This (K)needs To Stop

What needs to stop? This maddening pattern of blog posts (and the circumstances that inspire the posts) that’s basically:

• “Boo, I’m injured.”
• “I’ve done PT and am back to running and it’s fun and awesome and I love it!”
• “Boo, I’m injured.”
• “I’ve done PT and am back to running and it’s fun and awesome and I love it!”
• Repeat ad nauseam.

“What happened now?!” I hear you asking, perhaps with an exasperated sigh. Thanks for asking, and I echo that sigh of exasperation! Here’s my newest tale of woe: The Ballad of Runner’s Knee.

Remember a few weeks back when I had a terrible Sunday morning run with the Shammies, due to everything hurting coupled with a dodgy stomach from a not-great breakfast (shared in Reason #2 to DNS my 10-miler)? Well, one of the things that really bothered me on that run was my right knee. One of the Shammies said I should probably be running with a brace, so I wore one at the Kick in for Kids race, just in case.

At the post-race party, I was peer-pressured into the massage tent with promises of a nice leg rub, only to have the PT in the tent look at my knee brace and start asking questions. At the time, my knee wasn’t bothering me at all… didn’t hurt during the race, wasn’t hurting after; the brace was a mere precaution. But I mentioned the random pain from the previous run, and instead of my nice post-race massage I ended up with a quick knee exam that ended with not-so-good news.

(source)

The PT didn’t like the way my knee looked (“a little swollen”), sounded (“it shouldn’t be popping like that”), or moved (“yeah…”). She told me to RICE it (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate), gave me her card, and shooed me out of the tent. A bit shell-shocked, I wandered away only to bump into Steve, the Shammies coach. He asked how it had gone, and when I told him my knee was dodgy, he immediately led me across the parking lot to the other PT group in attendance and introduced me to their team. I chatted with one of their PTs for a few minutes, and she told me the dodginess was likely caused by hypermobility in the knee paired with lack of strength in the surrounding muscles… a diagnosis that sounded very familiar! My trainer at the injury prevention clinic said exactly the same thing – my muscles aren’t strong or flexible enough to support my crazy mobile joints, which leads to lots of sprains, strains, and other injuries that I’m prone to. She gave me her card and an ice pack to put on my knee, and off I went to enjoy the free beer and barbecue, which distracted me from my knee pretty well.

Then this is what I looked like the next day at work:

…an ice pack tied to my knee and my leg elevated under my desk with the help of a recycling bin. My knee was swollen and tender, so I started a regimen of ibuprofen, ice, and everyday wear of my patella strap. I figured it would sort itself out in a few days and then I’d get down to business with training for my upcoming half.

Nearly a week of anti-inflammatories, ice, and compression didn’t seem to help much, and I was still rocking the ice pack on the reg on Saturday:

The ice pack is my friend. As is dark nail polish… great for hiding dodgy runner’s toenails!

At the advice of my visiting MIL, who has had knee issues in the past, I emailed my doctor’s office and was pleasantly surprised when they arranged for me to see orthopedics right away, without having to see my PCP first. (I think they’re starting to remember me…)

I saw the ortho Monday morning, and was again pleasantly surprised to find myself chatting with the head of sports medicine at the clinic. He listened to my tale of woe, then inspected my knee and jerked it around a bit and tested its strength and basically gave me the impression that he knew what he was doing, which was reassuring. (The other ortho I’ve seen at this clinic usually pokes at the body part in question for a few seconds then gives me a referral to PT.)

Thankfully my ligaments are all strong and I’m in no danger of my ACL or MCL shredding (which I wasn’t really worried about, but it was nice to hear!), and x-rays came back normal, so he’s pretty sure I have patellofemoral pain syndrome, or Runner’s Knee. I actually thought I had this back in October when I was training for my first half, but that turned out to just be tendonitis… or was it? I’m wondering if it started up back then but, due to foot and rib injuries that resulted in my not running very much, the symptoms didn’t really have a chance to show until now.

Anyway, yes. Runner’s Knee. The ortho prescribed me a 7-10 day regimen of Aleve, ice, and continued wear of my patella strap, as well as a course of PT. He also told me not to run until the PT can “ease me back in.” Boo! Don’t doctors and my body know that I have training to do?! Thankfully the PT can see me pretty quickly, so hopefully I can get better and get back out there ASAP.

Stylin’ in my hospital gown pre-xray.

Have you ever had Runner’s Knee? How did you treat it?

Are you as sick of my “I’m injured” posts as I am??