It is tempting to hope that knee pain that seemed to come from out of nowhere or happened after a slight stumble will go away on its own. If it is a minor sprain and you take care of yourself, it is possible that it will. However, there are many reasons why knee pain might not go away. Here are a few reasons why you might need to seek out the help of a professional rather than continue with pain management that doesn’t resolve the problem.
- You didn’t follow the RICE plan- RICE stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. In short, you didn’t take care of yourself so that you could recover. It is difficult to give yourself recuperation time when you are typically very active, but if you don’t, you could continue to suffer with knee pain and could make matters worse.
- Rest doesn’t mean just resting your knee. It means getting enough sleep, too! If you don’t, you do not give your body the chance it needs to put its energy into healing. Try to increase the amount of sleep you get normally so you stand a better chance of your knee pain dissipating.
- Watch what you eat. Your body can’t heal if it isn’t properly nourished and many foods can cause inflammation all on their own which will exacerbate your knee pain. There are many foods that can help you heal after a sports injury or other knee injury.
- Recognize that your knee pain might have nothing to do with your knee. If you are experiencing knee pain and do not recall doing anything that may have injured it, it is unlikely for the knee pain to go away without medical attention.
- Even if you do recall the incident where pain started, you might not realize how damaging it was. Your knee pain could be a result of a more serious issue than you thought, and if you did follow RICE and it isn’t helping, that is a warning sign of a more complex injury that needs medical attention.
If you are experiencing mild, moderate, severe, or chronic knee pain and would like to have it checked out, reach out to us at York Foot Orthotics and Bracing. Our goal is to get to the cause of your knee pain and recommend a treatment plan that will get your life back to normal again. If your knee pain isn’t going away on its own, despite doing everything right, it is time to give us a call.