TALKS ON HEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 740, 19 April 1933, Page 9

TALKS ON HEALTH.

How to Treat Injuries to the Knee. (By A FAMILY DOCTOR > Tf you injure your knee take a tape-measure into your confidence: it will give you good advice. Measure the injured knee and then the other one, and the tape will tell you if there is any swelling. As the davs go by the measure will tell you whether j*ou are making progress. Generally, on the first dav after the injury there is not much difference hetwe~n the two knees; then the fluid quicklv develops and a great difference is noticed. With time and rest the fluid subsides, and the tape tells you how satisfactory the progress is. Now take the measure and n«te the size of the two thighs, each one being measured seven inches above the knee exactly the same level in each limb. You will find the muscles on the injured limb have fallen away and measure less. You must exercise these muscles and bring them back to their former size. These muscles work the knee, and what you call weakness of the knee is really weakness of the muscle that work the knee. Get Back to Work. You often tell me you are not going to work the knee until it is stronger, and it will never be stronger until it is worked, so vou are stuck in the mud. I once knew an old lady who said she would never go in the water until she could swim. Beware of working the knee too soon; you must keep it still so long as there is fluid on the knee. First stage is rest, second stage is exercise. Be ver\ A careful how you treat the knee when vou first go back to work; do not wrench it again; do not jump off a tram while it is in motion. Tired Mothers. We all work hard, but none harder than the mother of the family. I have always advocated that mother should, at some period of the year, go away by herself. They miss her dreadfully at home, but that does them good—we are never appreciated until we have gone. If only the mother of the family will go to her sister’s for a little holiday, everyone will be so nice to her when she comes back that she will think she has come to the wrong house. You mav think the doctor writes on subjects that do not concern him, but my excuse is that mothers come to see me who not exactly ill from any disease, but who are tired out with the daily routine, which never stops, morning, noon and night. If they are not ill now, they soon will be. It is a grand tonic to get away from the dull old daily round for a week or two; and. as I have often said, husbands and sons and daughters are twice as nice to the mother when they have learnt how badly they get on without her.