OK. So any physical therapist/sports medicine types out there? As you probably know, I'm rehabbing a knee after ligament reconstruction. I'm getting to the point where I can walk around on it with certain precautions. Of course as I strengthen it and get back to full capability it tends to get inflamed. Now if you've done any basic sports medicine, you're familiar with the acronym RICE: Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. This helps an injured muscle to recover and reduces initial pain. But fucking around with ice is tedious, uncomfortable, and a general pain in the ass. Besides, it seems to me that swelling is the body's way of protecting the joint and telling me to take it easy--if the tissue around the knee puffs up it is physically impossible to bend the knee as far. Any thoughts?
Not exactly. Inflammation is the first line of defense in healing...fighting bacteria, killing injured tissues and delivering specialized cells and protiens to the site. The heat and swelling actually show that this process is working and that's good. The thing is, it can go too far. We are told to use ice to bring down the temperature and slow down that process and keep it from going out of control. Otherwise, it can start destroying the healthy and healing tissues and cause a worse problem than you began with. So, it's not just a comfort issue, though bring down swelling usually lessens pain. I wouldn't discontinue icing your knee until you talk to your doctor. If they want you to keep doing it, it's probably for a good reason and the last thing you need is something going amuck when you are starting to do better.
If it's the ice itself that's just a pain, try a bag of frozen peas. That's what I use every time I injure something and it's so much easier than ice IMHO. Otherwise, what Tamar said.
Peas or frozen corn. And what Tamar says - too much inflamation can cause an infection and knee reconstruction/replacements are nothing to mess with.
