What type of knee tendonitis do I have?

by Maggie

I have had pain in both sides of my knees for over 2 months and have been diagnosed with tendonitis.

I have pain when getting up from a sitting position or twisting from my knees.

It is worse on the inside of my knees, about 6 inches above and below the inside of my knee joint.

Sometimes the actual bone is painful to touch(feels bruised).

I have no pain in my knee joints. I cannot walk very far without discomfort, whilst I am at home and not doing much it's fine but even a half hour slow walk will aggravate the problem. They also ache a bit at night and wake me up. I can see lots of different tendonitis here but nothing that seems to cover my symptoms.

I believe the problem began after playing a few games of pool volley ball whilst on holiday.

Being short I had to jump higher and more vigorously than most of my team mates !! This is the only activity around that time that I can think of that may have caused the damage.

It began with my knees feeling uncomfortable and I noticed I had a slight waddle to my walk to offset this discomfort. The discomfort got worse over the next 2 weeks or so and has remained at the same level.

I am having physio which consists of massage and stretching and my doctor has put me on Ibuprofen.

The massage helps for a day or so then the discomfort returns. The Ibuprofen upsets my stomach and hasn't helped really.

I have iced but admittedly not to any great extent. I have read that foam massage rollers may be helpful? I am worried about making things worse.

Previously to this I was quite fit for a 60 year old and was a regular visitor to the gym. I want to keep active but everything seems to aggravate it.

What treatment would you suggest and what activity can I undertake to keep from getting fat and unfit?


Maggie



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Maggie.

Sounds like some kind of knee Tendonitis.

But really, it sounds more like a Tendonitis -dynamic- with associated Pain Causing Dynamic, as opposed to actual -damage- to a tendon.

Basically, leg muscles get tight, connective tissue gets tight, and that puts constant tightness/tension/torque on your knees.

This also compresses your knee joints.

Then one day you go jumping like an Olympic volley ball player and your body suddenly is losing the battle to compensate. Then you feel pain, and ongoing pain.

You're 60, so you have decades of slowly increasing tightness and connective tissue shrink wrapping.


So.

1. Foam roller, yes! Inside the thigh, front of the thigh, all the hip muscles and butt muscles.

The more the merrier. The more you roll, the more you squeeze the spong and it becomes more like a soft squishy sponge instead of a dry crunchy sponge.


2. Magnesium for Tendonitis.

3. Make sure your Vitamin D level is between 50-80.


Take care of the Vit D and Magnesium, and foam roll a few times daily, then check back in, I'll ask you some more questions on how you're doing, and we'll go from there.


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