Four years ago I was sent to an orthopedic surgeon by my primary care doctor to do an evaluation of my left knee. I can’t stand or walk for too long. Sometimes by simply shifting my weight can cause excruciating pain. I’ll either froze in the air, shift my weight to my armpit by leaning on my crutches, or hold on to something stable to remove some of the weight on my knee.
I survived polio disease in my infancy in the Philippines in the early 80s. I developed paralysis, muscle weakness and atrophy on the lower extremities as a result of the virus. With very little intervention and physical therapy, I managed to regain some of the muscle strength on my left leg allowing me to stand on it and wiggle my toes. My right leg is so much weaker, smaller in size, and hang limply on the side.
At around age 5, my great grandpa taught me how to walk using an improvised wooden crutches that he made himself. Since then I learned how to walk, or rather hop, with only my left leg using that.
For over 30 years my left knee has supported my entire body weight, a silent victim of use and abuse due to physical exertion over the course of my life so far.
Before I heard about Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) and read the book “The Polio Paradox” by Dr. Richard L. Bruno, I was walking everyday for at least 30 minutes to exercise. This goes back from the time when I was still living in the Philippines until I moved to the US. The information in the book opened my eyes to the damage I did to my body over the years by exercising like normal people do who never had polio in their lives. I was basically hurting my body for many years by doing those intense walking exercise.
I wasn’t only walking for long periods of time when I was younger. I was also putting so much stress on my left knee by standing for long periods of time, climbing stairs, and gaining so much weight before and after giving birth. All these contributed greatly to the wear and tear of my joint and also cause the protective cushion to thin out.
The orthopedic surgeon wanted to do surgery but didn’t guarantee it will fix the problem. Plus recovery can take longer in my case. I declined because I wasn’t convinced it’s going to help. Besides, I have very young children to take care of with nobody to take my place while on recovery. It was just too uncertain and the surgery doesn’t guarantee that the knee pain will not recur.
So I resorted to other non-invasive options to manage my pain. I told myself if I can delay going under the knife and reduce my pain and discomfort, why not? Here’s what I did:
- Limit activities that require standing or walking for more than 5 minutes. I took a lot of breaks in between.
- Use my power scooter when grocery shopping or being out in the community.
- Sit on a counter bar stool when I’m washing the dishes in the sink or when I’m cooking. These are two tasks that I spend a great amount of time everyday. I tried several brands but this is the one that I use for years. I bought it from Walmart. It has leather-like fabric seat cover that makes cleaning a breeze, ample height, and rotates 360° which fits perfectly for my needs.
- Sit down as much as possible. If a house chore can be done sitting down, I’ll most definitely go that route. I have several foldable chairs strategically placed around the house that I can grab any time to carry out tasks (e.g. moving clothes from the washer to dryer, wiping the table, changing bed sheets, sorting my kids’ toys, or putting away folded clothes in the dressers).
- Avoid foods that trigger inflammation on my joints. Red meat, processed foods, shellfish, beans, soy products, and spinach are real culprits.
- Lose some weight to reduce pressure on my joint. I’m struggling so much in this area.
- Drink lots of water to hydrate my body and increase the production of fluids that lubricate my joints.
- Stopped walking to exercise. Instead, I do chair aerobic exercise like this one from Youtube. I still sweat and feel good afterwards but without feeling soreness in my knee.
- Wear a knee brace to reduce the pressure on my joint when I’m expected to stand for some time. This is my favorite product so far because it doesn’t cut off blood circulation.
- Massage my knee gently at night and rub this cream on the skin around it.
These measures help me tremendously reduce knee pain. It’s never easy to live everyday in pain but it’s something that I learned to manage. I don’t need surgery for now. Perhaps I’ll have couple more years till real knee surgery is absolutely required.