By friendly lurker on Saturday, July 13, 2002 - 09:49 pm:

Hi. I thought the subject line could use some drama.

Because of a death in the family, I've been at my parents' home for about fifteen days. After the first few days, my knees started to hurt, and now they're awful.

The pain is probably my patellar tendons, which have shown themselves to be problematic in the past (though my ankles have the longest rap sheets). It's directly above and behind the patella on each leg.

I'm starting to limp.

The main culprits are as follows: 1. I live in an apartment at home and am unused to going up and down stairs so often every day, and/or 2. my grandfather's desk is doing a number on my knees by making me dangle my legs. My mother is not comfortable at this desk, either. We can't decide what's wrong, aside from the fact that we can't really get our legs under it without typing at chin level.

Maybe I'm whining just to hear myself complain, but my knees are starting to make clicking sounds and the pain worries me. Will this go down on my permanent record? Will I do any long-term damage to my knees? Will they ease up once I'm home and they're once again crosslegged in the desk chair?

Many thanks in advance.

By bree on Sunday, July 14, 2002 - 04:46 am:

My knee pain is pretty similar, and it seems to get worse if I sit in a chair too long - especially when I'm working on the computer and don't have much room under the desk, or when I have to sit through a longish flight, etc. Even though my feet are on the floor, it still feels like they've been dangling. My knees start to ache, to click and clunk, and to get stuck. My knees don't go so bad if I spend the day sitting on the floor. I still have to put up with bad chairs/desks a couple of days a week, but I have definately found that the pain does ease up when I stop spending too long sitting this way.

By friendly lurker on Thursday, July 25, 2002 - 07:03 pm:

A follow-up, to keep the board from complete silence:

I am home. My knees feel much better. My SI joints and lower back have taken over as major complaints. Check it: I move, the pain moves. Maybe with enough practice I could get all the pain to move at will, so my knees could hurt when I needed to type and my wrists could hurt when I needed to walk.

Just an idea. ;)

By Sharon on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 05:32 pm:

LOL, wouldn't that be great if we could do that

By Grace on Monday, September 23, 2002 - 03:18 pm:

Hi I could add my knees, knees, shoulder, ankles, lower back, neck and understand all that you all say. Am in england have seen Professor Grahame, this pain, is something else, unbearbable is a good word, I have been to the pain clinic, it does help. Life is hard with chronic pain and hard enough without it. Am seeing surgeon soon for second time to see about surgery, first one said not a good idea. Good idea perhaps if I keep moving the pain moves, it does. for the first time I am beginning to think it would be better to use a wheelchair, hard thought. All i can say is is if you are posting for pain, it may help that you are not the only one.

By corkie on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 03:02 pm:

I have six year old and she has it in her knees and it bothers her all the time I feel bad because she is in so much pain. She is always stretching her legs out as for as they will go.I have no idea what kind of or how much pain she is in or what to do about it.She wears orthotics in her shoes and is going to start physical therapy. Is there anything else I can do?? I never know how bad she hurts or if she is using it as an excuse.
corkie

By Midhelle Castle on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 02:04 am:

corkie, I'd be slow to assume she's using the pain as an excuse, particularly if her doctors see the need for orthodics and physical therapy. Sure, she could exaggesate sometimes to get out of cleaning her room, but being a young person with HMS, I know what's like not have my pain taken seriously because of my age. Even having people I'll out-grow it makes me mad, because they tend to use that as an excuse to not do something to decrease my pain today.

As far as helping your daughter goes, give the physical therapy a real shot. She may experience increased pain at first, and will need your support to get through it. My knees have responded very well to strength training, with squats being very helpful.

Other ideas for decreasing pain are to teach your daughter pain management strategies. Help her identify what makes her pain worse, and how she can arrange her to-do lists to decrease pain and still get everything done. And use techniques like controlled breathing, distraction, and guided imagery to help her cope with more severe periods of pain. I'm just guessing, but I'd bet those strategies are even more effective in kids than adults, since kids don't doubt their effectiveness like adults do.

Michelle

By carolyn on Friday, December 12, 2003 - 09:37 am:

MICHELLE
Thank you sooo much for the advice. I don't doubt my daughters pain. Everyone else tries to convince me she is exagerating how bad it hurt. She cries in her sleep almost every night. As far as arranging her day that is hard because by the time she gets home from school she is in so much pain it hurts her to sit so she does her homework standing. She hurt so bad last night she asked to go to bed at 6:00 pm.
She is a top student but her grades are going to fall because she doesn't get enough sleep because of the pain.
corkie

By Michelle Castle on Friday, December 12, 2003 - 10:02 pm:

corkie,

Have you talked with your daughter's teacher, guidance counselor, principal, etc? Maybe you can work something out with them that would make school more tolerable for her. For starters, they should be willing to give her more freedom in choosing her position throughout the day - letting her sit, stand, maybe even lie down at her discretion so long as she continues to pay attention and keep on task. Perhaps she could be given the freedom to walk around some in the classroom or hall as needed, or slip into the nurse's office and do some stretching. Even allowing her to prop her legs up might help.

At a minmimum, her school should be willing to do any or all of the above things, with appropriate notes from the doctor's and physical therapist's explaining why. They might be able to do more than that - exempting her from physical education, providing her an alternate activity during recess, giving her extra books so she doesn't have to carry them to-and-from school daily, providing her an aide to write down her answers on assingments if she has hand pain, maybe even supplying a home tutor so she only has to come half a day to school.

Assuming you live somewhere in the US, your daughter has the right to just about any accomodation she needs to get through school. Her teacher should be quick to work with you to find appropriate solutions, but if not, try the nurse, counselor, or principal. Involve her doctors and therapists; you can even consider getting in touch with some of the social services' agencies in yur area. Hope you can work this out!

Michelle