Re: Painful knees again-fibro related pain? - & Cindy C.

[Guest guest]

I mentioned that my surgeon said that my knee pain was probably

fibro.related. He didn't say why. On Friday when i started back into

PT, i mentioned that my knees have continued to get more and more

painful. I pointed out that it was in the inside of my knees. She

immediately said that it was a classical fibro related pain.

If this is so, what in the world is the treatment? I 've been doing

the leg lifting but they aren't making any good. Does anyone know

anything that will help? Walking has gotten more and more difficult

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I assume from your comments that you have been diagnosed as having

Fibromyalgia? If you have, a really excellent book on the subject

is " Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain " by Devin Starlanyl and

Ellen Copeland.

You said your knee pain was in the inside of the knees and that

walking has become increasingly difficult. Two questions. Is the

pain on the inside of the leg AT the knee or within the knee cap

itself? Secondly, is your knee buckling on you?

On page 107 of the book, they discuss knee pain in terms of trigger

points in the Vastus Medialis muscle. There are two - one about

three finger widths straight up from inside edge of the knee cap.

The second one is just about half way between the knee and the groin

on a straight line up from the knee cap. Take your finges and poke,

prod, palpate all around these areas. You are looking for a really

tender point that refers pain to the knee.

If you find one (and they refer pain), then you have a trigger

point. The easiest treatment is to simply apply direct, deep,

sustained pressure into the point with your finger tip, thumb, or

some rounded object (end of a pencil?) until (a) the pain stops

referring and ( the pressure on the point stops being painful. It

sometimes takes a few sessions to make it go away, but you can make

it go away. No, it won't be a pleasant feeling, but it is something

you can do to treat yourself if you do have trigger points.

If you are having problems with your knee buckling, the above

trigger points sometimes act in combination with trigger points in

the adductor longis and adductor brevis muscles. These are a bit

more difficult to describe for the location, but here goes. Center

of the front of the leg and about about three finger widths medially

(toward the inside), about two-three finger widths below a line

drawn straight across from the bottom of the crotch. Again, poke

and prod around in this general area. If you do have trigger points

in this area, the pain referral will be just above the hip, center

to outside of the leg.

For just plain knee pain, like from arthritis, I just use the

Polarity X technique.