One night when I got up from the sofa my left knee twisted at an awkward angle. It didn’t really hurt, but I heard a distinct “pop” when it happened. I gingerly walked around for a few minutes but nothing seemed to be out of place. By the time I went to bed I had forgotten all about the incident.
When I awoke the next morning I heard a clicking sound every time I took a step, but it still didn’t hurt. I continued with all of my exercise classes with just an occasional twinge to my left knee. One day everything changed, seemingly overnight.
Acute Knee Pain
Three weeks after I initially twisted my knee I started having sharp, shooting pains every time I took a step. I had developed acute knee pain. In addition, the clicking sound I had grown accustomed to hearing was now a grinding sound. Even worse, my knee hurt so much that I was limping by the time I left for work that morning.
Ever the nurse, I decided I did not want to see the doctor. I would rest my knee and see if that helped. Resting my knee worked for about two weeks, but walking became more painful. At this point my brother mentioned that he’d been taking glucosamine for his knee pain and it seemed to be helping. When I checked with my doctor about any possible concerns with taking the pills, I was surprised to learn that he had been taking it for his joint pain for years.
Will Glucosamine Help?
I figured if it worked for my brother and my doctor it might just work for me. I stopped at the store on the way home. There was a variety of glucosamine available so I read the labels on the bottles. Since they all seemed to have the same ingredients I just bought the least expensive brand. The instructions were to take the pills twice a day, but I don’t like taking pills so I decided to take it once a day.
About three days after I started taking the glucosamine my knee pain was decreased by about half. Wondering whether it was really the pills that were helping, I decided to stop taking them to see what would happen. This was a big mistake.
Two days after I stopped taking the pills my knee pain was back at full force. Needless to say, I did not repeat this experiment. About three weeks after restarting the pills I arrived at work and realized that for the first time in months my knee wasn’t hurting.
Success!
A little cautious, since the last time I stopped taking the pills the pain came back so readily, I decided to take the pills for one more week. The plan worked. It has been about 15 months since this episode occurred and I have not had any problems with my knee. I resumed full exercise activity a week after I stopped taking the glucosamine.
As an aside, because I had so many glucosamine pills left and because of the success I had with the pills, my husband decided to try taking them. He had chronic joint pain in his foot and ankle for years and he often used over-the-counter painkillers. About three months after he started taking glucosamine his joint pain was greatly decreased and he seldom needed to take painkillers.
He continues to take glucosamine whenever he feels the pain coming back, but he rarely needs painkillers. Glucosamine was successful in stopping my acute joint pain and in greatly lessening my husband’s chronic joint pain. While anyone experiencing joint pain should get checked by their doctor, upon doing so and with clearance from the doctor, I would highly recommend trying glucosamine for joint pain. Who knows, it just might work for you too.
