Overuse problems of the knee :

Why does my good knee hurt? - - Posted by sweetheart0517 (sweetheart0517), 1 January 2005

Okay so im getting surgery on my left knee, and im icing my right knee *my good knee* more. Every night before I go to bed my good knee begins to ache, what can cause this? Should I still get the surgery on my bad knee if now my good knee hurts jsut as bad?
Posted by hmaxwell (Heather M.), 1 January 2005

Unfortunately it is very, very common to have the 'good' knee start to hurt.  Sometimes, it hurts more than the bad knee.  I could always tell when my pain levels on my bad left knee were down for a day or two, because during that time my good knee would hurt a lot and I would be very aware of it.

Chances are that your good knee is being over-stressed because you are favoring the bad one.  I know that when I get into and out of a chair, my good knee sometimes has to support my whole body weight through the range of motion.  I have talked to several doctors about this, and they ALL agree that the best thing I can do for my good knee is to get my bad knee to pull its full weight again.  It seems silly, but it usually works.  In my case, my bad knee took a major hit about a year ago when I was hit hard by an 85 pound, very excited Dalmation.  He really took my knee out, causing it to hyper-extend, then buckle when he slammed into it while it was vulnerable in the hyper-extended position.  We don't really  know what happened to it yet--I just know that my pain levels doubled overnight and haven't gone down since.  I had an MRI, but it was of poor quality an didn't show stuff that we knew was in there.

Anyway, once my pain levels on the bad knee went up so much, my good knee's pain has pretty much vanished into the background.  It's still plenty swollen and the x-rays of it show a serious patellar tilt.  But the pain just takes a back seat to my bad knee.

Keep working on your bad knee and be patient.  There is nothing you can do until you have the surgery.  Chances are that as soon as your knee gets stronger following surgery, it will start carrying more of its weight and won't be such a burden anywhere.  The chances are excellent that once your bad knee starts getting better, your good knee will have a fighting chance to calm down.  

You might also want to consider doing your rehab exercises on both legs, if your PT thinks it might be helpful.  I used to tape both knees, wear a brace on each knee, and ice them both when ever I had the chance....it helped a lot.

Heather
Posted by sweetheart0517 (sweetheart0517), 2 January 2005

Thanks Heather for the reply I appreciate it, I started doing my PT exercises on my good knee to now to maybe help build up more strength in that. I was also suggested to wrap a ace wrap around it while walking around my house and ice it and thats helped a lot.

I hope all works out for your knee Im sorry to hear your having a hard time with it.

~Laura~  

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