this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Chronic Illness

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A community/support group for chronically ill people. While anyone is welcome, our number one priority is keeping this a safe space for chronically ill people.

This is a support group, not a place for people to spout their opinions on disability.

Rules

  1. Be excellent to each other

  2. Absolutely no ableism. This includes harmful stereotypes: lazy/freeloaders etc

  3. No quackery. Does an up-to date major review in a big journal or a major government guideline come to the conclusion you’re claiming is fact? No? Then don’t claim it’s fact. This applies to potential treatments and disease mechanisms.

  4. No denialism or minimisation This applies challenges faced by chronically ill people.

  5. No psychosomatising psychosomatisation is a tool used by insurance companies and governments to blame physical illnesses on mental problems, and thereby saving money by not paying benefits. There is no concrete proof psychosomatic or functional disease exists with the vast majority of historical diagnoses turning out to be biomedical illnesses medicine has not discovered yet. Psychosomatics is rooted in misogyny, and consisted up until very recently of blaming women’s health complaints on “hysteria”.

Did your post/comment get removed? Before arguing with moderators consider that the goal of this community is to provide a safe space for people suffering from chronic illness. Moderation may be heavy handed at times. If you don’t like that, find or create another community that prioritises something else.

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When it rains (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Edit: I love this community so much, thank you all for trying to help!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 minutes ago

The trick is to run on your toes

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

Do cycling.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago

Holy shit. This is what’s wrong with me. I was working and taking 15,000 steps a day and now I’m staying home with the kids and getting no exercise other than the anxiety of running back and forth between them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

Probably not as good as walking/running...but the elliptical at a gym could really do the trick with very little knee pressure.

I ran a lot when I was younger; had to stop because of a knee injury, too. It never stops sucking but hopefully you can find something better on your knees that still helps you.

The fact that running reduced your symptoms is absolutely awesome, it's never been as effective for me. It's proof that you CAN beat this, that things can change. That is the ULTIMATE win. You've got this!

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Try cycling. Much easier on the knees.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I did pivot to cycling. But once my knee is already shit, even cycling often makes it worse. So I pivoted to swimming. Swimming was fine so far, but just now, my knee started hurting after a few laps, which inspired me to vent my frustration through this meme.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

You could try becoming a Skyrim guard

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is it possible that you simply don't let your body recover long enough?

Also, have you tried physical therapy? I had quite a lot of pain from running, but it turned out, the supporting muscles in my legs were just too weak, so my joints kind of jostled around. A few weeks of cringy looking exercises help a lot.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I was in bed with a cold for like 10 days, and it was still painful within minutes of walking after that. How much more rest should I get? My doctor said I shouldn't completely stop moving because that'd weaken the muscles and make re injury super likely.

Unfortunately, I can't afford th co pay right now. I'll probably get some medical massages though, since those are entirely covered.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Lying in bed with a cold is not "recovery". While your body is fighting illness it is not prioritizing repairing your knee unfortunately. Easy movement and no sitting still for prolonged periods/in awkward positions and eating lots of protein and healthy food is recovery. And try to follow a beginner training plan afterwards so you don't try to progress to fast + learn about the "10% rule".

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Two weeks is not a lot of time.

There's a middle ground between complete rest and running: walking.

And you don't need any fancy massages, just google a few exercises to strengthen your knees and do those for a few weeks. Maybe pad the schedule with a bit of calisthenics.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago

Have you seen a fysio? Often early knee problems have more to do with the flexibility of the surrounding muscles.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Are you swimming with a waterproof knee brace? That may help your endurance to build back up strength.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I kept getting injured swimming so my doctor insisted I need to do gym too, apparently it helps strengthen your body to avoid injuries.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yep, I used to always get “random injuries “ until I started lifting. Now, I only get scheduled injuries. Lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Aw man, gyms are expensive. Hope I can get somewhere with calisthenics.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Do swimming, too. It’s even better on the whole body

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Even just walking at a Brisk pace is better. In fact if you're not actually sprinting there's no real Health difference between jogging and walking quickly other than the aforementioned less pressure on the knees

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Cycling, swimming, rowing machine.

Throw in some pull ups/pushups/squats and you’ll love what you see + have very functional muscles across the board. You don’t even need to do a bunch of weights when you do squats. Just squat the bar every time you go work out. Great way to just keep your legs and such tuned

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Idk why but you saying it like it is improved my mood just now

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sometimes we just need someone to acknowledge that our situation is shitty. It can be downright therapeutic. Jumping straight into possible solutions is obviously a helpful thing to do, but sometimes it's important to grieve a little first.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 21 hours ago

Same. I switched to skipping (jump rope) and haven't looked back.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I was standing up from the toilet one day and my knee pooped and it hurts randomly now

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Did your knee poop out your kneecap?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Same here. I switched to cycling.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I tried switching from running to cycling for my daily cardio, but lately I'm wondering if I'm just not built for cycling. I'm so bad at it.

I live near mountains and will do hikes where I gain 3,000 feet in elevation and burn 2.5k calories, enjoying every second of it, but for some reason I can barely bike up a small hill.

Underdeveloped muscle groups maybe?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

The more you ride a bike up hills, the easier it will start to become. But if it feels like too much of a wall to ride up the hills around you, you could look into swapping out your chainrings or cassette to get lower gearing so the hills aren't as much of a challenge.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So did I, but it still makes my knees worse when I do it. As of like an hour ago, apparently even swimming does.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How do you handle elevation gain? I ask because I can climb mountains like a champ but for some reason running kills my legs and I'm terrible at cycling. It doesn't even need to be a mountain, as a steep hill does the trick. Keeping a steady pace up a hill gets my heart rate to a place similar to running, and it usually stays pretty high for the descent as well. It doesn't hurt my joints nearly as much as running or biking.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm actually saving up for some climbing gear, I'm in the middle of the alps! I think I'll be starting with via ferratas, there's dozens near me. Any tips?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I haven't done any climbing that requires ropes/helmets yet, so far I've been sticking to trails. I moved to a mountainous area 2 years ago.

Going uphill is the easier part, it just requires cardio. Going downhill hurt my knees when I first started, but that pain went away over time. Downhill always seems to be harder for people once they get past the cardio requirement for going up.

Investing in a good pair of adjustable trekking poles makes going downhill a lot easier on your joints. Cork handles are expensive, but worth it if you use them a lot. Shortening them for uphill and lengthening them for downhill also helps.

Another great investment is a high quality ultralight chair! I have a Helinox ground chair which is shockingly comfortable and only weighs 17 ounces/482 grams. Being able to relax and enjoy the view before descending adds a lot to the experience.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I have a fucked up knee too. some days i wish i could hack it off and strap a table leg to the stump.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

*cries in ehlers-danlos*

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

I told my rheumatologist, „don’t worry, my dog keeps me busy!”. My dog is now on biologic treatment for osteoarthritis while I’m waiting for mine for an autoimmune arthritis XD

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's so frustrating!!!

I'm in a similar boat, where my joints are really whiny and won't let me run nearly as hard as I'd want to. I found a lot of daily stretching and sleeping with a pillow between my legs helps a lot. Still, my knees or hips wake me up more frequently than I'd like.

Also some strength training can feel like a cardio workout and actually strengthens the muscles around your treacherous joints.

Sorry to jump into solutionising... This one just really cuts close to home.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

No reason to be sorry!

Good point, I might just switch to calisthenics for a little while. And yeah, I do need to stretch more!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is the accessible caption showing up? I made one, but can't see it anywhere after posting.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I was just today wondering how to view alttext on Lemmy, and if people were actually using those here. On Mastodon I've gotten into the habit of reading alttext and I like that. Although I can see, it gives extra information about the intention of the OP. But apparently I can't view them here (at least in the Voyager app).

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I like walking more. I can listen to radio recordings / streams longer while doing it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Are they really fucked up or do they just hurt a bit? Slight pain is not necessarily a sign of permanent injury and will most likely go away with activity. Even if it is an injury, the best course of action is to keep moving the joint. Joints don't have active circulation and so they need the movement to heal.

https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/pain-in-training-what-do/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

GP said it's almost certainly that the tendons are inflamed. He said this type of thing usually heals in about 2 weeks, but it's been two months. It's extra scary, since I've had tendonitis in my entire forearm for almost 5 years now and nothing has helped.

Thanks for the resource!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Have you tried slow high volume eccentric movements? 30+ reps, 8 second eccentric, very low weight.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I got into running when I was younger and messed up my foot lol. It's hard. I do yoga now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I recommend jump rope if running tends to hurt your knees, ankles, or shins.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can't do cycling either, and I have other issues that make swimming not possible.

When I was able to go, I had a great physical therapist. She had good advice on how to apply kinesio tape.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can't do physio rn, insurance covers a set amount, which is usually enough, but since I live in an expensive city, there'd be a co pay I couldn't afford.

I'll look into kinesio tape! Maybe there's online resources that'd explain how to apply

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I hope it helps! I had to stop going myself for other reasons so I get it.

Make sure to have some sort of oil on hand to remove the tape if you mess up. That stuff stays on for a while, like days.

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