The patello-femoral joint :
Patellar maltracking--part one - - Posted by JennieBradley (JennieBradley), 17 February 2004
I have lots of questions, and I really hope someone will answer them.
I have patellofemoral syndrome/kneecap maltracking in both knees. It started a little over four years ago. At the time I was in excellent shape—I was a serious amateur dancer. If I had started the right exercises immediately I think I could have cleared it up in a few weeks. However, I thought it was just a random pain I should rest, and it was already worse when I first saw a doctor a couple months later.
Since then I’ve been to a number of sports doctors, a knee specialist, several podiatrists (I have flat feet, which may or not be part of the problem), and several physical therapy centers. Absolutely none of them has paid much attention to diagnosis or solutions. Many haven’t even bothered with a physical exam, or only done a cursory one. Doctors say to exercise, but that they don’t deal with exercise so tel me to go to a physical therapist. They seem anxious to hand off physical exams to therapists too—except most therapists don’t bother to do exams either. Or they give me a limited set of exercises, and when I’ve built up or stretched the area quite a lot, and I still have a problem, they shrug and say there’s nothing else they can recommend. Or they just give me an X-ray, and that’s it.
(to be continued)
Updated Thu Apr 29 2010
