Hello and welcome to the Knee Pain Guru, Knee Pain Questions Answered. My name is Bill. This time we have a question from Phil. He says, hi and thanks for your messages. I used to cycle race up to 2007, however no more. My knee pain has caused a fluid build up which no one can diagnose the reason for.
This has developed since surgery in September last year to clean out loose cartilage. Any form of exercise for knee -- my knee is so swollen, no one would be more accurate, and I had to stop the post-op physio because of this. So I don't think that you would be able to help me with my pain. Thanks again and kind regards, Phil.
Well Phil, thank you for your email, and there are two components that are going on in your knee, one is the swelling and one is the pain. Now the pain can contribute to the swelling, however let's deal with the swelling piece first. When your knee swells up, I'd like to use the example of a garden hose, that when you get a kink in the garden hose, you have all of that pressure on one end of the garden hose, and on the other end you have no water coming out. Your lymphatic system in your body, which cleans up the waste products, which it would do after an injury, like yours, with the cartilage and the surgery and the whole nine yards, what is happening in your knee is your nervous system, when it experiences pain like that, tightens up the whole bunch.
When the body tightens up the way that does, it causes what I would like to refer to as a kink in the garden hose. So you have all of this fluid that's coming into an area, that because of the tension is unable to flow back out, as a result the knee continues to swell. The conventional medical model solution is to drain that fluid, which in a certain sense, in a certain paradigm, will work, in the short term. However, in the long term, bigger picture, holistic point of view of what's going on in your knee as well as the rest of your body, it's not really functional.
So the idea is, to find a place of comfort in your knee, in your way, that's going to unkink the garden hose. That will allow the fluid build up in your knee to drain on its own. Now, when the fluid drains on its own, that's going to take the pressure off of the nerves, that are being impinged upon within your knee, causing the knee pain.
So, Phil, hopefully, that helps with what you were asking, even though, you didn't think I might be able to help. However, I gave it my best shot. If that makes sense, send me an email, bill@thekneepainguru.com. When that swelling goes down, because I'm pretty sure it will, that was my own experience and I've seen that experience with clients that I've worked with. When that goes down, send me an email and let me know how it goes.
If anyone else out there has questions, you can send that to bill@thekneepainguru.com, and I will be more than happy to answer them. Thanks a lot and I'll be in touch soon. Bye, bye!
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services