Dear LPG,

I have now seen my mum go through two knee replacement operations and I was in pain just watching and being there.  I had about three years to watch her get over the first one.  I remember her having to get up the day after the operation when the medical staff at the hospital told her that she had to work through the pain and get to the other side, and I remember about a week after when she took those first steps outside the front door and to the end of the garden, and then I remember her deciding to have the other knee done and the pain which I knew would be twofold;   the pain that I would see on her face while she worked through learning to walk on her new knee and also that pain that I felt, and would feel again while watching the process and seeing her discomfort.

They say that most things that affect us are hereditary, and having watched, I wonder if I would ever have it done! 

With that in mind I have resolved to find out if there is anything I can do to minimise the chances of ever having to get to a point in my life when I will find myself having to make a similar decision.

I stem from West Indian roots and, over there, there is a saying, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’, and I started to wonder what I can do with the twenty years or so which I have before, if my hereditary theory is founded, I end up in hospital facing a similar ordeal with the knowledge of all that added physical pain.  

I know that there are many products on the market that claim to do this sort of preventative work, but when I think of all the chemicals that are added I prefer to avoid those and use as many natural remedies as I can.  I have learned from reading other articles posted on your site that the internet is always one way forward if you want to find information on any subject and so I took a look there, and there is no shortage of suggestions on line.

I found quite a few natural remedies, some designed to be prepared and ingested.  But I am much more interested in the suggested exercises, and ointment recipes that might help.  I always think that if you make something from scratch and know exactly what is in it, it has to be a little healthier than the stuff you buy in a jar. 

It may also be a good idea to mention some of this to your forty and fifty-something year old children, as there has to be some truth in the theory that the younger you start the more effective the final outcome will be. Only time will tell, but I know that knees and legs are often the bits of the body that cause us older people problems and having done a little research I would like to share it with LPG readers. 

RM, Lee

RM offers links to what she has found on line…

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