes for those who want to simply take medication and have their knee feel better. This approach often leaves the knee in more pain, since the medication masks the pain and you use the knee too much. By resting and letting the knee heal naturally, you know you are not overdoing anything. This gives you more relief from pain and better healing overall.
What if More Than One Treatment Relieves Your Knee Pain?
For most of the people who turn to us for help, they have found a few different treatments tend to work best. In these cases, we suggest combining those specific treatments to get the best results. Perhaps you get a lot of relief from things like chiropractic adjustments and knee braces. Then, get both of those treatments together. Have an adjustment, then brace your knee until your next one.
Our experience has shown that when you combine more than one effective treatment, you tend to get more than the sum of those two treatments individually. Figure out which things work best for you, then figure out a regular plan that incorporates all of them. That way, you get the relief you need, and your knee gets to finally start healing the way it should.