About Pain

How bad would you rate your knee problems on a scale 1-10? Ten being the worst?

Does this cause pain or instability?

This is article is written in a case study format for you. We made it this way because you may find yourself relating to one very strongly. Check it out.

Case Study: Treatment For A Injured Knee Ligament

A study of 3 patients, each of whom underwent different treatments for ligament issues, revealed different outcomes to their respective treatments. People have several treatment options available to them when they are suffering from a hurt knee ligament. However, the best option for any individual is determined by taking into consideration several factors.

Patients who present with a hurt ligament often are given the following options:

1.) Physical therapy treatment

2.) Knee surgery

3.) Conservative Treatment

Heather, Dave and Rick were the three patients who all had a hurt knee ligament and who underwent these various treatments.

Dave - Physical Therapy

Dave hurt his knee on the job and went to see his family doctor who referred him to an orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon diagnosed the hurt ligament and advised physical therapy as a way to deal with the pain as well as help to heal his knee problems. He also advised Dave to wear a brace to keep the knee in proper alignment and also to keep it supported. Dave unfortunately developed a dependency on pain medication in previous years and decided against pain killers at this time.

Using a knee support and attending physical therapy really worked well for Dave. He uses the knee brace whenever the knee hurts and continues with the exercises he learned in physical therapy. Each of these treatment methods did work well for him and he was able to refrain from using any pain killers.

Rick - Knee Surgery

Rick was overweight and excessive pressure on the knee had caused him to injury his knee ligaments. His physician suggested that he lose some weight but also offered surgery as a way to repair the damaged ligament. The surgery was expensive and also required a period of rehab. Rick was unable to lose weight despite the surgery and after a short while, found that his knee began to hurt again. He is now treating the matter more conservatively and trying to lose weight.

Anyone who has a hurt knee ligament needs to be examined by a doctor. Have the condition diagnosed and also make sure that any underlying conditions are also addressed at the time of the diagnosis.

Heather - Conservative Treatment

Heather played basketball for her college and hurt her knee one day during a particularly strenuous game. After an examination by her doctor, it was determined that she had a hurt knee ligament. The doctor prescribed an ice pack, rest and pain pills and recommended that she wear a knee brace while walking. After a week of this conservative treatment, Heather felt much better and got right back into the swing of things and even participated in the inter-collegiate basketball championship.

Heather was fortunate; she had youth on her side and no underlying condition to impede the healing of the hurt ligament. The brace really helped to provide meaningful support which gave her back confidence. She knew the brace would help her a lot, but it would not be the magic cure for her knee problems. It did provide great support that helped to promote healing though. It was not nearly as expensive as surgery either! After a short while she was able to heal naturally and praised the brace for helping her to protect against any further injury.

From these three case studies, it is obvious that surgery should not always be the first option when it comes to treatment for a hurt knee ligament. Conservative treatment should be considered first and pain killers should always be discussed with your physician prior to using them. Using a knee brace and doing select (doctor approved) exercises that do not aggravate the condition are the among the best ways to help treat a hurt knee ligament.

Knee Pain

Degenerative knee pain issues are the worst! Do you suffer from this kind of problem?

Degenerative knee pain is a condition that affects millions of Americans every year and can result in progressive, severe deformity of the joint. While there are several different ways to manage this condition, they will not necessarily result in a cure.

Degenerative knee problems are not necessarily curable, but the bright side is that they are not life threatening either. There are plenty of people who have this condition and who go about their lives normally just using a knee brace to support the knee and taking an occasional pain killer to manage the pain.

What Are Some Of The Ways To Treat The Pain?

Available methods of dealing with degenerative knee problems include:

1.) Ice pack

2.) Over the counter pain pills

3.) Exercises

4.) Anti-inflammatory medication

5.) Cortisone shots

6.) Knee replacement surgery

7.) Knee brace

All of these treatment methods except cortisone shots and knee replacement surgery can be self administered by the sufferer. So what should you opt for? Should you bite the bullet and go in for knee replacement surgery right away or should you first try out the other options?

In order to determine which is the right treatment for you, it is important to first assess the frequency of the joint flare ups and the severity of the knee pain. You will also need to take into consideration your age as well as how the condition impacts your daily life.

Conservative Treatment Options for Degenerative Knee Pain

Conservative treatment options, which offer you a safe way to manage the pain and swelling, should be your first line of defense if you have degenerative knee pain. This means you should consider ice packs to control the flare ups and over the counter pain pills to manage the pain (Speak with your physician about taking any drugs). Wearing a knee brace which can provide you with meaningful support that can reduce your pain and will help to allow you to walk around and get on with your daily activities.

Your instinctive reaction may be to try and move your knees as little as possible in order to avoid aggravating the condition. As a result, you may have a more stiff knee than before. Many doctors will advise some sort of exercise for the knee to prevent it from getting stiff.

Cortisone shots are said to be effective but you should also consider other methods of treatment as well. These types of injections should be provided by your physician only.

Knee Replacement Surgery for Degenerative Knee Pain

Though frequently recommended, knee replacement surgery does not offer any guarantee that the knee will be as good as new. Considering the pain, the post-op inconvenience and the mounting expenses of the surgery and rehabilitation, it is a high risk to take. Moreover, the duration of rehabilitation is indefinite, and the temporary lay off from work could just add another blow to your finances.

A very small percentage of people would actually consider full knee replacement surgery as their first choice. Most people who suffer from this condition will treat their degenerative knee pain with medication and a knee brace, which will enable them to remain active and relatively pain free without having to undergo the trauma of surgery.

If you believe that you can benefit from pain reduction and increased knee stability, then you should seriously consider a knee brace today. These supports can be obtained very quickly and are also very affordable, especially when you compare it to the costs that of surgery.

Recuperating Without Pain

Pain in any form is an unpleasant experience. Ranging from mild pains induced by headaches, joint pains or back problem to intensive pain due to arthritis, severe tooth aches, terminal diseases & after surgery recuperation, all forms of pain cause a physical discomfort along with a feeling of depression or sense of suffering.

What exactly is pain?

It is mostly a signal which is generated from the nerve cells of a damaged or hurt region of the body and sent towards the brain via the spinal cord. Hence the spinal cord is like the highway which carries all the impulses to the brain. Severe pain caused due to accidents are sent via the fast way towards the brain and lead to a stabbing sensation or a sharp agony, the reason for this sensation is because the body requires quick action since the injury is major. Mild pain or even continuous dull aches are sent via the slow path to the brain and are fell as a lingering discomfort or a throbbing ache which is manageable but causes distraction and uneasiness.

Managing Pain

Since we know that for a pain to register itself as a sensation it has to travel via the spinal cord and reach the brain it is possible to restrict this passage by blocking the signal before it reaches the brain. Most of the pain killers usually work as road blocks in the path of the pain signal which is trying to the reach the brain. In fact there are several pain killers which even manage to remove the symptoms of uneasiness or anxiety that's because they block all negative signals from reaching the brain and hence the felt sense of well being. It is very important to staunch the feeling of pain, especially if its long term like say for over a few hours, because it has been proven medically that continuous sensation of pain can cause undue stress, anxiety, moodiness, lack of energy, loss of appetite and depression.

Resisting Pain Killers

It is foolish to act tough and resist the pain which is physically present over a long period because it will have adverse affects on your nervous system. It is medically advised to take pain killers to acquire relief for pain, which also helps the process of healing. Mild pains can also be controlled through pleasurable distractions such as watching your favorite movie or reading something interesting because these activities send pleasure signals which counter the flow of the pain signals, but this works only for mild pains. The bottom line being that any continuous sense of discomfort caused by pain should be staunched through medication either in the form of mild pain killers or muscle relaxants. If the pain continues over a period of time like say a couple of days make sure you visit your GP for verification. It is definitely ill advised to continue on a dose of mild pain killers such as paracetamol over a period of a couple of days, since it becomes evident that the body is unable to recover from the cause of pain, head to the doc.

Maintain The Dosage

If your doctor recommends a dosage of pain killers make sure you follow the dosage to the tab, don't take an under dose or an overdose because both can be a problem. An under dose will result in the reoccurrence of the pain and hence reduce the positive effect or purpose of the pain killers. An over dose can be harmful depending on the pain killer being consumed. It is best to follow your physician advice in these cases, don't try to act the doctor because most of your information about pain killers would be from sources that have no medical knowledge like your next door neighbor.

Addiction To Pain Killers, A Myth

Get your facts right and get it from people who have medical knowledge. It is a known myth that pain killers will cause addiction when taken over a short term and surely if taken on a long term. Most of the patients recuperating from major surgeries are given dose of opiate class of pain killers (which are the strongest) and are known not to get addicted to it once they are weaned off them. Pain killers taken over short term have no possibility of turning into an addiction unless a person decides to abuse it, in other words you need to have a addiction history to become an addict to a substance like pain killer. If you are normal with a good sense of well being and don't have a history of being a substance abuser there is a negligible possibility of you turning into an addict.

The reason for addiction in some cases is easily attributed to the fact that the consumer becomes addicted to the acquired sense of well being which is generated mostly by pain killers which contain a small, medium to large amounts of opiate content. In these cases it is a definite possibility that the consumer has an inclination towards substance abuse to generate a feeling of pleasure, similar to any drug abuse. If you acquire any form of addiction to a pain killer, the symptoms would be that you don't feel normal unless you take a couple or more pills, make sure you immediate report this to your GP. It is really easy to wean people off acquired pain killer addiction through the use of nerve depressants even in advanced stages. Let me be very clear that it is a myth that all patients who take pain killers actually get addicted to it, there are cases for sure but we cannot make such a general statement.

Summary

Pain killers are known to be a great healing source during recuperation and should not be avoided when recommended by the physician. Mild pain killers help regain normal activity when attacked by mild to severe pain due to physical damage or hurt. Avoid the intake of non prescribed pain killers and never for a period longer than a couple of days, if the pain does not subside its time to visit your GP whether you like it or not.