Hi All,

I still unable to run at a steady pace and think I will have to sit out of running for Droitwich Athletics Club for this year or start running again in the autum if I am lucky and very disappointed and have to say this year has to be my 2nd worse year, 2005 was a bad year and this knee injury could have come at a worse time and some members will know what I am talking about who are my FB Friends and have joined my Asperger  Syndrome closed FB Group Page and a family member not very well that I will not go into too much detail as I find it upsetting to talk about right now.

Will a 3rd cortisone injection really help as too many cortisone injections in my right knee I have been told is not good and feel I have many more years left of running and this fall was very unlucky as I was being sensible at the time back in January’s cold spell and now we had a extremely cold March and Spring. I did not run for 2 weeks as the pavements were icy and slippery and be crazy to run on the ice and snow. I was walking with my walking boots and slipped on black ice yards from my Mum’s House and my right knee never healed again.

I get really annoyed when I see runners out there in the snow and ice and are lucky as they never have a fall as still disappointed to miss out on the Droitwich Half Marathon and have noticed the Club are keeping there distance from me by excluding me from their FB Page as they are lucky that they can run and do not have a knee injury like mine so will not understand how hard it is to accept an injury and get left out of the weekly running meet up that I really enjoyed participating in. They are not responding to my comment on FB that I have seen an OS and looks like I be out of action for the running club this year and could have said hope you are able to join us running for the club region soon  rather then saying nothing at all.

I was one of the top runners for the club and who knows maybe they are glad I am injured as I did tend to show off at times by leading up at the front as a Newbie and smaller Towns like to stick together and make new members feel like outsiders to the regions and have to prove your status before you get accepted and respected by the club for being a Brummie born and bred. I may be very touchy and totally wrong as I am feel a little down right now for not being able to run for the club.

Sorry to moan just had to get it off my chest and share it with you guys as you know how hard it is to accept a knee injury.

My FB Group Page AspieAreCool

https://www.facebook.com/groups/380254262010904/members/

nickwclarke2013@BhamUk

Hi All,

I am still waiting back to see Mr Snow on the NHS and now have got a copy of the report from my consultation last month and will share a paragraph that highlights my knee problems.

Nicholas is of a slim build with slight varus alignment of both lower limbs. There was a very small effusion affecting the right knee and also the left. The right knee had a slight fixed flexion at approximately 5’o  but full active passive flexion. There are tenderness over the antero-medial joint line, but the knee was stable. Patella height was normal, but there did appear to be moderate rotational abnormality of the lower limb at approximately 30-40’o. The quadriceps were tight and similarly the hamstrings were tight causing him to lift the pelvis off the bed when straightening the leg. There appeared to be no flexion deformity at the level of the hips. The IT band was normal.

Then goes onto to say that it is a pre-existing condition and the fall just quickened the whole process. I will have PT 1st and if that does not help a cortisone injection and then an MRI scan. The pain could be caused by PFS or Patella tendon problems.

I still cannot run at the moment as straight away get pain at the bottom of my right knee if I try too and also get pain at times in my left and Mr Snow has spotted swelling and fluid in both knees and now know I have got problems with both knees, going to get back into long distance running despite these setbacks.

In simple terms what is up with both my knees and will it always be a problem in the future if I carry on long distance running.

nickwclarke2013@BhamUK

I'm afraid this is a really tricky one for a layperson to help you with. It really depends how severe the rotational abnormality is, and only the surgeon can judge this.

If the pain is primarily down to PFS or patella tendon issues, PT is by far your best bet - but you need to find someone who really understands these issues. I know from personal experience how debilitating PFS can be, and I do know that a lot of the pain and symptoms you describe match severe PFS very closely.

I went through years of pointless physio in the UK with therapists who didn't really understand the problem. PFS is a symptom - to fix it, you need to deal with the cause (in my case, maltracking kneecaps due to a combination of overpronation and very tight IT bands and quads.) My UK PTs focused on the symptoms, and never even mentioned what could be causing them. Consequently, nothing worked.

When I started working with my current PT in Canada, he took a huge step back and rebuilt the way I handled my knees. He dialed back all the exercise exponentially for a full month to allow the inflammation to settle, got me in orthotics to address the overpronation, used regular IMS to release all the tight muscles, and then very gradually built my exercise program up again to gain strength in the right areas while not overstressing others. The results were dramatic. I went from not being able to walk down stairs or run at all to comfortably running down stairs.

If the rotational abnormality is severe enough, nothing short of surgery to correct the rotation is going to help. I'm not a professional, but my suspicion is that this is not the case for you - you wouldn't have been able to run the distances you were doing previously as consistently if it were. Of course, you may have suffered a soft tissue or bony injury from the fall that is throwing a spanner in the works, and this is definitely worth more investigation. But overall, finding a PT who really understands PFS issues and what causes them is probably a very good option at this point, given the likelihood of this being the source of your pain.