Introduction
Making it simple, memorable, and practical through 4 Pillars of Knee OA Care
As useful as they are, you don’t need to study the guidelines or memorize the OA pyramid. We’ve created the 4 PIllars of Knee OA care to translate all of that information into an easy to use, practical format.
What are the FusionPhysio Four Pillars of Knee OA Care?
These pillars are the foundation on which we can place all the recommendations of the Knee OA Guidelines and the Osteoarthritis Pyramid. Our course will devote one simple chapter to each
Get Informed
We start with increasing your knowledge. This sections covers the critical aspects of what you need to about the condition.
Control the Pain
After you learn a little bit about what knee OA is, we move into getting immediate symptom relief. The pain is, of course, what drives most people to seek treatment in the first place. You typically seek out treatment, at least initially, when you are in a flared up stage of Knee OA. We need to get control of this pain in order to move on to the measures that make a long-term difference to your condition.
Reduce the Load
Once your symptoms are under control, you can focus on some of the lifestyle actions / biomechanical changes that can make a long term change in your condition. The first is to understand is that you can make a difference to the strain on your knee with through weight loss, and if needed, unloading by artificial means (braces, walking poles, etc).
Get it Strong
Finally, we turn exercise. This is perhaps the most important item in this course. For long term and lasting changes accomplishing the ultimate goals of this course (better quality of life, increased activities, lower medication use, avoiding surgery) will take some consistent effort. But it may not be as hard as you think! Even a couple of exercises have been shown to make a difference.
Getting some help with the journey . . .
No matter how severe your knee OA, you can use the information in this course to start treating your own knee and managing your knee osteoarthritis. In many cases, it may be all you need.
However, many of you will need some help along the way.
You can certainly use this course on your own, but if I had my way for everyone, they would work with a physiotherapist for several sessions they learned how to manage their Knee OA. Everyone has some uniqueness that comes out on assessment that allows use to tailor or nuance the recommendations to your situation. An evaluation by an experienced physiotherapist can help by:
determining what your goals are - how active do you want to be? What does your job require? What is Knee OA stopping you from? The answers to this questions should be the background to any Knee OA treatment plan
assessing the state of inflammation in your knee and what pain control measures work best at the point you are at
assessing your specific knee OA risk factors, determining those that are modifiable and where to focus your attention
customizing an exercise plan, taking into account your specific weaknesses and current exercise tolerance levels (making sure you are not working too hard, or too little)
assessing for whether bracing may be an option, including compression / stability / and unloading options
communicating as required with your family doctor to fine-tune your medical care
connecting you to community partners for further assistance including in weight loss, footwear, gym programs, kinesiology, etc.
helping you know what resources might be available thorugh our provincial health system, extended benefit programs, WorkSafe, special government programs (RCMP, DVA, DND, various government ministries).
and more !
While even one assessment can be helpful, we find a series of weekly sessions over 4-6 weeks to help settle the knee and provide and ongoing exercise program is most effective.
To book an assessment for knee osteoarthritis, contact info@fusionphysiochilliwack.com and asked to be assessed for the Knee Osteoarthritis Program.
