Tips for Maximizing Your Joint Injections

You struggle with stiff, painful joints due to arthritis, bursitis, or another chronic condition. You’ve tried bracing, resting, and pain medications but they don’t help. You’re ready for joint injections — here’s how to get the most out of them.

More than seven in 10 adults (70%) aged 50-80 complain of joint pain. Although osteoarthritis (OA) — a degenerative, wear-and-tear condition — is the most common cause of joint pain, your own discomfort could be due to bursitis, tendinitis, a traumatic injury, or something else.

Athletes and other young people who are physically active are also at risk for chronic joint pain, due to severe trauma or imperfectly healed injuries. But no matter what your age or how you developed joint pain, if your joints are giving you trouble, all you want is relief.

At McPhilamy Bone and Joint in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, our fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon Dr. Austin McPhilamy often recommends lifestyle changes such as increased activity and a noninflammatory diet to help address joint pain. However, if such strategies don’t deliver adequate relief, he may also recommend joint injections.

Joint injections consist of corticosteroids that Dr. McPhilamy injects directly into an affected joint. Corticosteroids are a synthetic version of a hormone that your adrenal glands produce. They’re anti-inflammatory medications that ease pain and stiffness by suppressing your immune system.

How do you get the most out of joint injections? Here, we offer our top tips.

Get yourself into the best shape possible

Joint injections aren’t a first-line treatment for joint pain. No matter what’s at the root of your pain — whether it’s arthritis or injury — you should first try lifestyle adjustments and other types of therapy before moving on to joint injections. If Dr. McPhilamy does recommend joint injections to subdue inflammation and pain, they’re more likely to help if you’re in relatively good shape.

Adopt all of the lifestyle adjustments that are initially recommended for improving joint pain. These include:

Eating more fresh vegetables and fruits
Eating high-quality forms of proteins and fats
Adding fermented foods to your diet
Eliminating or limiting processed foods
Eliminating trans fats and limiting added sugars
Adding more physical movement into your day
Getting enough sleep and minimizing stress

Simply getting a joint injection isn’t enough if you aren’t already fairly healthy and active. Your joints must move to recover, and joint injections are just one part of a comprehensive plan to help you heal.

Get physical therapy

A joint injection won’t do you any good if you keep your joint immobilized. Although you may have to rest it from time to time, the best way to recover a joint’s mobility is to keep it moving.

If your joints are too painful, you may be reluctant to try adding in more exercise on your own. Working with a physical therapist or occupational therapist helps you start at your baseline and gradually add in more challenging activities to rehabilitate the joint as fully as possible.

Consider other options

Even though you may seek joint injections to avoid joint surgery, this approach may only help you delay the inevitable. Joint injections are very effective at relieving joint pain and stiffness in the short term, but usually must be repeated within a few months for continued relief.

Over time, however, long-term corticosteroid use can actually impair your joint, damaging whatever cartilage is left. They also have other side effects that you may find difficult to live with over the long term. For this reason, joint injections are only recommended as a short-term pain relief aid to help you support improved joint function through other treatment modalities, like physical therapy.

In contrast, joint replacement is a permanent fix to a damaged or disabled joint. We offer partial as well as total minimally invasive joint replacement surgery.

Find out if joint injections are right for you

On the brighter side, your first joint injection may give you enough relief that you don’t need to proceed to surgery. Sometimes, even when the pain returns after the steroid wears off, it comes back at a reduced severity. At that point, lifestyle interventions or occasional painkillers may be sufficient to allow you full and comfortable use of your joint.

Are joint injections the right choice for you right now? Find out by contacting our friendly team at McPhilamy Bone and Joint in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, today. You can reach us via phone or with our easy online form.