SkiAdcock

I took too bad falls this year and really nailed my knees, which has curtailed running & a lot of walking while recovering. The right knee seemes to be ok, but the left knee is still problematic. It took the brunt of the most recent fall a month ago.

Did a lot of walking on Sat eve while at a FT event, and my knee swelled up/hurt/ached like a s.o.b./made it difficult to sleep. I'm flying to LAS end of the week for a 1-week trade show & I will be walking miles (no exaggeration; I wore a peometer one year & did 8 miles during the day, although this year it might be closer to 4 since clients are in the same building this time) in street shoes.

So I'm anticipating trouble. Besides ibuprophen megadosing & icing it when I get back, anything else I can do? Suggestions? Any input appreciated.

Cheers.

kipper

Lots of Advil or Aleve--start taking it before you leave the hotel in the morning. Continue taking it during the day, following the standard dosing schedule. Take it even if you aren't in pain then. If you wait until you're in pain, it's already too late. Ice it at night, and try to keep it elevated as much as you can in the evenings.

You can find some physical therapy exercises online that will work to strengthen the muscles around the knee, and that might help.

If you have trouble sleeping and have not had bad experiences with Advil PM, I'd recommend taking that at night.

As far as ice--if you aren't really able to "ice" your knee, I've found that taking a hand towel, soaking it with very cold tap water, and wrapping that around my knee helps some. I'll usually wrap it around my knee and sleep with it wrapped.

You might want to consider investing in a knee brace. That will provide extra support and stability, and will also have an added compression factor, which should help with the swelling.

My big suggestion though is to bite the bullet and see an ortho. You may have torn something during one of the falls. An ortho, or, since you probably won't have time to see one before you go to LAS, your PCP, might also be able to prescribe something other than Advil that will help too.

chollie

+1 to everything that kipper said, especially the last part (see an ortho).

I tried to tough it out (encouraged by a doctor) and mine was nowhere near as bad as you describe. It turned out I had a slightly torn meniscus - a quick 'easy' arthro fix, except six weeks of running and trying to ignore it caused a lot more damage than the initial tiny tear.

Re: pain and swelling. If you have never tried acupuncture, now might be the time. FWIW, my ortho said part of my rapid surgery recovery was because I had acupuncture a few times before the surgery.

Good luck!

SkiAdcock

Not going to be able to see an ortho before I go. Thanks for the tips. Something else I'll try from when I went to high-end ortho clinic a few years ago is alternate heat & ice. But when they did the ice it was submerge the body part into a LOT of ice. I could use the tub for that I suppose.

BTW - I'm usually the first person to run to a doc (ok, in fairness rarely), but now that I have a 5K deductible to get my premium to reasonable amount I'm finding myself holding off on doc visits. Not to go Omni PR, but it's a sad day when you have insurance & still don't go to the doc due to costs. However, that's not the topic of this thread.

And if the problem continues post show, I'll bite the bullet & get to the doc.

Cheers.

It'sHip2B^2

When you go to the Dr ask if they have an uninsured rate. My husband's insurance has a $1000 deducible for mental health services. When he told his therapist's office they immediately cut the hourly rate by two-thirds. You may find that some offices are willing to work with you. Just call around and ask. It's a negotiable business deal.

kipper

Call your PCP at least and see if they can give you something. Or, go to one of the urgent care clinics like Med Express.

That said, It'sHip2B^2 is right. When you go to the doctor, ask if they have either an uninsured rate or a cash rate. Often, because they won't have to deal with the insurance paperwork, they'll charge you less, because it's far less work for them.

SkiAdcock

So knee's holding up so far, although swollen & hurts. But walking 7 miles in street shoes, weirdly enough my ankles were bothering me, not to mention sore feet. And I have a nice fat blister in the same places I got it on both feet when I did the Honolulu marathon. But at least there I had great scenery, was raising $$ for the leukemia charity, and finishing my first marathon, so I earned them. No glory in getting them at a stoo-pid trade show.

Cheers.

kipper

I don't know that I'd call swollen and pain "holding up." Are you icing it at night?

It could be that with your street shoes, your ankles aren't getting enough support, and you haven't noticed this in the past, because you don't walk that much in them normally.

If you continue to have ankle problems, look at some of the strengthening exercises. I sprained both ankles at the same time two years ago, thanks to Cobaka trying to kill me, and I still have some issues. If I can get away with it, I'll usually resort to wearing boots when I know I'll be on my feet for long periods of time, just because they provide extra ankle support. That said, you'd want to avoid heels and such. Lace-up boots are the best, because you can cinch them as tight as possible, if necessary. That said, they aren't the most stylish of footwear options!

It'sHip2B^2

Or for slacks wearing women a couple of compression bandages can do the trick. I kept spraining my left ankle last year and I just couldn't keep it from happening long enough to heal properly. So I bought a neoprene (wet suit material) wrap for my ankle. It was wonderfully supportive when I was walking around. I wore it around campus for a little over a month and haven't had the injury recur. But my dramatic weightloss may have contributed, too. My faciitis is gone, too.

kipper

I have both air casts I was given when I sprained both ankles, but found that the velcro would stick to nylons or knee-highs, so it's a socks only sort of thing. That said, neoprene might work nicely, so I may try that.

It'sHip2B^2

Two aircasts! Man it really was serious. You really couldn't walk. Unless, of course, you are less awkward than I am in an aircast (picture seeing someone walking around in ski boots for the first time).

I actually found a really neat one at Target that wrapped around your foot and held the pressure using velcro. But unless you were Titanic sized the velcro wouldn't touch the skin. I like that bandage better than the standard squeeze-your-painful-foot-in bandages because you didn't have to bend your ankle to get it on. If you had faciitis you could also adjust it to make the angle between your leg and foot smaller than 90 degrees.

Awesome bandage it be. You get all that for less than $10.

kipper

Considering that it was thanks to the dog that I needed two air casts, I wouldn't say I was less awkward than you'd be. I was on crutches, which was rather difficult, considering it hurt to put any weight on either ankle. The only good thing was that it happened on a Thursday, so Mr. Kipper could drive me to work on Friday, and then I had all weekend on pain meds to deal with the worst of the pain. By the end of the weekend though, I think Mr. Kipper was ready to run away, since he had to do everything that weekend.

I like that bandage! I really need to venture to our local Target to see if I can find two of them!

SkiAdcock

The knee seems to be holding up & the ankle thing was only the first day. The *%N!# blisters on feet are more of a pain when walking in street shoes as many miles as I've been doing these past four days. Oh well, one last day & I'm done.

Cheers.

It'sHip2B^2

You can do it!!

Have you tried moleskin on the blisters? That can help the reduce some of the rubbing that you feel.

Bear4Asian

I was using Ibuprofen a lot for back pain and knee pain. Last December I got gastroenteritis and was throwing up for 4 days (also taking Ibuprofen)

I ended up in emergency room with acute kidney failure. Kidney doc told me that using Ibuprofen or other NSAIDs along with dehydration caused the kidney failure. My kidneys recovered, but the lesson is be careful when you use drugs, please.