If you have recently injured your knee either in some sort of automobile accident or most commonly, in a sports-related accident, then you may need to have surgery. Depending on the type of surgery that you have to have, your orthopedic doctor may either replace the tendons in your knees or simply just fix them so that your knee functions like normal again. Although surgery itself may seem a bit brutal, the most important thing that you can do in regards to knee surgery is to make sure that you place a strong emphasis on your recovery. So, how can you recover from knee surgery? Read on to learn more.
Ice It
After surgery, you are going to have a lot of inflammation in your knee and even down your leg depending on where incisions were made. One of the best things that you can do to help alleviate the inflammation and ease the postoperative pain is to ice it. When icing it, you can use actual bags of ice that conform around your entire knee or you can use several gel ice packs to cover your entire knee. Just make sure that you are using an ice pack that can bend and mold around your knee so that the entire thing gets covered.
Move
One of the things that many patients are perplexed to learn about orthopedic recovery is that rather than remaining sedentary, patients are encouraged to move around. Remember that the more that you move around, the better you will be able to function in the long run. One of the best ways to stay mobile is by doing physical therapy a few times a week. During physical therapy, you and your therapist will go over exercises and movements that you can do on your own to help strengthen your knee and the joints around it.
Take NSAIDs
If you are nervous about taking prescription-strength pain pills because of how addicting they can be, then you can take some over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen. Just make sure that when you take them that you check with your primary care physician beforehand because they are a blood thinner.
If you need to have knee surgery, one of best things that you can do is to place an emphasis on your recovery. Before you are sent home from surgery, your orthopedic doctor will go over all tips and tricks to speed up your recovery.
Is your knee stiff and painful every morning when you get out of bed? Perhaps, you sometimes feel a grinding sensation in your knee. If you can relate to this frustrating situation, you might be suffering from osteoarthritis. Thankfully, several treatments are available for this joint condition. Sometimes, physicians recommend patients battling osteoarthritis of the knee take a prescription painkiller. Doctors also often encourage patients to lose weight and start a low-impact exercise program. Swimming and walking are both great forms of low-impact exercise. On this blog, I hope you will discover how to effectively and quickly relieve the painful symptoms of osteoarthritis of the knee. Enjoy!