Osteoarthritis Blues

Elizabeth Hornak

I've been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my knee. Anyone willing to share best practices to stay out of the OR?

I have had three orthovisc injections and one cortisone, all of which have failed. A colleague's daughter, who is a Ph.D. PT designed a set of exercises for me that have allowed me to begin to run again (slowly, in 5-10min increments). I am working with a chiro, I have a friend who is an LMT, and I am trying rolfing next week.

Does anyone with experience with cold laser?

Signed up to do IMLOU - Coach P has me on a phased back to running program. 

Many thanks,

Beth

david ware

You might look into stem cell injections. They have provided me with some help. However, you do have to have cartilage to be a candidate...

Jess Withrow

Hey Beth - I have cervical stenosis, and I've had cold laser treatment in the past - it was helpful only VERY temporarily in my case. What I HAVE found to be super effective is prolotherapy. It was so helpful that I've had it done in my neck, shoulder, low back (for a L5-S1 disc bulge) and a costovertebral joint (for a rib that had dislocated and never quite went back where it belonged). To save this post from getting super long, I won't go into detail about prolo, but here's a randomized controlled trial from 2013 that found "clinically meaningful sustained improvement of pain, function, and stiffness scores for knee osteoarthritis... "

http://www.annfammed.org/content/11/3/229.full

The only downside is that prolo isn't covered by insurance, and despite the evidence in support of its efficacy, many in the medical field are still skeptical, likely because the mechanism through which prolo stimulates the body to naturally heal itself is simply through dextrose solution (ie, sugar water!). For me personally, it's worked wonders. Downtime after injections is only 1-2 days max, pain post-injection is moderate at most, and each joint I had injected required 4-5 rounds of injections spaced 3-4 weeks apart. I'd second Dave's reply to check into stem cell injections, and also PRP and prolotherapy.

One more good resource for PRP and Prolo from Caring Medical: http://tinyurl.com/hdq6f4c

Good luck to you!

Elizabeth Hornak

Hi Jess and Dave, 

Thank you so much jumping into the conversation.

The only doc I found offering prolotherapy in my area closed his practice in '14, but I can reach out to my non-invasive orthopedic doc and ask her about it. We have one doc specializing in Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering at the  University of Rochester Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute. 

I saw a functional chiropractor on Thursday and he did some functional testing and found that my quads aren't firing and the knee is taking the brunt of the work, which has made the tendons and ligaments very very {{insert colorful adjective}}. So, my Rx for the next week is to roll out my quads (Yoga Tune Up balls, check 'em out if you need anymore foam rolling toys) as well as gently roll out my knee. Super aggressive protocol of 1x an hour whenever possible. I also have to do on the physioball butt kicks. He was successful in training me how to get my multifidus to refire.

One of my colleague's daughter is a PhD PT, and for free, set me up on a quad and hip flexor strengthening program. She agreed that surgery would give me only limited relief. 

The good news is that I was able to run today for 20' - it was pokey, but it was a run. 

I see the rolfing guy next Thursday and am looking forward to what he has to say. 

Many thanks again and I will let you know status now and then.

Warmly,

Beth

Daniel Huhn

I too am in the knee pain category due to arthritis. I know that there's only so many more miles I'm going to get on my bum knee before I need a full joint replacement. The one option that my PT said is to consider speed walking. Yeh, it's not running, but it's a lot less pounding and still allows me to compete. He said that with some training, you can get down to about 12 min miles. Ugh!

david ware

Due to my knee I walkes the last 20 miles of IMAZ. I was averaging 13+min/ mile, passing people. I am a fast walker but don't plan on doing that again.

Elizabeth Hornak

I am trying out Bauerfiend and Enerskin knee braces. Today I was able to walk 5' and run 6' for 2.5 miles - YAY, with the Enerskin brace. Average 12.49 a mile - If I can keep that for 26.2, that will be a 5:45 marathon, and given where I was (not being able to walk down the stairs), I will take it.

I am also foam rolling, stretching, and seeing a functional chiropractor. One step at a time..... appreciate all the input.