Hi - My name is Sophie.
I have suffered from chronic pain for just over 3.5 years and it is really getting on my nerves now!
I am only 14 and I have been in pain every day since it started.
Doctors are calling it Mal-tracked Patella fermerals, severs, and Chronic pain.
I find it really difficult to do much movement and so my weight has gone up and I am in need of excersizes which I am able to do.
PLEASE help.x
Miss Selvin, look into Stem Cell Therapy. Look up and research all your options just like you researched this forum. I had it done 2 months ago. It is a very good option for you. EV
Hi Sophie. Have you seen a physio? You might be better off going to see one as they can advice you on what exercise you can and can't do. As you could end up doing yourself more damage if you just jump in and don't get any professional advice. I have had chedonic pain for nearly 20yrs so I feel your pain. Hope this helps.
I truly hope that you have some adult help or can seek someone out who can help you. You are so young n shouldn't have to go thru this alone. Hopefully u can start with a doctor who is a specialist in chronic pain, from what I know exercise is always a good solution to helping pain, as long it is done properly, scour the Internet for help ( not scams). I use meditation to help with my pain, however it needs real concentration. Please, seek professional help, I hate hearing your in so much pain for so many years. Healing prayers blowing your way..... 🌬🌬🌬
Sending peace and love to you....... I'm so proud of your ability to communicate your needs and reach out for help. You are older than your years. Most of us with these terrible knee problems can relate to the time we first started to realize that something was wrong. On your own, without professional help which is sometimes hard to get, even for we older folk who seek it, you will face the frustrations of which you speak. Gaining weight is what we all have experienced when we are not as mobile as we would like to be. But at your age, I know it is even harder to realize and try to work with. You might try water movements on your own, but even there, you will not want to twist your knee the wrong way while suspended when you don't really feel the pain and then get out of the pool to discover you may moved that mal tracked knee in a way that is now hurting even more. Of course, I am just old, and not a doctor nor have medical training, but I have your patella problem along with more bone spurs and a particularlly bad rare disease as well. As I look back on my history, I can remember thinking that I ignored it all for a long time. Fortunately, you are smart enough to get out there and ask questions and I hope computer search all you can to keep informed. Answers will come and I hope that you can have at least one good session with a physical therapist so that you can write down the exercises and repeat them confidently at home. In getting your problem diagnosed, you must have encountered some kind of ortho guy. Did that person offer any solution to your problem? Or were you just left hanging as many of us were in our experiences. "Where there is a will, there is a way!" Be assertive and pro-active and continues to seek answers from your adult community. Haviing been a teacher for 43 years, it comes to mind that if your adult community is not supportive, perhaps a teacher-mentor can step up and seek help for you. We are all in different countries and ortho help is quite different, but the driving force of getting help is the patient, himself/herself. Once again I compliment you on your attempt to reach out and ask. Chronic pain can be relieved with various salves and ointments temporarily and certain pills called NSAIDS etc. We usually don't like to see young people having to resort to constant relief from them, so you see, you do need professional advice before trying them on your own. Do not compare yourself to any other young person who seems to be so active and content. All people have problems to bear, some seen, some unseen, some solvable and some not so solvable. Your young friends are not you. You, my dear, are something very SPECIAL !!
Thank you so so much x
Thank you so so much. You made me tear up a bit x No one really seems to understand other than people who have been through it themselves. I hope you feel better x
I will look into it thanks x
I have seen nearly 7 physios and the one I am using at the moment we think we will stick to. She works at GOSH
I don't know if you feel the same but I sometimes feel like people are fobbing me of. I've been past from pillar to post.Over the years I have had one consultant look at my leg after one op and say "what butcher did that",which as you can imagine made me feel wonderful (not). I totally agree with what you say that people don't understand how we feel. Dealing with chronic pain on a daily basis is so debilitating and depressing. It's so nice to talk to people who are in the same situation as myself. I have my husband son and friends to talk to but they can't fully understand how I feel.
So true . I hope that you get better x
Have been told it won't get better only worse over time (if that's at all possible). Have been told it's a case now of managing my pain with drugs.If during my search and chats in these forums I find anything new he's willing to try for me. Which I will be doing more research into stem cell therapy that someone else had mentioned on here as he had had it done recently. I'm hoping it can be done on our nhs.
Im really sorry to hear that. If you do decide to have stem cell therapy, please could you let me know how it goes x
Yeah off course I will. I've made a start on doing some research. Will keep you updated.
Thanks so much x Stem cell therapy all sounds a little scary ( and expensive!) dont know much about it to be fair
Sophie, I am still thinking about our common problem of gaining weight when our knees are hurting and keeping us from moving much. One of my doctors told me that for every pound that I could lose, my knee would feel a loss of 6 poounds. At first, I didn't believe her, but I tried it and yes, my knee hurt a little less. I don't believe in special diet for weight loss in adults, much less for young people, so what I did which may work for you is to just eat a sensible , well balanced diet, only cut the volume of it just a little. For instance, if you usually grabbed a handful of cookies and it was 4 of them, then only choose 3 of them the next time. If you like certain entrees for your main meals, just cut the amount by a couple of spoonfuls. Over 2 or 3 weeks, you could lose a pound. Believe me, it works. Do not leave off any food groups. Eat widely, differenet colors, etc., but just a tiny bit less.
Also, the first doctor I found who helped me a little gave me in addtion to a shot , just one exercise for mal tracked patella... just lie on your back in bed and lift your stiff leg up and lower it very slowly , almost to the mattress, but not touching it, and then raise it up slowly again. He said 40 times ! (I know!! At first I did less). You will feel this in your abdomen too, but it will strengthen the muscles on the sides of your leg to help keep your knee cap from moving around where it will hurt. I don't believe this could hurt anything else that is going on, but you will know when you try it, if it could do some good.
I sense that you may not be able for several reasons to access help with your problem, so I am trying to help you in practical ways to get through it until you are a little older and have more options. A good knee brace is another thing to help when you have stairs to climb or heavy loads to lift, like a backpack of school books. You know the kind, that has an opening for the patella and fits real snug around the joint. My brace has steel bars on each side and is heavy and cumbersome, but I love it because it helps my knee hurt less. I don't wear it all the itme, of course, as you don't want our own muscles to forget how to work and support you. You can purchase the elastic support kind in most pharmacies.
Hang in there!!! Find some joy in each day. It is a beautiful world if you look in the right places.
Keep reading the forum. There are some wonderful people on line who freely share what they know.
Hugs to a brave girl........
Thank you. The physio I am working with at the moment told me to do that excersize as well along with 2 others. I ha to do them 5 times for a week then buid up to 30 and then start adding .5 kg weighs until I reached 3 which has definately improved my muscle strength but my pain seems to be getting nowhere.
As for the weight , I don' tend to eat very much anyway. I am seeing a nutriotinal therapist who makes me take a few supplements everyday.
Anyway. I am seeing some great doctors and am soon to see a pain therapist so hopefully that will help.
Thanks again
I'm hoping that I can get this on the nhs (I live in the uk) It's worth a look.
Dear knewneeh,
Can you please give me some information on your stem cell experience. I have chondromalacia patella and this is something I have been considering. Where did you have it done?
Hello and yes certainly I can share my experience. I had it done in New Jersey, USA. On June 10 2016. It took about four hours with a break in between to set the next procedure. It cost me $7100.00. Included the initial consultation, procedure, injections and IV. All follow up also. Very little pain in procedure. No therapy afterwards or scars, pain medication or insertion of a foreign object in your body. There is a 90% success rate for all SCT that is orthopedic in nature. It requires a three month re coup. The USA is probably the last country to use stem cells to cure the body. It's been successfully used for the last five years in Asia.
Hope this helps. EV