Fall has arrived and it is the time people clean up their yard, houses, and roof to prepare for winter. It is also the time of year that I see more knee pain! I want to share some tips for knee pain and a patient story that I hear quite frequently. Nancy gave us permission to share her story.  Let’s see if you can relate to her story.  “I thought my knee pain was just due to age or arthritis. I didn’t want to bother the doctor about it.” Nancy was 62 years old when she came to see us for knee pain and she is a retired nurse. She suffered with knee pain for 3 years before seeking help.  When she could no longer play on the floor with her grand-kids she finally decided she couldn’t just “live” with it! In her words “I had no idea that my knee pain was not the joint but a hamstring issue that was easily resolved with physical therapy! The hands on treatment and the exercises work!  Even if you think nothing can be done – think again!” You see we did a very thorough evaluation to find that her hamstring was more at fault than the knee joint.  We do the same orthopedic tests that orthopedic surgeons do and we are able to diagnosis if it is soft tissue or joint.  Nancy did have an x-ray prior to coming to physical therapy confirming NO arthritis so she was fairly shocked.  However, her doctor was not able… Read More

Over the last 7 weeks we’ve covered a lot on knee pain. I just want to do a quick recap to remind you as we get to the end of this series. We looked at 3 things to know about knee pain including wearing the correct shoes, resting and a simple exercise. We then looked at why knee pain gets worse when you exercise and how to ease it through strengthening. Next we looked at 3 ‘quick fixes’ people think ease knee pain, but don’t. Those things were reaching for the painkillers, resting and wearing a support. We then looked at if knee replacement surgery could be avoided, why knee pain gets worse at night, how to stop arthritis before it stops you and 3 things you could be doing that make knee pain worse. If you’re suffering with any kind of knee pain or swelling, you won’t need me to tell you that it’s “life limiting”. Here are some of the things you would likely be able to enjoy doing again, immediately if you didn’t have knee pain… 1) Waking up in the morning and effortlessly being able to put your own socks and shoes on (without the knee stiffness or sharp pain…). 2) Sitting at work without your knee aching. 3) Taking a long walk with friends and only ending because you’ve decided you fancy a coffee and NOT because your knee is hurting and you’re forced to. 4) Going to bed knowing that you’re finally going to get a good nights… Read More

Got this question sent to me yesterday by a “confused” reader of my newspaper articles suffering with knee pain during exercise… “Hey Jennifer, I’ve been suffering with a pain in my right knee now for a few weeks. What I can’t put my finger on is what I did to make it start in the first place, and even more confusing is that it’s most painful when walking down the stairs, and only comes on 10 minutes into a run. Sometimes it aches, sometimes it feels tender and dull, but I don’t understand why I could run fine before and now I can’t without having to stop after 10 minutes. Can you help?” – Mary, 46, Lacey. There’s a good chance that the same thing is happening to Mary as it does to most people this time of year… And it’s no surprise as we see off the end of Summer and start heading into Fall. This time of year we see more people than ever at Penrose Physical Therapy with painful knees. The reason why? Because it’s around this time of year that people decide to be more active and take things up like running and walking for longer distances, making the most of the nice weather and generally being more active. And even if they’re used to running, people tend to step it up and run a little longer than usual to get ready for upcoming races, sometimes adding in extra running days going… Read More

A few days ago, I was on the phone to one of our regular patient, Lisa, she’s 56 from Lacey and she said… “I was making the most of the Labor Day weekend by visitng Capitol State Forest. I was fine when I got home, but then in the morning when I woke up, my knees had a dull aching pain. At first I thought ‘it’s just an aching knee, I’ve probably overdone it, it’s happened before’… but the pain got worse as the day went on, and it’s still bothering me. My knees ache when I walk, and I’m finding it hard to go up and down the stairs. Any ideas?” Now, this isn’t an uncommon problem, especially not after holiday weekends! And when you consider that 77% of people are more active during holiday weekends, that’s a lot for knees that could potentially become sore. The thing is, many people will put up with bad knees for days, weeks, even months, hoping that the pain will go away on it’s own. But the problem with that is that 9 times out of 10, the pain gets worse and hangs around – which pains me when I know you really don’t have to suffer. So, how about I give you three tips to help you make knee pain much less of a frustration in your life? And even if you don’t go out walking often and suffer from knee pain – these… Read More