Knee Problem in 63 year old runner!

by gary
(Albany, NY USA)

Joshua, I'm the 63 year old sprinter you helped last year when I had an Achilles problem, that has cleared up.


This past summer I entered 8 track meets in 8 weeks, probably too many in a row, in my last meet I injured my right knee, my first knee problem in 50 years of running and lifting.


Initially I iced took time off, but then attempted to run easy and I believe I aggravated the injury. When I hurt it in the meet I did not hear a pop, it was more of a hitch in my right lateral area. That has cleared up, but now I have discomfort in my patella.

I can stationary bike, power walk and jog/walk without much discomfort, I wear a cho-pot brace, I cannot and will not attempt to sprint. I stopped doing body weight squats and wall slides, it aggravates the patella, I do however, do step-ups and seated leg extensions at home with just 2.5 pounds, this seems to help.

I feel the patella going up stairs but not down, there is SLIGHT stiffness in the morning but not bad. The patella loves the bike, I ice after all exercises and put moist heat the day after or wear a thermacare knee wrap. The only place I feel discomfort is right on the knee cap, not an awful pain but it's there.

I have had the knee looked at by two chiropractors and have had a few massages by my LMT, she feels that the knee is healthy, no swelling, no abnormal pain, nothing jumps out at her, she believes the injury has become either patella tendonitis or runner's knee.

I have avoided getting an MRI, quite expensive and my LMT whom I trust and like believes I don't need
one.

Can you please offer your opinion either concurring with her or offering your own?

This has been the worst injury I have ever sustained and it has become quite frustrating not being able to train like I want to. If you were to ask if the knee is getting better or worse, I'd say "better" but progress is SLOW.

Looking forward to your trusted opinion.

Gary



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Joshua Answers:

Hey Gary.

Our original conversation was HERE.


Okay, so.

1. Are you injured? Or are you just hurting?

2. Where -exactly- are you hurting?

3. Superficial? Deep? Sharp? Dull? Constant? Intermittant?

4. Did you have ANY symptoms in the first 7 track meets?

5. As a concept of Tendonitis, do you think you have -damage-, or just -irritation-?

6. What exactly are you doing to combat the Process of Inflammation?


I have a couple suggestions, but curious for the answers to the above questions.


Glad to see you're so active after beating your Achilles Tendonitis!






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
















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Nov 18, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		MRI confirms patella tendonitis
by: gary

I am injured or was, did have some irritation in the knee prior to my last track meets, received sports massage during this period and continued to compete.

After self rehabbing with ice, rest, moist heat and easy knee exercises I tried to run again, could not run with an even gait, had more sports massages.

I finally received an Ultrasound of my knee 1 week ago, the diagnosis was; Patella Tendonitis with a good deal of inflammation.

I went to my primary and received a script of Vimovo, it has helped a little but not to my liking, attempted to jog today on grass and went 10 minutes, followed with some easy jog/strides, knee was sore.

Went to my pharmacist and told her that I did not believe the meds were working, she told me to give it one more week and that the inflammation has probably not gone down.

I iced this afternoon and it feels better.

This has been the most frustrating injury in my 50 year career, I am at a loss as to what to do now, my indoor season is kaput and my outdoor season is now in jeopardy, the Ultrasound showed no tears in the meniscus and the knee other than the inflammation appeared normal, so why won't this go away and what can I do?


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Joshua Comments:

Hey Gary.

So how long has it been that it's still hurting? 2 weeks? That's not uncommon for knee injury. Especially since it's getting aggravated etc every time you walk around. Knees are fun like that.

So. First and foremost, if you haven't already get Barton's ebook about hip tightness and muscle balance and how it relates with patellar tendonitis.

Patellar Tendonitis is almost always a symptom of imbalance in the hips and such.

Just because you always ran without pain doesn't mean that things weren't slowly leaning towards a future problem.


It won't go away because A. Knee pain doesn't go away on it's own slowly and B. it's aggravated, and each step you take aggravates it more.

That's the simple version answer.


Ice and massage the whole area. Quads, Adductors, etc, too tight.


Also, you may find this page/concept very interesting. Bushman Glutes and Barefoot

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