How to plan the drive for joint care

Use Bell Road for the Peoria clinic

There isn't a QC Kinetix office inside Surprise. The nearest location is QC Kinetix (Peoria), 13128 N. 94th Dr., Suite 205, Peoria, AZ 85381. Bell Road takes you east from the Civic Center. Use Loop 101, then go south to Thunderbird Road. Turn west toward 94th Drive.

You'll cover about nine miles from the Civic Center.

Traffic only changes how long it takes. US 60 or Grand Avenue offers another way from the Original Town Site. From Asante and Zanjero Trails, use Loop 303 south to Bell Road. Then go east toward Loop 101 and Thunderbird Road.

What to bring for the joint exam

Note when your soreness starts each day. Name the movement that brings it back. For knee or hip soreness, say whether stairs hurt more going up or down. For a shoulder, mention painful reaching or pushing. Keep your notes short.

Take a written medicine list and any past X-ray.

Choose clothes that let the clinician watch your sore joint. You'll discuss the exam and care you've tried. Ask which home care may help. Before you leave, say the clinic's next step aloud.

When to use urgent care instead

Don't use a routine joint visit for an emergency. Joint heat with fever needs urgent help. Sudden loss of strength or feeling does too. After a procedure, spreading redness needs quick attention. So does soreness that rises fast.

Don't wait with severe new symptoms.

Abrazo Surprise Hospital is at Loop 303 and Bell Road. It has a 13-bed emergency department. Go there for urgent symptoms, not a routine joint exam. If you're unsure, call for medical help.

Sources

1. The OARSI non-surgical management guideline evaluated 60 interventions with GRADE methodology and built its recommendations around core treatments - structured exercise, weight management and self-management education - for every patient with knee osteoarthritis, regardless of what else is added.

   Bannuru RR, et al. — OARSI guidelines for the non-surgical management of knee, hip, and polyarticular osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.joca.2019.06.011.

2. FDA states in its consumer alert that the only FDA-approved stem cell products in the United States are blood-forming stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood, approved for disorders of the blood-forming system, and that NONE of these products - stem cells, stromal vascular fraction, umbilical cord blood, Wharton's jelly or amniotic fluid - has been approved for the treatment of any orthopedic condition, including osteoarthritis, tendonitis, disc disease, tennis elbow, back pain, hip pain, knee pain, neck pain or shoulder pain.

   US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research — Consumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells and Exosomes. , 2020.