18 Oct Physical Therapy Month: Fixing What Ails You — Knee Pain & How to Handle It
October is Physical Therapy Month! We begin this month’s blog series “Physical Therapy Month: Fixing What Ails You” with an introductory article by Body One Physical Therapy’s own Dr. Brian Pease…
Last Saturday I bundled up for my first ‘really’ cold weather ride of the year. It was 40 degrees, with a light breeze from the southeast. I pulled out my gear: long riding pants, three layers of shirts, wool socks, thin skull cap, neck warmer, gloves, and a light, reflective jacket. I was excited to embrace the cold and get out on the road for a couple of hours of reflective solitude on the bike.
I noticed a few other riders, walkers, and joggers on the road that day, and I was glad to see that others shared the sense of adventure, commitment, compulsion, or guild that I had. The road was generally quiet, my bike was smooth, and in the early morning there were few ambient noises to disturb the serenity of the ride. And then, out of the quiet backdrop of a local country road, a noise. No, a pain. What? My knee was starting to hurt. How was that? It hadn’t hurt since, since…well, since I had ignored it for most of the summer. Darn. And the longer I rode, in the stillness of the morning, the more my knee complained louder and louder. Perhaps I couldn’t ignore this.
And so, I wondered to myself, what would these other people sharing the road and the trail this morning do when faced with the same circumstances? Would my fellow walkers, joggers, runners, swimmers, and cyclists, among others, ignore the “ping” in their knee too? I had justified ignoring the ping because I knew that while bothersome, it wasn’t ‘serious.’ But what would others do? And who’s to decide if it is serious enough and worthy enough to be cared for?
So I did a few things about it. First, when I returned home, I did a bit of stretching to relieve tension around my knee and applied some ice. I was sure that it wasn’t ‘serious’ because I had not had an injury mechanism, and I was not having daily or nightly pain, which would have indicated a more irritated, inflamed condition. Second, I thought that we should begin to share more information regarding typical injuries, self-care, and how to know when to get help.
I hope that you enjoy this article series. In the meantime, if you have a condition that you are concerned about, or just need a tune-up, let one of our 15 skilled providers at one of our four convenient locations (North Indianapolis, South Indianapolis, Fishers, and Zionsville) help you get back on the road, faster.
Best,
Be sure and catch our next article in the Physical Therapy Month: Fixing What Ails You series to learn more about common injuries, what to look for, how to treat them, and when to seek care!
