Let me tell you a story about Jim... Jim is a 68-year-old retired business owner from Waukesha, who has two grandchildren and loves nothing more than being outdoors with his three dogs in his spare time visiting new places. In his mid-50’s Jim damaged his knees climbing a lot of hills. He wasn’t alarmed at first, but when his knees didn’t seem to get any better, he found himself restricted by the pain which meant he couldn’t get outside of a weekend to walk with his dogs like he once did. At first, he went to see his doctor – they just prescribed him some pain medication and a few weeks of rest. A month on, and there was still no improvement, so Jim booked another appointment with his doctor, who again advised more rest and to avoid walking for more than 10 minutes at a time for at least a few more weeks. But his knees didn’t improve.
Jim was still restricted by the pain, so much so that even walking around the house was becoming difficult to do. A few months passed, and he was beginning to wonder if his knee pain would ever heal, especially as the doctor’s recommendations didn’t seem to be helping. He’d had enough and went back to his physician one more time, raising his concerns that something must be able to be done to make life easier as he wasn’t able to even walk 10 minutes down the road with his dogs without being in some pain and having to turn back... He was told his knee cartilage had been damaged from all of the hill climbing he’d been doing for years, and that if moving around the house is hard to do, then maybe he should consider moving from a two-story house to a bungalow. Can you imagine being told that you might have to consider giving up your home and moving somewhere else as a solution to your knee pain and discomfort?! Jim didn’t want to even look into doing that without exploring every other option available to him... He’d had physical therapy once before but was skeptical as the exercises didn’t seem to make much improvement, but when he decided to give Physical therapy another go, we helped show him that life is possible without the curse of annoying knee pain that can rob you of your independence... How? I’ll get onto that in a bit. But first, let me tell you that Jim isn’t the only patient we’ve seen who's been shown to consider moving to a bungalow after being in pain... It’s a common concern for people who have suffered from bad knees for a while. People get scared that they’ll lose all strength, grip, and mobility, mix that together with pain and fatigue, and it becomes increasingly difficult to live independently at home – and who wants that? No one! But do you have to do something as significant as relocate to another home with no stairs? Nope! If you’ve been led to believe that’s your only solution, then you could be missing out on getting back to living the life you deserve. If you don’t use your knees, then eventually they’ll become weak and lose strength, and worse can end up causing you problems further down the line – moving to a home with no stairs will mean you’ll be using your knees a lot less! Not good.
Our knees were made to bend. They’re designed to help us walk, kneel, turn to help us grab objects, walk up and down the stairs – not to stay still and rest all day! (Which is what a lot of people are told to do!) So how did we help Jim get back to living an active life where he could return to taking his dogs out for long walks? We helped him get moving! But we didn’t just give him any old exercises to start... We designed a detailed program specific to him and his needs. We started slow, with gentle walking and strengthening exercises, building him up to using the stairs, walking further for longer, and a combination of massage techniques to ease the pain. So, although it may feel like knee pain is something you’ll have to learn to live with and might not be able to be as active as you once were – that’s not always the case. Don’t just accept rest and taking pain pills as your only solution.
If you or someone you know is suffering from knee pain and you would like some more tips on how to ease it, then have a look through this free report on knee pain
Talk more soon!!
Preston, PT
Click here to get your free copy: https://prestigetherapywellness.lpages.co/knee-and-hip-pain-freebie/
