evaluating knee injury recovery

rainaged

I've been browsing the archive reading up on people's knee injury stories, but I have a question that was not answered in any of the posts I found. First just a quick background. I raced on the road for 5 years before getting married and having a child. Now after 6 years basically off the bike, I've freed up some time in my schedule to get back into riding. In the fall I started to ride a couple times a week without any problems. Then in January, I overdid it and caused some inflamation which a PT has diagnosed as PFP. I knew better than to continue until the pain was acute, and managed to avoid severe inflamation or pain, but the classic symptoms of pain when descending stairs and mild burning on the inside of the patella were present. Specifically, the PT found that my glute is weak, allowing my knee to mis-allign under load, and cause the irritation. I have a strength and stretch routine, that I do 3 X/wk, and ride low resistance on the rollers 3 X/wk. I have not experienced any significant change in the condition of my knee after a couple weeks. What I want to know is at what point does the inflamation inhibit recovery? Do I need to completely stop everything until there is NO pain? This injury has never caused pain worse than a 3 on a 1-10 scale, so I've been cautious but not exclusionary about activity and rehab. Anybody want to comment? Thanks very much. Noah

Mike_Rides_Red

I have been having knee pain for over a year now and haven't been able to go on bike rides. So your knee pain is on the medial side of your kneecap? Here is a very good article on knee pain and cycling.http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues...404/asplund.htm
As far as inflammation goes you should try to supress it as much as possible. From what I have read and experienced imflammation brings on irritation, which causes the pain to get worse. I ice my knee whenever I feel it getting hot and I take Asprin which fends off the inflammation well. Good luck with your knee problems.

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tyler1212

I would suggest taking nsaids. Look up naproxen, ibuprofin etc. if you can only get ahold of otc products. If you can buy prescription medications I suggest meloxicam 15 mg a day. You can look up med info on merck manual online or pdr online to see the dosages. I have a considerably damaged shoulder which I decided not to have operated and occasionally use these medicines to reduce swelling. It usu. takes 2 weeks to see improvement. good luck

inSANe DIEGO

Mike,
Back in November 2005 you stated that your knees were getting better after addressing the ITB and VMO issues. Has the progress stopped??? I've been dealing with patellar tendinitis / PFS since the end of January and sometimes wonder if I will ever get back to normal. How has your recovery been?
John

Postie

It sounds like you're at a stage that you can control your problem pretty good by strengthening your legs and ensuring you don't overdue it.

However, when that condition gets significant, it's possible to be in a situation where exercise will never leave a person "pain free". Hence, it's often possible that people have to put up with some pain all their life. The trick then is to get to a point that the pain is minimized without making the condition worse.

2zanzibar

Yep, this is exactly where I'm at. Its a very difficult condition to overcome entirely, mainly because you're predisposed to it.
I will say though that gluteal strengthening is very important for PFS as they can take some of the load off the VL in tracking your knee; there are dozens of exercises that help strengthen every part of this muscle group, which a good PT should be able to show you

murphy54

it is difficult to say...you are in trouble

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