Last night, after dinner, I repaired to my study with CoCo, my antisocial cat (she loves me, but wants me all to herself–she’s hostile to all the other cats). I was reading my subscribers’ emails, as I usually do, and answering questions, as they came up.
One question that I’ve been asked pretty frequently is from people who have already had some type of knee surgery. But they still have pain. So, they wonder, not unreasonably, if there’s anything they can do to get rid of the pain.
They are usually afraid that they’ve burned all bridges, because they’ve had the surgery, whether it be an arthroscopic procedure, or a full total knee replacement. Since the ideas behind having a surgery is that it fix the problem, whether that be just pain, or functional stability of the joint, if problems remain, they naturally fear that there’s nothing else to be done.
Fortunately, that’s NOT the case.
Back in the day, when I was the regional expert in these procedures on Long Island, New York, patients came from far and wide to see me for such situations. I was sort of “the Court of Last Resort.” There was me, or there was New York City.
Now, of course, there are quite a few fellowship trained joint experts on the Island. But back then, other than the Chairman and Professor at Stony Brook, I was pretty much it (and the only one in private practice).
Thanks to my training at the New England Baptist Hospital, in Boston, where I did my fellowship in joint reconstruction, I had been taught to utilize extensive physical therapy (read, exercise) to get the most from my surgical patients. And I carried that into my own practice, on my own patients, too.
My approach was simple. I had my patients work every single day for a week after any procedure, to get a rapid return of motion of the postsurgical joint, especially the knees. Only after they had obtained a superior range of motion did I cut back a bit to three times a week for resistance exercises.
That’s because resistance training builds muscle, but it needs recovery time to do that. So I always gave them at least a day off in between training sessions.
But I discovered that if they got their motion back quickly, they healed better, with less swelling, much less pain and a much better result. That’s why I had them work every day, for the first week.
It was so striking a difference that physical therapists always knew, before asking, whether the new patient was from me, or one of my colleagues. First, the wound was always a hairline (I did a lot of Plastic Surgical training and used it on my wounds) and second, they always came with a detailed physical therapy plan, that specified their diagnosis, the surgery they had and which specific exercises they were to have.
By contrast, most of my colleagues, even those in the City, would either send their patients home with a Xeroxed few pages of exercises to do on their own, or a therapy prescription that simply said: “P.T.” They actually left what exercises the patient needed up to the therapist! Unbelievable. I never understood that.
Surgery creates potential. But to realize that potential, you need to do the specific exercises, for motion and strength, that are now in my new, fully illustrated PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD
http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
Not only did this approach make more sense, but it WORKED. And it produced better results-every time.
So, yes, there ARE things that can be done, if you still have pain after knee surgery. And sometimes, they can avoid additional surgery, depending on the cause of the pain.
But there is more.
If these exercises are done prior to a surgical procedure, there is a good chance that you may be able to avoid (or at least delay) the surgery. Even people with advanced arthritis can benefit from strengthening the muscles around the affected joint.
When muscles are strengthened, they share in bearing the load of weight bearing. They also help to stabilize the joint. And the exercises themselves bring healing blood into the joint and surrounding tissues, so they reduce swelling of the joint itself and the soft tissues and reduce inflammation.
Used in conjunction with various anti-inflammatory measures, exercise can give painful, worn joints a new lease on life. In fact, it is the best treatment for long term control of knee pain that exists.
I’m a perfect example. After my own arthroscopic knee surgery in 2005, I did my own physical therapy. I worked hard to get my knee to bend, as soon as I could, just as I had prescribed for my patients for so many years. I worked hard to get it to fully straighten (often more difficult and more painful to achieve than bending).
And, just as in my patients, I worked after the first week with resistance exercises, like straight leg raising, quad setting and various squats, to strengthen my thigh and calf muscles. The end result was so good that the exercises helped me avoid surgery on the opposite knee, too, which had similar symptoms. And I haven’t needed any additional knee surgery since. At present, my knees no longer spontaneously hurt, at all.
So, when I say I KNOW that these knee pain exercises work, I’m saying that on the basis of personal, first hand experience. So, if you have knee pain, try this proven effective program. Exercise is the perfect prescription for knee pain. Can’t hurt and it might very well help. Click this link NOW, for yours:
http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
That’s it for today, my friend. Til next time, be well.
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,
Dr. Bill
“The Wellness Warrior” TM
