How to treat the pain in the knees?
Patient: My right leg aches when falling asleep and often wakes me up at night. It seems to start in my knee and radiate in each direction. I ve never had knee problems. I am female, 56 years old, 5 3, and weigh 150. Do you have any thoughts on how to relieve this pain so that I sleep better. I do sleep with a pillow between my knees and have done so for many, many years after suffering from back problems. I would think that the pillow would provide relief, so I m totally at a loss. I sleep 95% of the time on my left side, but it sure would be nice to change position every once in awhile. Thank you Doctor: hi,thank you for providing the brief history of you.A thorough neuromuscular assessment is advised along with MRI of lumbar spine.As the pain starts in midnight there are two possibilities here which I can understand. first - due to the back injury in the past now there's will help a pinched nerve , so is the symptoms and second - restless leg syndrome, a possibility of irritation to the sensory part of the Nerve.I will advice you to undergo physical therapy like - TENS therapy to reduce the pain and exercises on a later stages to strengthen the muscles of core, spine, pelvic floor and lower limbs.In my clinical practice, majority of patients respond well to physical therapy.RegardsJay Indravadan Patel