oooops i can never remember which it is to treat a painful knee cap.
i dislocated the knee a year or 2 back and left it three days , mum said i should go to the Dr , so i eventually went .
when i seen the Dr she said na you seen me to soon , we dont do anything until 5 weeks if your still in pain.
she put me on painkillers that did nothing .
then last year the knee came out three times in one day so i just popped it back in each time.
mum had enough and called the Dr’s to get a phone consultation as she was worried about it coming out so much and she did not 100% believe me when i told her what the Dr told me.
they confirmed on the phone they wont touch a knee if it keeps coming out and can be put back with no issues.
they would only remotely consider helping if the knee came out and stayed out and had been out of place for 10 mins.
and then if that were to happen not to call them , but make your own way to a hospital.
the knee had been fine since , until the last 3 days but the last 36 hours even when sitting doing nothing , the knee starts throbbing and is painful,the pain comes in pulses for 20 - 30 mins then stops for an hour or 3 .
i have not bothered to call the dr because they are just simply not interested unless it comes out and stays out.
plus they are closed for next 2 days
but the knee has not come out for over 8-9 months .
i cant use deep heat spray , i am allergic to that and turn bright bright red like a boiled lobster , i have used deep freeze and that worked for like 45 mins , no room in the freezer to make ice so no ice grrrrr lol.
Hi James,
In my (non medical, but from personal experience of knee issues,) I would recommend Voltarol gel or similiar, that you rub into the knee and surrounding area.
An ice pack is definitely the way to go, you can buy them from the chemist and they are very flat and don’t take up much room or use some frozen peas. If it’s swollen make sure you sit with your leg raised e.g on a footstool at regular intervals.
Self refer for physio as you need to strengthen the muscles around the knee joint to prevent it from dislocating so easily. Physio’s talk a lot more sense when it comes to looking at joints and how they work/ fail to work. They can also liase with GP/ consultants etc I got most sense out of physios when I ruptured my ACL and gave myself ostochondrial fractures within my knee.
Once you have the exercises warm up the knee first with a wheetie hot pad warmed in the microwave and appy the cool pack after doing them.
Melly1
James - do you think it’s being exacerbated by the rowing machine? If so, I wonder if binding your knees with that ‘rock tape’ or whatever it’s called (I see some guys using this on limbs down at my gym) to ‘bind’ the knee against the constant flexing and straightening (with muscular pressure of course as well as you pull back in the rowing action).
By and large general GPs are totally useless with musculo-skeletal injuries and just tell us to stop doing whatever we were doing - and, of course, to dose ourselves with painkillers. Both useless pieces of advice!
Can you insist on a referral to an osteo-consultant who might actually know what to do about popping knee joints!!!
Also, what about asking your online rowing chums, they might know as well! (I’d recommend a sports injuries clinic but they are pricey alas…)
sadly we can NOT see a physio here unless you are referred by a DR first.
as the Physio is done at a hospital , basically everything here has to be done through a Dr first 
.
and on the advice site states , if you are under a set age , and not elderly or disabled then consider treating your self by advice online . physio is being focused on those who need the help , elderly , disabled .
and home visit are restricted to set areas , treatment at Dr’s surgeries by nurses is also limited.
and may have to travel / join “” community groups “” and or gym instead.
and believe it or not our chemist has stopped selling “” crap “” as they put it , several customers have asked when will they have so and so back in stock . and get the answer we are a small chemists we are limited to space after the re model . and head office has decided we are a chemist only , not general store .
so they mainly sell stuff you can get in those cheap cheap clear packets that hang on little wall hooks as they dont take up to much space.
just before Christmas they even told mum they will no longer sell corn knives , the only thing they sell are the gel pads that stick to the corn.
Jenny if anything i think this 2 week brake from rowing maybe making the knee worse.
when i was rowing i had no issues at all. but i was scheduled a 2 week brake because i reached a target 3 weeks early .
but i do know of the tape , you can take your pick from a choice of thousands of colours / styled and patterns its popular with rock climbers and winter sports . i seen a rock wall climber on tv the other day had an entire arm covered in it , and her opposite leg was covered in the tape 
i will have a look online for cold compress wraps in the mean time , might be able to pick one up in the sales lol.
James, glad you think the tape might be a help!! Worth giving it a try anyway.
But I don’t think you should ever just ‘stop’ rowing, however good you are at reaching a target. At the very least keep going with ‘background’ rowing, as in, just to keep your muscles working. I read that we lose 10% of muscle tone per week (or per day, forget which!) if we are not using them.
Dancers do ‘class’ every day, even Christmas Day, so as to keep their muscles in trim and from seizing up.
James,
That’s unfortunate that you can’t self refer in your area to get physio. You could try and wear your GP down by continually asking for appointments/ call backs, so he realises it is a real issue. You need yo emphasise that you are a carer too and need to be fit to look after your Mum.
I expect you have seen this already: Dislocated kneecap - NHS but perhaps your GP needs a refresher.
You can look up exercises online but it’s better to be shown how yo them accurately. I attended a group session for my knee. It was worth it. I started with individual therapy and then when my six sessions were over, carried on in the group. My knee isn’t cured, but day to day life is manageable. Although, all thus talk of knees, has made me more aware of its twinges etc
Melly1
PS these excercises are the same as I was given by the MIU when I ruptured my ACL. At that point my knee was so swollen, they didn’t know what was wrong and were banking on the swelling going down and all being well. The fact sheet is by a different hospital altogether, so they must be pretty generic and harmless for knee injuries in general. http://www.uhs.nhs.uk/Media/Controlleddocuments/Patientinformation/Medicinestherapiesandanaesthetics/Kneestrengtheningexercises-patientinfo.pdf
being up in rubbish Scotland we have a scottish version of the NHS website for some reason lol as it gives exactly the same advice
but then the hospitals / Dr surgeries go by there own thoughts , opinions , from one an other and even hospital to hospital even if under the same health board .
i believe i have a “” mark “” on my medical records that i am mums full time care provider , but i have also been told it really has no effect on health care i get compared to anyone else . that was my own Dr who told me that.
thankfully the knee is not swollen , nor has it come out for the 9 months or so.
LARGE tube of Voltarol gel bought , just incase. and old picnic ice packs back in the freezer as well.
and to top it off , we discovered the fridge freezer is giving up the ghost so will need to buy one when we have the money , hopefully that happens before this one dies completely . but hey cant complain mum has had this one 19+ years
Jenny as far as i have been told , this is a complete 2 week wind down . that professional rowers take once or twice a year so they dont actually bulk in muscle . but would instead work in a gym . if i got on my rower and take 1 stroke on the handle it will tell on me and report it to the online diary and they would see that i was on the rower 
. so Christmas eve , Christmas day and Boxing day the dog and i went on a 5-6 mile walk each day. and yesterday we went on a 9 mile walk .
and shortly mum , the dog and myself will be going out as its a sunny day not a cloud in the sky and nice chill in the air .
Jenny only advice i am being given at the moment is diet / food intake and increasing Protein to help muscle development.