When you practice a sport you are more prone to injuries than people who don’t exercise. And this means you will eventually get injured. One of the most uncomfortable injuries is a knee injury, which limits your ability to move for some time. This is how your life changes after suffering a knee injury.
As cliché as it might sound, walking is something we take as granted, until we suffer an injury which prevents us from walking. Once your injured knee will keep you seated, you will notice just how important it is to be able to walk. As the knees take up our weight, every step will be painful for some time, even if you do have walking aids.
When you are unable to use your leg for a long period, it will begin to shrink. Dr. Melepura explains that this is the natural process of emaciation suffered by the unused muscles. The more rest you get, the more your muscles will reduce their size. Luckily, physical therapy can help you regain your ability to walk and once you do this, your muscles will return to their regular size, in time.
There are two ways to address the water problem when you have an injury: either try to shower on the rest of your body or skip it altogether. A knee injury which requires you to keep your leg away from water for several weeks can make showering a nightmare. There are special chairs one can use to make the process a little less complicated, but trying to wash your body when you can’t sit properly is more than challenging.
If you do manage to shower or, at least, solve the problem somehow, you will stumble upon a more stressful one: to the look. Wearing a knee brace and having to walk using crutches makes going to the bathroom an ordeal. If you need to do this in the middle of the night you will definitely wake up the entire household. Bending on one leg is a true art, which you might have to master really quick to avoid injuring yourself again.
Another difficult task for people who suffer a knee injury is fetching an item. Your hands are always on the crutches, so you won’t be able to cook, clean or pick something up without losing your ability to stand and walk.
A side-effect of walking with aids is the painful armpits. Because you will balance the crutches in your armpits each time you open a door or trying to use one of your hands, your armpits will become painful.
The only good thing is new treatments have shortened the recovery time after an injury, so you won’t have to put up with all these struggles for a long time. Even so, you will never see walking the same after suffering a knee injury.