When I pulled my last shift as a pipefitter, I figured my knees had earned a break. Thirty-one years of kneeling on concrete and climbing ladders, and the reward was supposed to be a rocking chair and a fishing pole.
That is not how it worked out. The left knee, the one the orthopedist x-rayed when I was 58 and called osteoarthritis, kept right on complaining. Evenings were the worst. I would get up out of the recliner to let Tater out and the first three steps felt like walking on gravel. I am not a doctor and I am not going to pretend to be one. What I am is a 63-year-old man in St. Charles, Missouri who has tried a fair number of things on his own knee. About nine months ago my orthopedist told me a TENS unit was reasonable to try, and my physical therapist showed me where the pads go. I bought the AUVON 24-mode unit in February, and it has not moved off the end table since.
The unit that earned a permanent spot next to my recliner
AUVON 24-mode TENS unit, rechargeable, adhesive gel pads. This is the exact unit I have been running a few nights a week since February.
Amazon See the AUVON unit on Amazon →It fills the dead 25 minutes between supper and kickoff
Supper is at six. The Chiefs kick off at seven twenty. That gap used to be me rubbing my knee and pretending I was not. Now I sit down, put the pads on, and run it for about 25 minutes while the pregame is on. I shut it off myself when I am done. It is short enough that I cannot talk myself out of it, which is more than I can say for the stretching I am supposed to be doing.
Twenty-four modes means you can find two you actually like
Twenty-four pre-programmed modes sounds like a sales pitch until you are the one holding it. The truth is I do not care for most of them. Two of them feel right to me and those are the two I use. You work through the list until you find yours and then you stop fiddling with it. I would rather have too many choices and settle on two than have one setting that does not suit me at all.
The pads go around the kneecap, not on it, and that placement still holds
My physical therapist put two fingers on either side of my kneecap and said, around it, never on it. That is where the AUVON pads go. They are the adhesive gel kind and they hold through a session as long as I press them down flat and start with clean skin. When they begin to slide, that is my signal to put a fresh set on.
The rechargeable battery ended my hunt for AA batteries
The battery is built in and it charges off a cord. No digging through the junk drawer at eight at night, which was exactly the kind of small friction that used to make me skip things. There is a power indicator on the unit so I can see where the charge stands before I sit down. I plug it in behind the end table when I am finished and it is ready the next evening.
It stays where I sit, which is the only reason I stick with it
The AUVON unit stays on the end table next to the recliner, charger plugged in behind it. That sounds like nothing. It is not nothing. Anything I have to walk to the bedroom to fetch, I quit using inside of two weeks. Being within arm's reach is the difference between a habit and a drawer full of abandoned gear.
Low intensity is the point, not a compromise
I run it low. Always. The first night I turned it up to see what it could do and it got my attention in a hurry. The PT told me low and steady, and low and steady is what I do now. It does not fix the knee. What it does is take the edge off for a while so I can sit through a whole game without shifting around every four minutes.
It is quiet enough that Carol can read in the same room
There is no noise to it. Carol reads in the chair across the room and I can run the thing for half an hour without a sound besides the television. That matters more than you would think. Anything with a motor in it gets on her nerves, and then it gets on mine, and then it goes in a drawer. This one sits there quietly.
It gives my hands a job besides rubbing the knee
When my knee aches, I rub it. I have rubbed it through entire fourth quarters. Sitting with the pads on gives my hands something better to do and gives the knee 25 minutes where I am not poking at it. Small thing, I know. It is the small things that add up at this age.
It weighs 7.05 ounces, so it rides on the arm of the recliner
The whole unit is 7.05 ounces with the battery in it and small enough to sit on the wide arm of the recliner beside me. The wires running from the unit to the pads stay on my leg. I am not tangled up in anything or dragging a cord across the living room carpet. I set it down, I forget it is running, I watch the game.
It stacks with the ice pack and the knee pillow instead of replacing them
This is not a substitute for anything else I do. The night after a fishing day, when the knee is puffy from standing on the dock, the ice pack wrap comes out of the freezer and the foam pillow goes between my knees at bedtime. The AUVON is the ordinary night. The Tuesday when nothing is swollen and the knee is just talking to me.
What I'd Skip
I would skip wearing it anywhere near water. Not in the pool at the Y, not in the shower, not on the boat. That is not a knock on the unit, it is just how it is, and I have heard enough about electricity and wet skin to leave it alone. I would also skip cranking the intensity up to prove something to yourself. The first night I did that and it was not a good 30 seconds of my life.
The other thing I would skip is treating it like a substitute for the work. My PT gave me exercises at home and when I do them, the evenings go better. The AUVON takes the edge off so I can sit down and be a person instead of a guy grimacing in a chair. It does not do the exercises for me, and anyone selling you something that claims otherwise is selling you something. I would also tell you to check with your own doctor or physical therapist before you start, the same way I did.
The first three steps out of the recliner used to feel like gravel. Now most nights they feel like steps.
If your evenings look like mine did, this is the one thing I would try first
AUVON 24-mode TENS unit. Rechargeable, adhesive gel pads, 24 pre-programmed modes. Nine months in the recliner and it has not gone in a drawer yet.
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