CHIROPRACTIC CARE FOR KNEE PAIN?
Knee pain plagues millions every year, and aside from ice and ibuprofen, many think there aren’t a lot of options left besides surgery. While surgery is sometimes necessary, it should never be the first option for those suffering from knee pain. Conservative avenues are often effective and certainly much less costly than surgery. Triangle CRC in Raleigh, NC provides non-surgical treatment for patients with knee pain.
Knee Pain Treatment Success
As a perfect example of knee pain, I’m going to use a 55 year-old male with recent total knee replacement. This man also happens to be my father. During the Spring season of his freshman year of college football at Kent State, he significantly injured his right knee. If you’ve ever heard of an “unhappy triad” – injury to the ACL, MCL, and one meniscus – you can imagine that adding anything to that injury is even more detrimental for an athlete. My dad tore all of the above, as well as his lateral meniscus. He had necessary surgery to repair the damaged tissues, and both of his menisci were removed. This bone-on-bone presentation of his knee obviously led to some pain down the road.
He started seeing an orthopedic surgeon a few years ago, knowing that a total knee replacement was an eventuality he would have to face. He finally had his right knee replaced in November 2012. He followed his surgeon’s and physical therapist’s instructions to a T, and is still rehabilitating on his own; he’s gradually getting back the function of his right lower extremity that he hasn’t had in over 20 years.
A few weeks ago, he mentioned having some left knee pain to me. My dad is not one to complain about pain, so I asked him a few questions about what was going on. He described the pain, when it bothered him most, and actually said that his left knee felt worse than his right. He said it felt like there was too much scar tissue building up under his knee, and assumed that he would have to have at least arthroscopic surgery in order to clear out the scar tissue. Based on his symptoms, I concluded that his quads were tight. (I do not typically give any health-related recommendations via phone, but my parents are 500 miles away, and the man gave me life. I had to help if I could.) I gave him a few simple stretches to do. He called the next day to say he’d been working outside for a few hours and for the first time in weeks, hadn’t noticed any knee pain. He was amazed. He saw our family chiropractor, who gave him similar instructions and adjusted him as well. His left knee has been pain-free ever since.