Knee injuries are common. They can happen due to sports, overuse, worn out body parts, or even just twisting the wrong way.
Knee injuries can be very painful, and they easily disrupt your day-to-day life. If you are having persisting pain in your knee, need to limp to walk, or notice bruising or swelling, then you should go get medical attention.
There are a wide variety of treatment options available, here are just a few that can be easily administered to help you find relief.
Rest
Rest is something every doctor tells you to do for every injury you ever have or will have for the rest of your life. They do that of course because it is so very helpful. In this case, by getting off your injured knee more you are allowing the body to try and repair itself.
Imagine trying to fix a broken cabinet but every time you did, the cabinet would swing open and shut. Not only does it make it impossible to actually do anything, but the constant motion is surely going to make the issue worse.
Rest is almost always coupled with ice/heat, compression, or elevation. Your doctor will give you specific instructions on how to treat your injury to get you back up and at it in no time.
Physical therapy
Physical therapy is a great way to get strength and movement back after an injury. A physical therapist will make you a custom plan for rehabilitating your knee.
They will have you come into the office for visits and give you exercises to do at home or throughout the day. Physical therapy is not something that can be done half-heartedly and still work. You need to make sure you are giving all your effort into making a recovery.
By doing so you will hopefully minimize pain, strengthen weakened or damaged muscles, and get back to where you were pre-injury.
Medicine
Medicine is used with all these other treatments. Medicine is usually used here to relieve pain and reduce inflammation, though depending on the treatment they may want to give you medicine to prevent infection as well.
Medicine is such a simple treatment, yet so many people don’t do it. The whole reason we have medicine though is for situations like these, where you are in pain and need relief.
It is important to be careful and not develop a dependency on medicine. If you have surgery, you may receive stronger medicines. Never exceed the dosage and frequency given by your doctor.
Injections
Injections are a pre-surgical option that will attempt to escalate the treatment from more casual methods, while still not actually performing surgery.
Some injection options include cortisone injections and platelet-rich plasma injections. Cortisone shots simply injecting cortisone into the injured area. The cortisone acts to reduce inflammation and relieve pain over time. An anesthetic is generally included to help give immediate comfort.
Platelet-rich plasma injections are injections of your own blood cells into the injured area. The hope is that this will stimulate quicker healing in the injured body parts by allowing more plasma to be at the scene of the injury. The body naturally uses this method of healing, so the injection is just giving extra help.
Surgery
Unfortunately, there are some cases that will require surgery. According to the website of Dr. Aaron Altenburg, “To relieve pain from an arthritic knee after all non-surgical options are exhausted, a total or partial knee replacement is often the necessary solution.”
Surgeries are the last resort. Medical professionals want you to recover without the surgery, but also recognize the point where it needs to happen. There are different varieties of knee surgeries, with replacements being the most common.
Conclusion
There are many reasons you could hurt your knee. There are also many ways to treat those injuries. Counsel with a medical professional what option is right for you. All the options have proven successes, though knee injuries are very different and will respond differently to different treatments. If you receive treatments you can get your healthy knee back, but more importantly your everyday life back.
