Author Topic: Delayed pain after exercise? (Read 726 times)

MyKnee2010 · « **on:** June 29, 2012, 02:50:52 AM »

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced a delay in pain after doing leg exercises? For example, if I use my bike pedals, it feels fine while I'm doing the exercise but a couple hours later, my knees are killing me. Both knees have been replaced 2 - 2 1/2 yrs ago & they still aren't right but so far no OS has been able to tell me what is wrong with them.

Yesterday, I started working with a PT to see if we can figure out what is wrong with them. We did a step machine for several minutes (very lightly), some quad contractions, hamstring stretching, & some leg lifts. I had some pain with the quad contractions in one knee but overall it felt so great to work my muscles even if it was just lightly. I left feeling good. About 20 minutes later my right knee (the worse one) felt like something was jammed up under the knee cap in the front of the knee. I tried moving it around to try to dislodge whatever it was but nothing helped. This has happened before when I do exercises - always after a delay of 20 mins to 2 hours. Last night, about 8 pm, my right knee was in serious hurt mode! The left knee hurt some but not too badly. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep last night. The rest of the time, I laid in bed hoping the vicodin & ice would kick in at some point! Today has been a huge challenge just trying to make it through the day at work. Tonight, the knees are almost back to their normal level of pain.

I'm wondering why the exercises feel good when I do them but then after awhile the pain is so bad? My knees are always a bit swollen but they don't get more swollen when the pain is so bad. I talked to the PT today. We were both disappointed that the knee pain was so bad with a fairly low level of exercises. I'm going to wait a couple days & then try just doing the hamstring stretches to see if my knees can handle that. I'm hoping we can get some good diagnostics to take to whoever my next OS (OS #4) is.

Thanks!

Maverick · « **Reply #1 on:** June 29, 2012, 03:49:28 AM »

MyKnee2010, sorry to hear of your challenges but I have / had the exact same situation. Although each sitation is different, here is my story and resolution.

First, a few questions. What surgery or injury did you have? How long before you started PT after surgery and how long have you been doing PT?

A short history of my situation. I had a lateral meniscus repair and microfracture surgery to repair a grade 4 lateral femoral condyle (LFC) cartilage situation in my left knee in September of last year. I did not start PT until 8 weeks post surgery due to the non-weight bearing requirement. From there it took me a few months before I could get on the bike and do any real pedaling. At this point, I had a lot of atrophy. See my sig for more history.

I would start riding the bike for 5-10 minutes and at almost 10 months I am up to 35 minutes at 85-90 cadance. When I first started riding my bike, my knee felt great riding but within 20 minutes - 2 hours my knee would go balistic. The pain was unbearable and sleep seemed optional. There are two key things that I did to "help" with this. First, I reduced most to all resistant to near zero. This seems counter productive but the key with a highly atrophied leg is to slowly build strength through repetition, not resistance. Second, any maybe more importantly, my bike was not fit properly and any pedaling I did put undo stress on the knee and knee cap. My PT program had a bike fit option so I took my bike in. They took a lot of various measurements and adjusted my bike and pedaling stroke to not put presure on my knee. This helped tremendously. This is also where I learned that cadance or RPM is more important than resistance.

I still have some issues today after too much work with my knee but when my knee retailates it may not be until the next day and the total retaliation period is not as long.

I hope that this helps. If I think of anything else, I will let you know.

Best of luck!

MyKnee2010 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 29, 2012, 03:19:55 PM »

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I'm sorry you have had this problem too. I had my left knee replaced in 11/09 & my right knee replaced in 7/10. I had PT for the first few months after each surgery. My problem then was that I had major nerve damage in each leg so while the knee pain decreased, the nerve pain increased so I wasn't able to continue to build my legs back up. I had each leg operated on last summer to help fix the nerve damage but I am still having a lot of pain in each knee.

I went to the OS & he prescribed some Pt after the scope he did in Feb 2012 to remove inflamed tissue/scar tissue/plica didn't really help the situation. I just had my first PT appointment this past wednesday. Today the knees are at their normal level of pain which means if I take enough Advil & vicodin I can basically function.

I thought my legs were pretty weak due to the years of surgery but both the OS & the PT said my legs were actually pretty strong. The PT said most of the muscle strengths she tested were at "5" on a scale of 1 - 5 (5 being strongest). The weakest strength that I had was at "4.5" I think that's all due to the fact that I have to be on my feet a lot of the day at work.

I tried using my bike pedals earlier in the week. I had it on almost zero resistance & casually pedalled along at a slow pace for about 10 minutes. As soon as I stopped my left knee started hurting & hasn 't been quite as good since then. The right knee felt good until later in the day when it began really hurting.

I'm going to wait a couple days & try to do some really, really easy stretches & see if that's ok. I have PT again on Wednesday.

Thanks for the info!

Maverick · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2012, 03:16:10 AM »

Hi, I wanted to check in to see how you were doing. I am still having issues with delayed pain weather it is from spinning, hiking or even swimming. Have you figured anything out on your end?

MyKnee2010 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2012, 12:17:58 PM »

Hi,

I worked with a PT for a couple months. We've come to the conclusion that there are mechanical issues with my knee replacements. My muscles are in fairly good shape. I think it's because I'm on my feet all day at work. While I am doing the PT exercises my leg muscles feel so good stretching & working out. The problem is still the knee pain that starts anywhere from 30 mins to 5 hours later.

I've stopped PT because I think I"ve gotten all I can out of it for now. I found a used elliptical type machine at a flea market for $30. I can do that every day for about 20 minutes making sure I don't bend my knees. My right leg (which always hurts the most) can't really do any other kind of exercises. Even doing 2 sets of leg lifts with no weights on the machine will cause so much pain hours later that I am up all night. My left leg is in better shape. I can do some quad exercises (being careful not to do too many) which is good because that knee was having a problem with buckling. I've tried using my bike pedals machine but the right knee just can not do that circular motion without making some bad crunching noises & then instantly starting to hurt.

I have an appointment with a new OS in about 3 weeks. I'm hoping he can discover what is wrong with my knees. This week I am on vacation doing some home improvement projects. I can already see my knees are in worse shape than last summer!

Take care!

Author Topic: Delayed pain after exercise? (Read 726 times)

MyKnee2010

Delayed pain after exercise?

Maverick

Re: Delayed pain after exercise?

MyKnee2010

Re: Delayed pain after exercise?

Maverick

Re: Delayed pain after exercise?

MyKnee2010

Re: Delayed pain after exercise?