Awful pain

[bakingD]

Sorry to trouble you all but am in a lot of pain in my knee,radiating down to my foot and pain outside thigh- am due arthroscopy on 3rd as have several meniscus tears.Pain, swelling and stiffness has been slowly getting worse

Am currently on. 3 mg EC Pred and PMR seems stable- PMR since 2018

I saw a private physio and she examined me bending my good leg this way/that way etc and gave me some exercises for my knee plus massage and am so much worse - can hardly walk without leg going into spasm then if rest it settles down again- knee more painful too- I rang her and she said to rest up from exercises for 2 days then try again gently and wanted to see me next Tuesday -She also said many people have asymptomatic meniscus tears and talked a lot about pain management and pacing!

Am thinking as am so much worse maybe have tweaked something in my back ??

Not sure what to do esp at night as it’s so bad

Any help much appreciated

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Why your back? Have you tried ice on that knee? I'm a bit surprised she says only 2 days rest - and when she says gentle, were you a bit enthusiastic?

[bakingD in reply to PMRpro]

Just thought if it was sciatica??I pull muscles so easily I did yum try to be gentle

She said ice management had changed and was only good for acute injuries??

Maybe should try ice

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to bakingD]

I think this is a good discussion:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

I would consider the reaction to the exercises is acute and short icing might be helpful in pain relief. Here they sometimes suggest alternating icing and heat and say everyone is that bit different.

But it might also be worth ice/heat on the low back in case it is sciatic nerve problems. Experiment a bit.

[bakingD in reply to PMRpro]

thanks very much! Much appreciated

[Seacat30]

I have an old knee injury that has got worse again recently. I don't know whether it was hiding under the higher pred dosage or has been caused by my hip problem. I would be careful of those exercises while on steroids. I find that physios don't understand the capacity for their exercises to cause injury.

[bakingD in reply to Seacat30]

Thank you yes don’t think the physio understands PMR as she said one of her clients had PMR for 2 years, got off steroids and it came back again and she seemed surprised at that

Hope your knee doesn’t develop into anything too painful as you say maybe the higher doses have been masking the pain