Hello folks

Donkort

Hi there.

My name is Don. I have osteoarthritis in both knees. I’ve had gel injections which haven’t worked as of yet. I get fluid in both knees, which mildly to moderately affects my walking. I can walk decent distances, but can’t go more than 3 mph. I’m a 62 year old man who walks like a much older man. In my left knee, I get fluid every 10 days, lasts 2-3 days, then gets better. I have consistent fluid in my right knee.

Thank you for reading this.

Sincerely,

Don

Ellen

Hi @Donkort welcome to the online community.

I see from your post that you are struggling with OA in your knees and swelling in your knees which makes walking at any speed quite difficult.

Have you seen our exercises for knees?

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/exercising-with-arthritis/exercises-for-healthy-joints/exercises-for-the-knees/

We have had some good feedback from people who have used them regularly.

This is a search I did for threads about swelling in the knee for you:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/search?domain=all_content&query=swelling%20knee&scope=site&source=community

If you don't get much response to your post it might be worth reposting it to the Living with Arthritis section and retitling it with something which will attract the attention of people with knee Osteoarthritis.

Best wishes

Ellen

jonr

Hello and welcome @Donkort from a fellow Arthritic knee sufferer.

Sounds like you're being most stoic in soldiering on - the fluid and inflammation is a classic symptom usually managed with anti-inflammatories. Are you on any prescribed meds and/or taking supplements to help manage that? Most sufferers turn to ice compresses to help reduce the swelling, fever, itching and aching - it helps in the short term.

Medium-long term, it will be physio and exercise as @Ellen wrote which will help the surrounding muscles and tendons cope with the extra workload they're under and prop up your knees so this becomes less of a problem but it takes many months of hard work, determination and decent pain management to crack.

All the best,

Jon

Donkort

Hi there.

I appreciate everyone’s responses.

I have tried Ibuprofen. It works most of the time—but not when I have the most severe symptoms.

Recently, I received six Supartz injections. What is injected is sort of a replacement for the hyaluronate acid which is, in theory, reduced in osteoarthritis. I don’t sense it will work.

I’m sensing that the fluid, even more than the arthritis, should be attended to. I might ask about synovial surgery.

I will read the links which you have provided. They would definitely be useful for me.

Thank you again.