UKC

For two weeks now I’ve been suffering significant knee pain. I managed to speak to the physio attached to my GP practice who sent me for an x-ray, prescribed lots of pain killers but I was not offered a face to face consultation. The technician said it may be 3 weeks before a result.  How has the health service deteriorated! My dentist takes a couple of minutes. So I’m wondering if anyone has any idea what my problem might be.

There was no trauma. The pain is intermittent and seems to come in surges. The worst thing seems to be when sitting at table, though walking is painful. Oddly, I still seem able to ride a bike. A bit uncomfortable for first mile but then no pain. I fear the worst as no improvement over two weeks. Does this sound like a prelude to a knee replacement?

I’m not going to speculate on whats wrong, however unfortunately the NHS is not concerned with your quality of life as far as pursuing a hobby. If you are lucky enough to have the finances then book an appointment with a good sport physio therapist and possibly a MRI, I found speaking to a physio about my knee helped lift some of the gloom around my knee injury and gave me some optimism and rehab direction.
if you this is financially beyond you then unfortunately you’ll have to develop some sharp elbows and a tolerance for working through kafkaesque situations.

good luck and don’t let despondency prevent you from getting it  sorted wether it through physio/rehab be or surgery.

The reason for the result of the X ray taking a few weeks is that unlike dental x-rays, an outpatient x-ray is reviewed and reported on by a specialist doctor rather than looked at on the spot by a dentist. It's certainly been the case as long as I can remember that there's a slight delay in this and not really an indication of health service deterioration. 

Really you ought to see someone and get them to examine the knee as a first step. 2 weeks is quite a short time in terms of musculoskeletal conditions so I wouldn't get too concerned about lack of improvement. 

TBH the NHS isn't that concerned with quality of life regarding anything, unless you've deteriorated to the point of needing a wheelchair. Not the NHS fault re funding, but when you've got a GP who won't even refer you because it's all too much bother for them, that doesn't help either.

You got to see a GP!! You lucky lucky barsteward!

Probably not the reply you were hoping for, however the problem is that you haven't yet found the physio that will tell you how to fix your knee. There are a few good NHS ones out there, and a good number of private ones, mostly advertising as sports physios.

A few years ago I was doing some complaining about one of my knees, and my mate told me in no uncertain terms to stop ranting on and get myself down to my local physio. So I did that, and the lovely physio examined the knee, grabbed it in a certain way and said is that the problem. OUCH. Then she gave me a set of strengthening exercises to do without fail and come back in two weeks for a progress check.

It worked.

Of course your experience may vary, however if you check on here for knee issues, you'll find a good number of posts where folk have fixed their knees with help, and very few who resorted to surgery.

I hope it goes well for you.

'The pain is intermittent and seems to come in surges. The worst thing seems to be when sitting at table, though walking is painful.' 

sounds like a problem behind your knee cap....possibly. You would benefit form seeing a good physio for an opinion and some rehab for home. Bit premature to think of knee replacement until you have XRAY report.

Google search your area Rog….you need a musculoskeletal physio to assess you. Will cost £60-80 or thereabouts for a good assessment….

Always found these guys pretty good. South Lakes based

https://thebodyrehab.co.uk/

Good luck with whatever direction you take to get it fixed.

For me I was well down the road to a new knee with fairly regular pain walking (though not cycling). Very regular, as in daily, pilates/yoga/strengthening exercise has helped so much I have little pain and have put the new knee on the back burner for hopefully quite a few more years

Me too. I have an appointment with the knee expert in early July!

https://www.welcometobookends.co.uk/titles/clair-davies/trigger-point-thera...

Get this book. I've used it to sort loads of niggles and injuries for years. Had a running related knee problem recently, this sorted it within a few days.

£25 is at least half the cost of a private physio appointment - got to be worth a go.

It makes no difference to you that it will take three weeks to get the result.

It's not broken, so the answer is rehab/physio.

As it's not broken and no trauma, the xray will not show anything that cannot be improved by rehab/physio/exercises. 

If it is your first knee problem there is nothing to be gained from catastrophising about replacement; see a physio for rehab exercises.

No idea of your finances, but it would be a wise investment to pay to see a good knee physio who can diagnose it and tell you what you need to do to rehab it.

You don't need to see physio more than once if you can't afford to; just become a machine about the exercises.

I think it is a bit shoddy of the physio to delay getting on with it by waiting for a xray which won't show a break and won't show anything that delays rehab/exercises.

If the physio won't see you until the process is followed of waiting for a result which won't show a reason not to start rehab, go find a physio who can think not in terms of process but in terms of clinical assessment and rehab.

DOI I am not a physio but I deal with knee injuries pretty much every day at work.

(usual disclaimer about me not being a physio... etc.)

Many years ago (20 yrs-ish) I experienced a bout of 'movie-goers knee' (really! Google it...) where the tracking of the patella as you bend the leg goes slightly awry, resulting in a pain which gets slowly worse if you sit down for medium/long periods of time (hence the name...)

I visited a sports physio for an initial diagnosis and some exercises (which certainly helped a bit).  However, it was cycling which gave the fastest and longest-lasting improvement.  Bottom line (if I remember correctly) was that I needed to build up the supporting muscles around the knee to bring the patella back in line.  Has been absolutely fine for years now.

read this thread with interest as I am having some knee issues. Achilles tear in the left knee has left me favouring the right when going down on one knee. This habit, a recent 2 year stint of gardening for work involving a lot of bending/getting up from kneeling down and an suspected injury from sliding across the grass trying to catch  ball while playing with friends' kids means my knees get tired and stiff quite quickly. Did I mention I'm 51? I have always cycled a lot although dropped off recently with the gardening work and in trying to build the distances & regularity up I'm noticing my right knee doesn't always feel quite right. 

Anyway I'll my Gp a shout to start (normally pretty good on physio side of things here) and see where that gets me. I want to get it sorted as I'm planning a 3 month cycle trip when I'm 54! 

(I'll also be bringing up  tendonitis and elbow strain in both elbows from gardening with the GP... Middle age is such fun lol) 

So I’m in the process of booking a private MRI and consultation, I’m viewing this as a back up and addition to rehab, I’m very keen to avoid surgery so really need to get ontop of the rehab.

However a bit of a setback has me hobbling around again and I’ve got the horrible feeling summer plans may have to be changed.

I also have to hold up my hands that I've been fairly slack with the rehab, so if you take one thing from this, its see a good physio and really really stick with the program, the other thing is the cause can come from else where as i suspect the root cause is a tight ITB throwing my gait off.

So anyone hitting 40 plus stretch stretching and strengthening 😏

I’ll keep you posted on my experience, I never thought I would be driven to going private and have taken on more work to cover the cost and potential future cost, which I guess has increased my productivity in the machine which is what some people want. 😕

Thanks to all for some interesting comments.