one clumsy girl

At the beginning of February, when I was planning to jump back into hockey practice, my knee started to hurt. It wasn’t just a wee bit of pain, it was weak, it would collapse when I put weight on it, and it had been clicking and locking.

After a month of limiting my activity and avoiding the doctor (“I can walk, even though it hurts, it must not be that bad”), it wasn’t getting better and seemed to be getting worse, so I finally made an appointment at the orthopaedist.

They took x-rays and sent me for an mri (both new experiences for me).

sagittal view of my right knee

The injury? Two things. Patellofemoral pain syndrome (aka runner’s knee or chondromalacia patella) and IT (iliotibial) band inflammation. The cause appears to be my severe overpronation on the right. Just over a year ago my right arch fell and despite wearing OTC orthotics and shoes with motion control, apparently it affected my gait enough to misalign my patella and femur and cause my IT band inflammation.

We were concerned that it was a meniscus tear due to the level of pain I have, so it is a good sign that there was no obvious large tear on the mri films.

I start PT on Tuesday and will go twice a week for 6 weeks in addition to doing exercises at home daily. The PT is supposed to help strengthen and stretch my thighs which should help realign everything. Doc indicated that the PT will probably cause me more pain for the first two weeks but that after that, it should start to feel better. If not, we’ll have to discuss arthroscopic surgery.

Doc also indicated that it will probably take at least three months before I am able to run or skate (ugh!), but that I can ride the bike at a low resistance and swim now (anything with low impact on the knee). Of course, today I am in too much pain to do that, but maybe soon.