After treating Vitamin D/calcium defficiency, significantly decreased pain.

[Guest guest]

Hi friends,

Long story short

Doc #1 gives me Glucosamine for 15 days, asks me to " be careful " because " knee

pain can become chronic " . To take it easy.

I do and it still hurts.

Doc #2 sends me to rehab: pool exercises, some Pilates exercises, ultrasound to

reduce inflammation. 5 months of this. Temporary relief but a few days of

leaving it leaves me almost back to square 1. Weariness.

Doc #2.5 (unrelated doc) tells me ultrasound removes calcium from the bones and

it is not recommended to use it often.

Doc #3 wants to perform an arthroscopy right away after seeing in an X ray that

everything is fine. It took 15 minutes of my complaints for his conclusion. I

get scared and cry.

Doc #4 tells me the problem is muscle strength imbalance and to strengthen the

inner part of the upper leg. That no surgery is needed. It makes sense to me, I

never had any strength in that part.

FINALLY I go to Doc #5 in a great hospital abroad, Bumrungrad in Bangkok. They

order a MRI (for some reason no one before had asked for it!). Doc tells me I

don't have any cartilage damage! a really minor tear only but almost nothing and

not the cause of concern.

She orders blood tests and it turns out my vitamin D is like 14 units when it

should be 80 (if I recall well..) in any case I am put into Vit D treatment,

ordered to take some sun and to eat pizza with cheese. I like this doctor. She

tells me surgery would have done nothing for me but to take any savings away.

After the Vit D treatment my knees have become swollen sometimes with

discomfort, but the pain is NOTHING compared to what I used to feel, when I

could not even sleep.

I have tried to pin down what causes the inflammation and have not found it yet.

I suspect driving my manual transmission car is not so good for me.

I suspected of stairs, but the other day I climbed 4 stories repeatedly setting

up an exihibition, with slightly high heels! I thought it would be horrible and

guess what... I had NO sequels of this...

Went to kickboxing again on sunday - I do skip some of the exercises but I did

jump around a bit -my knees were OK and I felt GREAT.

Did some yoga-was aafraid of the knee- intense poses- did a few of them though,

to try, and I was OK Afterwards.

The only time when my knees really start clicking and hurting again is when too

many days pass and I do nothing. I have noticed when I stay more or less active

I am fine. Walking has helped too.

So now my treatment is

Yoga, always trying modification if a pose does not feel so right

Pilates with modifications with a great teacher.

Walking, walking

Skating

Box to keep the endorphines high.

Kickboxing avoiding jumping a lot/kicking a lot.

PIZZA which I am having for dinner, more dairy products

Sun

Avoiding high heels for long periods of time

Feeling grateful for what I do have, just today I saw someone in a wheelchair

and I felt grateful I can still walk and do some sports

Warmth in the knees, even if its only my hands

Glucosamine, MSM, choindritine complex

Vitamins

Herbal creams, I am using one that cost me like 3 dollars, kind of numbs & warms

up the knees, reduces inflammation.

Yoga is my no 1 healer, working muscles independently does not work, at least it

did not work for me. The theory is that the pain is caused by muscle imbalance

so I need to work all the muscle groups and let the body balance itself. In

addition to all the other mental/emotional benefits.

So I am very happy I am no longer in pain and with some steps I have been able

to have a normal life again.

I hope everyone finds alternatives to deal with this frustrating condition. And

if you haven't, take a blood test. Without Vitamin D, there is no way muscles

can develop, no matter how much you try, this is what was happening to me. I

wonder why none of the other " doctors " asked for this in the first place.