- All right, whether you injured your knee from trauma
or some kind of injury
or your knee is just gradually getting more and more painful
and swelling, whatever it may be,
this video is gonna help you determine
if should you go into see a doctor or not.
- Right.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- All right, Bob.
I've boiled this down to seven different categories.
- Gotcha. - I think it covers 99 point.
- Your favorite number.
- Yep. 99.4% of the problems will be covered in these seven.
So the first one; If you hurt your knee
or it's just getting so bad that when you walk,
when you put weight at it, it's painful and you're limping.
- You look like Dr. House.
- Right.
And let's say you are not getting better.
If you're limping one day
and the next day its better, - Right, it's better.
- That's one thing.
- Or it feels like it's getting better.
- Yeah. If it's getting worse day by day
or if it's very painful,
you gotta go in and get it checked out.
You need X-rays.
- And use a walker or a cane or a crutch.
I say you go and see a doctor.
- Don't tough it out, you know?
I might do that.
I remember ain't gonna need no cane, but yeah.
Use something, stay safe so you don't fall
or you'll irritate it more.
Number two, Bob; Swelling.
It's not unusual that you injure your knee or it swells.
And that doesn't mean you should go unto the doctor.
But if you've got a knee that's swelling
where it's just the dimples are swelled, that's one thing.
But when you've gotta,
so it looks like you've doubled the size of the girth,
looks like a watermelon. - Yeah.
- Then you should get in. - Right.
- Get in, get it checked out.
Or if the swelling is getting worse day to day.
Maybe you did it and it's like that watermelon
but in a few hours or the next day,
- It's a lot better. - It's a lot better.
That's okay.
- I wanna say it's too bad if you have a lot of bruising
in the muscle around it. - Yep.
- That might be a sign too, they might have tore something.
- Right, yeah.
So you got, we call it ecchymosis
and sometimes that doesn't show up until the next day.
- Yeah, exactly.
- All of a sudden it's all black and blue,
that purplish color.
- Right? - Yeah.
So those are all things that means it's bleeding inside.
Get to the doctor in those circumstances.
- Number three. - Number three, yeah.
We're talking about, do you feel unstable?
- Right.
- So you're walking there, it's not painful particularly,
- It just starts to feel right.
- Yeah. - Gives way.
- And these are two things that are commonly happening.
Either that extends back this way and it's like,
"Oh!" - Right.
- And then puts you at risk for fall Bob
and then you don't wanna compound it.
The other thing is the quads may give up
because of the pain and they'll make you go down like this.
- Yeah, exactly.
- And it'll come just like that sometimes.
- Right. - And then down you go.
- What a surprise? - Yeah.
So if you got buckling or hyper extension
that I tried to demonstrate,
make sure you get in because it's gonna lead to,
particularly with elderly people
that may not be able to catch themselves
and really have a problem.
- Number four. - Number four.
We're gonna talk about the kneecap.
Put your knees right to each other.
They should look about the same.
- You can actually find the edges of 'em
and see where they're at, how they line up.
- Right. If you got one knee cap
that is over a half inch compared to one
and usually they they do go to the outside direction.
- Outside, right?
- And then when you bend it,
it's painful associated with that.
You should get in.
I mean, sometimes it looks good like this
and then you do a range of motion
and then it pops over one way or another
and you feel the clunk and it's painful.
Get in, get it checked out. - Yeah.
- Number five.
- Number five; Popping, grinding, crepitus.
All these things that, something's going on in that knee.
- Right. I think that's fine
but if it is associated with pain, get in.
- I mean, I've heard people's knees crackle and pop,
so you could hear it across the room
and they feel-- - Ice crispies.
- Yeah. And they feel no pain
and I don't get excited about it.
- It's been going on for years.
- But all of a sudden you get pain,
particularly sharp pain associated with that.
You should go in, get it checked out
'cause something needs to be-- - It's not right.
- It needs to be looked at. - Probably is a mess.
- Don't be stubborn.
- Number six, Brad. - Number six.
What therapists are good for is range of motion.
Now you can check your range of motion
and simply this is the injured knee.
Look at your good knee first.
Can you straighten it fully?
Can you bend it fully?
The answer will probably be yes.
So look at your sore knee
and if you could straighten it right to here,
well that's not fully straight.
- It might be real subtle.
- You're right, exactly. - Or lack a motion.
- So check it and compare it to one leg to the other.
They should be even.
- You might even put it on stools.
- Oh! Here.
Ah! I don't want you to overexert yourself Bob.
We got a stool.
It doesn't look pretty, but--
- Now show one that's bent, Brad.
- Yeah. Let's say this one is the normal one
and this one doesn't go down.
It's like, "Oh"
and then you push it and it kinda hurts too.
- And the same with bending it.
You can actually feel, it does feel right.
- Yeah, you get in.
If this foot, the heel goes to your butt.
Well, this one probably should too
unless you had a previous injury.
But you get in here and "Ah!"
So check both ways extension, flexion,
if it's painful with it and it's not getting any better,
- It's not getting better. - By the next day,
get in, get it checked out.
- All right, number seven
or sieben as the Germans call it.
- Oh really? - Yeah.
- I'll be darn.
Well anyway, seven.
It's a good number and we're gonna stick with it
the last one.
And it's if your knee tends to lock up.
- Right.
- And I can give you a little example of this.
I had a woman come in.
She was about 40 years old and she says,
"When I bend my knee, it locks
but then if I kind of wiggle it around then it's okay."
- Right.
- And she said, "If I go up and down steps,
it's more common."
So I had her go up and down the steps
and it locked and it was painful and she did this and she--
- Oh! She went.
- So you know what I did?
- What'd you?
- I called the orthopedic doctor
and she got an appointment and she left my office.
- And the sir.
- 'Cause yeah, I knew it was a problem.
She had to have the doctor look at it.
It was almost certainly her meniscus.
- Right. Cartilage is floating around
and it gets stuck.
- Yep. And it's very difficult to treat that with therapy,
get it assessed and see if a simple surgery to debride it
or pull the fluid out and fix things quickly.
- There we go and that's all said Brad.
- Good luck with your knees
because if you don't got your knees,
it's gonna be hard to run. - Or walk.
- How'd that sound? - Or kick footballs.
(upbeat music)