Knees

Some days it feels as if medicine fails me. I don't know what to do anymore. I have been trying to get a grip on my health for years and just when things seem hopeful, the bottom falls out. Take my knees for example: I finally broke down and saw a doctor. I had a steroid injection, X-rays, MRI, physical therapy, shoe inserts, new shoes... All I can tell you is my feet roll in when I walk, my knee caps tilt out, my bones and ligaments are fine, and I still hurt. Disappointing, but then add in physical therapy events: enduring the scraping, spending 6 hrs a week for appointments, and then I have a massive allergic reaction to the tape used during the whole process. Now I'm trying to heal from that! I get to wear short shorts, rolled up so my knees stay exposed while they are treated with steroid gel. The kids can't touch my legs and neither can anything else. I didn't know it would be sooo limiting! I guess it's good I have this to worry about right now because I have no idea what my next step should be. My shoulder MRIs came back - they tell me about what my knee ones do: nothing is really wrong, sorry you're in pain. The only thing I can think of to do is just hire a personal trainer and get back to weight lifting, since I know there's nothing wrong. It can't be more time consuming or costly than medicine has been!

But right now, I don't think I'm even capable of making a good decision. I'm tired, cold, itchy, uncomfortable, aching, and disheartened. I feel useless and discouraged and confused and angry and worried. And more than anything, I want to put on a pair of pants and curl up on my side under a blanket!! But I am grateful not to be in so much pain anymore. And I'm glad to see the gel having such an immediate response. I really hope it doesn't take 4 weeks to clear up though! I am already going crazy!

ASTYM, aka scraping. To smooth out scar tissue that may hamper smooth muscle movement and cause pain.

Taping. To provide stability to loose joints to help lessen the chance of injury and pain.

Initial allergic reaction

Reaction getting pretty bad

Allergic reaction so bad that it hurt to walk, the internal swelling was so bad. The pic doesn't do justice to how awful it was at this point.

After 1 day of treatment. Skin swelling down. Still red and angry with some blistering still occurring and inner swelling still present but much improved. Still sooooo itchy!