For a little while now I've been struggling with severe knee pain at night. The pain has caused me to lose a great many hours of sleep over the last 4 weeks and my weight loss has come to grinding halt as a result. I've done my best to not let my knee be an excuse, but that hasn't stopped me from losing my momentum.
Since then I've been looking for something, anything to use as a catalyst to get me back on track. Today I might have found it...
This morning I had an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. The guy was great and we had a conversation about my knee pain and my x-rays. The good news is that there is no signs of major damage and he suspects it's just an arthritis flare-up. He gave me a cortisone injection that he says should allow me to start getting some decent rest again.
The bad news... I'm 42 years old and have arthritis in my knee. I'm too young for regular cortisone injections so he told me I could only have one. I didn't realize the injections actually accelerate arthritis so you can't just go on forever getting injections.
The doctor firmly believes that my lack of sleep is preventing me from healing properly from this flare-up; this one injection should make me better and then I have to just take care of my knees.
After he gave me the injection we talked about what I need to do moving forward. In a nutshell my only option is to lose weight. There are no pills, no treatment, no special exercises; nothing, but to lose weight. He told me that when I go up and down the stairs I'm putting 8X my weight onto my knees. If I can lose the 100 pounds I'm shooting for, then that would mean 800 pounds less stress on my knees!
So step #1 is to get a good night's sleep tonight. Then I get up in the morning and start fresh toward taking 800 pounds off my knees. 127 Days are in the books, on to Day 128.
-Stay Strong!
I hope the cortisone helps. I had a shot in my shoulder once and it did reduce the pain enough that I could cope with the intense physio I needed. So you should be able to get some more sleep - but with me it actually hurt a bit more for maybe two days before it settled down so be aware that can happen.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be true that no amount of medication can counter an unhealthy lifestyle. But isn't it lucky that the answer is so "simple" (ha). Totally under our control. Hard yes, but under our control.
Hi I've been following you for a while without commenting. Maybe my experience will help give you some extra options, I have early stage arthritus in my knees - I'm 52, and have been overweight/obese all my life so the wear and tear does add up but the only way I can loose weight is with exercise plus diet - sods law!. What helps keep my knees pain free (since the first twinges doing aerobics in my mid 20's) is daily starflower oil (gama linoeic acid) 2 capsuels, high strength fish oil (epa/dha) and 2 Glucosamine/MSM/chondratin tablets plus keeping moving - at least 3500 steps a day, and avoiding high impact exercise. If I miss any of these my knees start being very painful climbing any sort of steps. I'm in the UK but I'm sure you can get the same things in the US.
ReplyDeleteHoping you get pain free
Janet
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHope you will be pain free soon and then on with the plan to go Downwards ...weight wise.
ReplyDeleteTake Care - Look after yourself
All the best Jan