Pain relief

PobTheTrucker

Good afternoon everyone

I hope you are well. I am apart from this unbearable pain in my right knee.

I was diagnosed with mild arthritis in my right knee about 10 months ago. I've took all sorts of pain relief, sprays and creams to help ease or relieve the pain. I also got arthritis in my left knee at the beginning of this year. That's not too bad at the moment. My right knee is in agony and has been for the last 3-4 weeks. I've tried or trying co-codamol, ibroprofen, paracetamol, naproxen, other inflammatory tablets that I can't remember the names of. Also creams and sprays like Voltarol, deep heat etc. A friend at work suggested grated ginger to take the inflammation away. I didn't think that helped. He's also suggested CBD as his friend swears it works for him. But I'm not sure about that yet.
My question is, what other things can I take or use that might ease or relieve the pain in my knee? I'm a truck driver and I can't afford to be off sick. So I really need some help please. It's really getting me down. My wife is worried about my knee but also my mental state because she can see it's really getting to me.

I would be so grateful for any help or advice.

Take care and many thanks,

Darren

Anna

Hello @PobTheTrucker and welcome to the online community,

So sorry to hear that you are experiencing such a lot of pain with your knee. It’s one of the real challenges of living with arthritis and I know many of our members will understand what you’re going through. It sounds like you’ve really tried all sorts of medications to ease the pain, and I wonder if you could talk to your GP about something stronger, or maybe a referral to a pain management programme if there is one in your area?
You also might like to look at the link below - it’s from the Versus Arthritis website and it discusses knee pain and ways you can help manage it. It also has a section on working with knee pain and how you can talk to your employer about it:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/knee-pain/

other members may have some suggestions about how they manage their pain.

Do let us know how you get on,

Anna( Moderator)

jonr

Hi @PobTheTrucker (Darren),

I guess in your line of work there's a great deal of sitting in a cab without the ability to move your legs around much which probably won't help your situation either?

I found Acupuncture to be the most effective pain relief for my knees, it's cumulative so if you do give it a go, have it weekly until you feel it kick in, then you can scale it back - I go every 4-6 weeks now having started treatment April 2023. You may also like to try a TENS machine which can provide instant relief, some people claim for them the effects last for several hours. There is no magic bullet alas but if you can sort your pain management out, the next thing to do is to focus on strengthening the muscles and tendons around your knees via physio, exercise and weight training. This is what will ultimately lead to a greatly improved quality of life.

All the best,

Jon

claudsl

Hi @PobTheTrucker

Have you been referred to a rheumatologist yet or are you currently self managing? It may be worth contacting your GP to get a referral as you maybe need to be on proper medication to control your pain.

Claudia

Bryony

Physio exercises (stretching especially) may help. I wish Versus Arthritis would produce a booklet on exercises that are very carefully structured and graded - structured by muscle, and divided into stretching and into strengthening, and graded in the strengthening group, starting with exercises without load-bearing at the 'easiest' end, and setting gradually increasing levels of difficulty with more load bearing to progress up.

Online I've found one or two youtube channels that do this - mainly under exercises for torn meniscus.

I find Versus Arthritis exercises a bit of a hotch-potch. With carefully structured ones you can quickly determine which muscles are weak, which are less flexible so you can really tailor ones to yourself. Trying to get useful and timely NHS physiotherapy help is a lottery, in my experience, so we're often left trying to figure things out for ourselves.

claudsl

Hi @Bryony - thank you for voicing your concerns, it is very useful to get feedback from our members and I will report this back as an area for improvement. Our main priority is to help and support our members after all :)

jonr

Hi @Bryony,

I had a 1:1 with a specialist at my local Sports Centre under the GP Exercise Referral Programme. The lady I saw was very knowledgeable about Arthritis and devised a tailored plan of exercises using weight machines and exercise equipment which in my case were all designed to strengthen my calves, quads and glutes to help support my knees. She showed me how to use everything safely - I started last August and I have to say it's been a game-changer but it does require decent pain management. If you've not heard of this government sponsored initiative and you're interested it may be worthwhile bringing it up with your GP? On the subject of YouTube videos, there's a US-based chap who calls himself The Knees Over Toes Guy, his stuff is very innovative and clearly yields results.

All the best,

Jon