My right knee (regular stance) usually bothers me about half-way through the season and I never really thought much about it figuring the torque that's placed on the joint causes it to flare up. Usually by the middle of spring everything is fine and I get on with my summer activities.
This year was a bit different though. The pain lingered all the way through summer and into fall so I decided to get it looked at this past week. The pain is almost always on the inside of my knee (MCL area) and I get some swelling from time to time. I figured that if there was something wrong I'd get it taken care of quickly since - in my mind - it must be minor.
So I make an appointment with my general doctor and he asks me a bunch of questions, checks range of motion, etc. He tells me that I may have an MCL strain or a small tear in my meniscus and wants to set up an appointment with an orthopedist. He also wants to do a couple X-ray to eliminate any type of bone issues and I say fine. So I set up my appointment with the orthopedist and get the X-rays done. That afternoon a nurse leaves a message on my phone saying that the X-rays revealed arthritis in my knee.......WTF!!! I'm not a young guy by any stretch (46) but I always thought that arthritis is something I'd have to deal with much later in life. It's the first time in my life that my own mortality stared right back at me. :angry:
I did some investigating and there are a wide variety of treatment options from excercises to braces to drugs and so on but I guess I'll have to wait until I speak with the orthopedist to work up a treatment plan. I don't plan on ever getting off my board no matter what happens with my knee/s but it's a bummer.
So, are there any other peeps here that have an arthritic knee that can share there experiences and what treatments seemed to work? I read that NSAID pain relievers like Aleve work well and I ran out and got some yesterday. I popped a couple last night and they worked very well - no pain at all this morning.
This year was a bit different though. The pain lingered all the way through summer and into fall so I decided to get it looked at this past week. The pain is almost always on the inside of my knee (MCL area) and I get some swelling from time to time. I figured that if there was something wrong I'd get it taken care of quickly since - in my mind - it must be minor.
So I make an appointment with my general doctor and he asks me a bunch of questions, checks range of motion, etc. He tells me that I may have an MCL strain or a small tear in my meniscus and wants to set up an appointment with an orthopedist. He also wants to do a couple X-ray to eliminate any type of bone issues and I say fine. So I set up my appointment with the orthopedist and get the X-rays done. That afternoon a nurse leaves a message on my phone saying that the X-rays revealed arthritis in my knee.......WTF!!! I'm not a young guy by any stretch (46) but I always thought that arthritis is something I'd have to deal with much later in life. It's the first time in my life that my own mortality stared right back at me. :angry:
I did some investigating and there are a wide variety of treatment options from excercises to braces to drugs and so on but I guess I'll have to wait until I speak with the orthopedist to work up a treatment plan. I don't plan on ever getting off my board no matter what happens with my knee/s but it's a bummer.
So, are there any other peeps here that have an arthritic knee that can share there experiences and what treatments seemed to work? I read that NSAID pain relievers like Aleve work well and I ran out and got some yesterday. I popped a couple last night and they worked very well - no pain at all this morning.