Overuse problems of the knee :

knife in my knee?? - - Posted by jmoran (jmoran), 31 August 2004

I'm a runner and for over a year now whenever my mileage starts to climb I get a sharp pain when my right foot hits the ground.  It feels like a knife stab.  It's where my knee and quad meet and shoots up my leg - on inside of my leg (not ITB - where the sartorious muscle attaches to the knee?).  

I took 8 months off from running this past winter and it took a long time but the pain finally went away.   I've been to many doctors - multiple MRI's show nothing.  I've tried different shoes, orthotics, physical therapy at 2 different places and core strengthening.

I started running again in June and just in the last 10 days the pain has returned.  Not to the extreme that is was last year - but I don't want it to get that bad either.  I'm training for a marathon in October and really don't want to stop.  Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Posted by hmaxwell (Heather M.), 31 August 2004

Find another doctor.  MRI's are far from the absolute authority in knee diagnosis.

Another thing to seriously consider is seeing someone for physical therapy--find someone who does athletes and knees.  If there is any hint of IT band tightness, it can absolutely mess up your running like nobody's business.  It can lay you low.  They don't call it runner's knee for nothing....

Have you considered alternative treatments?  A good ROLF therapist will do structural realignment massage in 1.5-2 hour blocks.  After two sessions you really should feel like a new person.  It's certainly worth a try, and can't hurt.  Keep in mind that this is not feel-good resort massage--this is therapy.  Acupuncture combined with ROLF massage has been very helpful in calming down my IT band syndrome.

Finally, if running hurts, and if the knee didn't hurt when you stopped running, and if the knee started hurting again after you began running...you do the math.  Running is bad for knees--period.  If you continue to run in the face of structural or mechanical knee issues, things can and likely will get worse. Once the cartilage is gone, it's gone--there is no getting it back.  And if that happens, you'll be like me--walking across the parking lot is painful.  Forget exercising at all, as that leads to debilitating pain and swelling.

Take care of your knees, or they will take care of you.  

Heather

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