I actually just had my first of 3 injections 2 days ago. I'm 36 yr old female, not afraid to say I'm very overweight, but have had 2 major surgeries on my right knee. I have pretty much zero cartilage in that knee, early arthritis, 6 screws and a few other pieces of hardware, cadaver parts--pretty much that knee has no original parts left; i've torn every ligament and it's been replaced, torn miniscus, you name it.
My surgeon suggested orthovisc, and I'm honestly not sure what my insurance covers but I am giving it a shot regardless b/c I have days where I can hardly walk. I hate taking pills--including ibuprofen that would probably actually help the arthritis. I hate not being able to workout or even walk around the block without pain (how am I supposed to lose weight if I can't exercise I mean really)?
So on to the shot: I have a fairly high pain tolerance to begin with (I've only ever taken pain meds for 3 days after my first big surgery and then I just sucked up the pain). My doc sprayed my knee with numbing spray & then in went the needle to the chosen spot. There is a lot of pressure you will feel (it didin't bother me, but after years of knee issues & surgeries I was used to injections)...but you will tighten your muscles and wince. It was a quick injection and then as he started going over what I couldn't do for at least 24 hrs it hit. SWEET MOTHER the pressure & pain. It's the weirdest feeling and I wish I could describe it, but I guess when you think about it you just had gel injected into one place and it's just sitting there in a lump until you start to move it around. I mean for me to say it hurt, my friends were surprised....some not so nice words came out of my mouth when it hit. They told me to hang out and swing my leg and move it around to get it going. I will say my knee & leg felt like I had just had surgery--it felt swollen & I was limping cause it felt like I couldn't straighten my leg back when I was standing. But ya just take it slow, and you can't workout or do anything too strenuous for 24 hrs.
48 hrs later--I can tell you it felt weird for a while. But now i can get out of the car after a ride across town with little pain, it's not excruciating to take that first step in the morning from bed, and after sitting all day at work it's stiff but not painful. I admit I have not done my part in keeping up with my strengthening exercises so my knee is weak, but paiin wise it's a 100% improvement. I think that initial pain and the 24 hrs of weird/swollen feeling in my knee is worth it. Injection #2 is next week and then the last the following. If this even gives me a few months of no pain it will be worth it! I talked to another patient who got them and he said his really started to kick in a month later---I kinda guess that's cause it's all finally settled where it needed to go and any inflammation in your knee from the actual shot has subsided.
On a random exercise note: I started doing T-Tapp which is made for people with bad back/knees, just issues in general. It's more about positioning & using your muscles than full on cardio; she wants you to be aligned properly so with little stress on your joints you still get a workout. You won't necessarily sweat like you just did p90x, but it's been a God send for me. It pretty much concentrates on inches rather than the scale--which I believe is the true measure of weight loss (inches). You can look up the site, but you can also try it before you buy via the website. If you're hurting & cannot workout but know you need to move this could be the one for you....they have a seated workout too! I'm not endorsing cause I dont work for the company, just saying from someone with a lot of knee issues who needs to lose weight to help w/ those issues it may be worth a shot.
Post Edited (poseidon_92) : 4/11/2014 10:13:55 AM (GMT-6)