Basketball Player WithTendonitis In Both Knees

by Christopher J
(Brooklyn, New York, USA)



I am a 20 year old college basketball player that has had to take a season off due to my tendonitis pain in my knees and the pain is not going away or getting any better.

I am not able to run or jump to my full ability at all. What should I do?

I constantly stretch, ice, and rest my knees but the pain wont go away!

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Joshua Answers:

Hello Christopher.

That's great you're stretching, icing. Resting, unfortunately, won't heal you back to the playing levels that you want.

Then it's a question of how are you stretching and how are you icing?

It's possible that if you are stretching appropriately and icing enough and the pain in your knees still is not getting -any- better, it may be as simple that you might just be short on protein (thus the body doesn't have enough building blocks to repair the injury, if there is indeed an injury).

Start adding in a lot more good protein: red meat, chicken, fish, cottage cheese, NOT milk.

And, I need more information.


1. Describe in as much detail as possible the pain in your knees. Where exactly, when and for how long, how, what makes it better, what makes it worse, etc.


2. How long has this pain been active. When did it first start?


3. Did the knee tendonitis symptoms start out as mild, and slowly progress.


4. How exactly
do you ice?


5. How exactly do you stretch? (Just the short version, please)


6. Other than self care, have you had any 'professional' treatment of any kind? If so, what and how much?


7. What does your daily food intake look like? I'm just guessing that as a college athlete it's not as good as it could be.....


8. How long have you been 'resting'?


9. Any previous injuries of any kind?


10. Why do you think it is 'tendonitis' as opposed to anything else?


11. Does the pain feel like it's on the outside of the joint, or inside the joint? Can you touch a hotspot(s) with your finger?


I may have more questions depending on your answers, but answer the above and I'll have a better idea of what exactly is going on and how to get you back in the game.




Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com














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Apr 25, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		PART 2 - Basketball Player WithTendonitis In Both Knees
by: Christopher J

How are you doing this is Chris again. I wanted to answer your questions so that you can better evaluate me.


1. I feel a sharp pain along with a tightness in my knees. The pain in my left knee is much more sever since I jump off my left knee.

2. I always had knee problems throughout the years I've been playing basketball but last year around march after being in a dunk contest where I landed wrong the pain has been unmanageable.

3. The pain from the start was very noticeable. I thought i had a tear, but i was told by 2 doctors that it was just a knee sprain or a rupture.

4. I ice my knee after activity for 30 minutes then I take it off for 30 minutes and continue in that pattern.

5. I hold each stretch for 20 seconds.

6. I have gone to see 3 knee doctors. 1 told me I tore my acl but the other 2 told me i just have a sever case of tendonitis with calcium deposits in my knee cap that does not require surgery.

7. I actually eat very healthy, I'm a health freak I don't eat pork or red meat and all i drink is water, I'm not a fan of fried or processed foods at all, I also do not eat fast food.

8. I once rested a whole month but the pain only didn't effect me for about a week

9. No previous injury's I just always had a knee problem but when i was younger I was able to deal with it and it did not affect my performance.

10. I was told by my high school and current colleges trainer that I had it and also 2 knee doctors after taking an x-ray.

11. The pain feels like it might be with in but sometimes I can't even touch the area of pain at all.

I really hope you can help me because it is very important to me that I play next season so that I can move to the next level of basketball.

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Joshua Answers:

Thanks for all that info Christopher. I'm onboard to get you playing again next season.

If it's actual tendonitis, it shouldn't take long.

I'm not exactly sure from all you said, what with the variety of different opinions from different doctors.

Hopefully, you just had some tendonitis issue with fast growth as a teen, that never got better, and then you seriously aggravated it with the landing. Unless there's a real structural problem (which Tendonitis isn't) we should be able to get you pain free, even if it's been around forever.

So we really need to distinguish if it's inside the joint or outside. Meaning, if you can get a finger on a hot/sharp spot, that's GOOD news. Even if you tore something with the bad landing, if you can get your finger on it, we can fix it.

So.

1. Is there any instability in the knee? Especially that wasn't there before the bad landing? Generally if you have an ACl rupture, you -know- it, what with the knee giving out and buckling with certain motions.

2. Poke and feel around. Can you find a specific spot or spots that are sharp, hot, and/or very painful? Not an all over pain, that will be there too, but very specific spot(s) of a special kind of pain.

Joshua
Apr 27, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		PART 3 - Basketball Player WithTendonitis In Both Knees
by: Christopher J.

1. There is a instability in the leg that wasn't there so much before the bad landing, my knee does buckle at times like after I'm done playing or when I sit in a car for too long.



2. Right below my knee cap is where there is the most pain, its a sharp pain that's where my knee always gets swollen, to my knowledge its called the patela.

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Joshua Answers:

Hmmm.

Well, #2 makes it sound a lot like Patella Tendonitis.

What makes it complicated is the swelling and the instability of the knee.

So I'm going with the educated guess that you have Patella Tendonitis, and.....

Tendonitis of the Patella isn't going to create that much swelling unless it's really bad.

Which it could be at that point as you've had this for years and years while being very active.

Instability of the knee....I'm really doubting that that's tendonitis related.

Could be a few things, but I can't help you with that from here, and you're not in Seattle where I know a masterful Physical Therapist who would be the perfect person for you to talk to.

So let's deal with the Patella Tendonitis, get that down to nothing or close to it, then it will be easier to see what else is going on once that factor is out of the way.

For 7 days of intense effort to heal yourself:

1. Ice pack a bunch. Ten minutes on, ten minutes off, as often as possible.

2. More importantly, put the priority on Ice Massage. Follow directions on the How To Reduce Inflammation page.

Specifically dig the ice cube into the hot spots on the tendon on and just under the patella to where it connects onto the lower leg bone. All over really.

As often as you can, as long as you can. If the skin is numb, move somewhere it's not.

Ice packs are ok. Ice massage is way more useful for you. If you only do ice massage and not ice packs, I'd be more than fine with that.

That's really all you need to focus on for 7 days.
You are going to overpower the inflammation process and knock it out.

Add in extra protein too. More building blocks for any healing that needs to happen.

Go ahead and take the week off from activity. Get fat. I'm not a big fan of 'rest', but let's take out as much aggravation to the tendon as you can. Less aggravation of the inflammation process as you are knocking out the inflammation with the ice massage.

There is no try. Only do.

Ask questions, keep me updated.

Joshua
Dec 09, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Basketball player with Calcium Deposit in the knee
by: Vic

I have been having major knee pain for about the last 3-5 years. I went to the doctor yesterday and he said its due to a calcium deposit. He said that unfortunately there is nothing that can be done for it.

I really do not know what to do at this point can you please help! The pain is primarily right above my kneecap on my right leg. I am a basketball player, fortunately it's not the primary leg i jump from but I sometimes have pain in my left knee due to overcompensation.


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Joshua Comments:

How exactly does your doctor know that that's what's causing the pain?

Why exactly does he think there's nothing he can do about it?


If the problem is ONLY due to a calcium build up, you may want to increase your Magnesium intake.

For instance, in the instance of Calcific Tendonitis, when the body is deficient in magnesium, it secretes Calcium.

One treatment for calcification is to take magnesium, and the body reabsorbs the calcium.

Read this page: Magnesium for Tendonitis

And this page: Magnesium Dosage

And, all things considered, being a basketball player etc, it's probably worth it to get this Patellar Tendonitis ebook about hip tightness and muscle balance and how it relates with knee pain, and help stabilize your hips/legs/knees.

Because maybe your musculature isn't balanced, and instead of your symptoms looking exactly like Patellar Tendonitis, tension and torque is aligning such that your body thinks it needs to be stronger right at that (alleged) spot of calcification so it's building bone.

Not the necessarily the smartest thing in the world to do, but that's what it does.

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