Injuries and Conditions

[Myrsilus]

So I have not been around so much lately due to some knee pain I am experiencing. A doctor speculates I have patellar femoral syndrome, which is a pretty broad term for knee pain caused by, in my case, maltracking of the patella. Basically, in extreme conditions, it involves wearing away the cartilage in the joint.

I don't think I've progressed this far at all, and the current pain seems to be due to overtraining at the gym. As such, I'm nursing two strained knees. I'll be seeing an orthopedic surgeon next Wednesday to make sure everything is dandy. My knees used to pop and buckle, but I seemed to fix that with proper stretching. Then I just became a bit concerned with the slight pain I felt in my tibia when beginning to run and the occasional popping. My knees always have made lots of noise, though, just because.

The pain is chronic at times, but never severe. Walking has become a chore due to pressure, and sometimes my muscles twitch. Moist heat therapy works really well for me. It's hard for me to keep high hopes sometimes, especially when I don't really know what is going on with my legs, but I am trying. I find comfort in the fact that my mother has a left leg just like me, which may be either a bit off center or slightly longer. She's dealt with problems there, but always come out of it fine.

I thought I'd make this thread for those wanting support or to just discuss conditions and injuries they might be dealing with. Maybe we could all benefit from this at some point. And if anyone here has ever had a similar problem, I'd love to hear about it.

[Fred]

I have had knee-tracking problems. The thing that helped me most was going to a Rolfer. He fixed my alignment problem.

[Trump]

I've started using the elliptical machine instead of running. If I run every day for a week I definately notice my knees bother me a little bit. Running is sooo jarring. Also, if you were doing weight training, you might want to try to do less weight but more reps. It puts less strain on your joints but you can still get a good work out. It actually can help strenghten your joints since you end up using them more. My elbows were like that. I have a tendon or something that would pop from one side of my elbow to the other when doing any kind of tricep exercise. So I started with a low weight and did more reps. It was uncomfortable but not painful like if I did higher weights and now the problem is almost gone as all the supporting structures of my elbow have strengthened.

I can't offer any advice for misalignment or anything though, sorry.

[Kusoyaro]

Recovering from severed tendons and a fractured joint in my left ankle, broken knee-joint (don't know the techincal names, sorry), so for the past few months haven't been able to do much besides hobble to class slowly.
my physio will begin mid May, and I hope to get back to training then, also, but it depends totally on the state of my leg.
What's a rolfer?

[Ozero]

i was hit by a car while heading to work in 2001, and im a parplegic now, (no voluntary motion of sensation below the mid-chest.. than goodness my arm/hands are ok, geez... not that I ever typed that well ANYWAY....)

but aside form obvious mobility issues, i'm in some pretty big pain, and cant take too long in the chair, relative to most people's up-time. I tend to 'rely' on 8 hours of uptime a day, more or less... ive done 16 a few times, but I pay for it.

[Fred]

Hard luck, Ozero, I wish you well.

@ Fujin: One of the problems I found with my knee was that motion brought sharp pain. The sharp pain caused the supporting muscles around my knee to shut down, which caused the muscles to atrophy, which made them less able to support my knee, which caused it to track poorly, which led to sharp pain, which caused the muscles to shut down, causing them to atrophy, which…created a cycle that was difficult to break. It wasn’t until the Rolfer fixed my knee alignment that I was able to start effectively strengthening my muscles.

[Myrsilus]

The knee is such an easily injured part of the body. For as much as the knee is made for weight-bearing, it can't take much.

Whenever I recover a bit, I'll definitely be doing high reps and low weight.

Fred: Did you ever check to see if perhaps you had cartilage damage due to the bad tracking? That's the thing I am worried about the most in my case.

[Beowulf]

I've been dealing with knee pains ever since I had mine broke in what I guess you could call a fight. The bones knitted nicely due to proper casting but I tore cartilage in them that pains me to this day. Doctors say that unless I get surgery to replace/repair it I'll be forced to walk with a cane by 30 (with promises of further deterioration after that). The surgery unfortunately costs about 6000$. Failing winning the lottery I merely subside on a steady diet of Advil. My aunt lives in the next town over (Eugene) and she's a physical therapist so she gives me some free motion therapy now and again. That would be my advice to you would be to book an appointment with a professional physical therapist to see what can be done without surgery.

[Neon Pink Shoehorn]

Wow, I feel really lucky. When I was three, I fell on a hot stove and had third degree burns on my knees and my left hand. Some of my knees' cartilage melted off, but I've never had any kind of pain because of that. very, very lucky...

[Fred]

I have some cartilage damage.

[Shishio]

I have the good fortune of being in pretty good physical health. The only significant injuries I can recall are spraining my ankle as a child, and getting tendonitis from running too much a year or two ago. (I was trying to improve my cardio for Boxing.)

I can't be any help to those with injuries, but to those who are still in good health, and want to exercise, I understand swimming provides an excellent workout, and does not put too much strain on your body.

[Lan]

I've sprained my knee in the past. Didn't realize it til I went swimming the next day and it locked up =x

I had some physio done and it seemed to recover alright. On some days (like..how old people feel bad weather in their joints? xD) it'll give me a few issues but nothing bad. Sometimes I'll play tennis with a brace to help it out. That may be something to consider for Beowulf, to take some load off, and maybe for you Fujin, (though 2 braces may be cost inhibitive. Mine cost $150 and weren't custom. Insurance if you happen to have it). Hope y'all can deal wiht this =\ Knees are too important.

[Myrsilus]

After a bit of rest, I think I'm improving my condition. My knees still ache, but I can walk a bit normally now. High hopes.

Also got my MRI results and I have the copies of the films right here with me. I'm trying, with my truly limited understanding of MRI studying, to see anything odd. I see think cartilage areas, but I am not sure if its normal volume or true damage. Either way, I definitely see it.

I'll keep everyone updated. Hopefully, if this is a cartilage issue, it is just softening.

[Lan]

Any chance to scan the MRIs? (Sorry to use you as a guinea pig) But it'd be interesting to look at some scans. Hope things get better, Fujin.

[4letterwords]

Knee injuries suck. They take a shit load of time to heal. I'm about 2 months post op but I still can't walk without a crutch or a HUGE limp. Sigh.

[Roxie]

I have uterine fibroids and cysts on my ovaries.
It causes massive amounts of bleeding, blood clotting, and pain so bad it took me 30 minutes to type the e-mail to my teacher to say I wasn't coming..i literally could not concentrate. then there's just general discomfort. it's hard to really describe. it's painless, but very not comfortable. you feel just "ugh"..i have virtually no hunger and sometimes have quesy (sp) feelings..I'm on 800mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours...luckily the pain hasn't been so bad, but the discomfort can be enough some times. I've missed work b/c of this, which pisses me off the most.

And thanks to those muscles moving around down there, it causes the back end of things to move...ehh. more liberally than one would like.

I just had an ultrasound today to check up on my fibroid. hopefully, it's gone and it's just my not taking the bc pill correctly.


I bought 5 pairs of underwear this week. I'm nearly to the point where I want to tell them to just yank it all out.

Never broken a bone though...fair trade I guess?

[SlickWilly440]

Well I had a friend who was taking painkillers, vaicidin, etc for his need because was going to have surgery a few months down the road. Then the surgery day come along and it turns out he didn't have to have surgery. I was like what the heck.

[Myrsilus]

Sorry, Lan, but I don't have a scanner or anything. I'll at least be providing feedback on what the orthopedic doc thinks.

The pain has decreased with plenty of rest and now I'm walking much more normally now. It's started to seem more and more like I strained my left and my right just took a slight beating. There is a puffy area above my left knee's patellar tendon, and some strange sensations are being concentrated in that puffy area. My mother, probably due to our similar left legs, had a similar injury there, and the symptoms have matched up:

Pain all around knee and kneecap
Slight limping
Stiffness
Grinding when patella is manipulated
Puffiness on bottom part of patella
Tenderness in tibial tuberosity (that bump under your knee and on your tibia)
Right leg pain a few days after injury due to overcompensation

Strangely enough, she also injured it in an exercise involving pushing with the legs - mine was on a seated row machine, her's was on a leg press machine.

No matter what, I definitely need to be more careful with muscle conditioning and high-impact activities.

[japanat]

I was diagnosed with the exact same knee condition a few years back. The ortho had me lay off for 1 mo, then start lifting with no squats at all at first. Leg extensions from 95°　to 165°, never up to 180! Leg curls for the hamstrings and calf raises to round it out. Pain went away very soon, and now I can do squats, too, with only temporary discomfort afterwards when I use heavy weights (heavy for me, anyways). Cycling can still make me hobble, though.

I have a hiatal hernia, now, which is a royal pain in the ass. My stomach slips up into the rib cavity a few cm, and is painful like a heart attack. The only difference is the size of the pain, and the duration. Mine is localized and relatively short at any one time, but effectively shut down my exercising for 18 months due to worries that 'maybe this time it isn't my stomach!'

[Myrsilus]

Little update for those interested.

I received results on my MRI analysis, and everything seems essentially normal. The articular cartilage has retained its density, the menisci show no evidence of tears, and bones seem to be uninjured. Also, the ligaments are great.

The one thing that did show up was a small region of cortical thickening on the inner right femur, near the knee. It's really small and is thought to be related to ossifying fibroma, which is a benign tumor growth on bones. It's rather common in my age range, and it is usually from eariler in life. If that's true. it's probably in the process of fading away.

Pretty good signs. I'll be seeing my orthopedic surgeon tomorrow for a more in-depth examination. I've been recovering, though, so I'm having higher hopes now.

[CrazyAce86]

I'm glad everything is going right!

Let's see, I...

-Broke my ankle when I was three- or four-years old. (I don't remember. XD) Actually my ankle was smushed; the sides of my ankle bones were smushed together and fractured inside. Hurt like a bitch, I tell you. That ankle is still weaker, since the cracks inside never healed completely or something like that. My ankle tends to crack / pop a lot because of that.

-Burnt and cut myself at various times, but nothing too severe. I have a scar on my wrist that looks like I slashed myself (right direction and everything), but really it was my mattress spring that popped up while I was sleeping and I cut myself on it. :/ I've also nicked myself pretty bad with a razor-- I have a scar on my leg that's about the size of half a dime. Cut myself with a knife today at work, that wasn't fun...

-Surgery #1: Thyroid surgery. I went to the doctor for allergies and ended up with two surgeries. This one, the first, was to remove half of my thyroid (the right side, if I remember correctly.) A cyst had attached itself to that side and basically killed off that half entirely, but then started functioning as a thyroid itself. Fucked up? Very much. They didn't discover that until after the surgery, and my doctor was completely perplexed over it. Also, the cyst? It was the size of a grapefruit, and in my neck. As a result of this, I know have a scar on my neck that's between four and five inches long. In fact, I have a picture of it:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/twylyght86/Me/Neck_Scar.png

-Surgery #2: This one was more 'normal,' I suppose you could say. I had my tonsils and adnoids removed.

-October '05 I managed to injure my finger and ended up with 30 stitches in it. Long story short is that my finger got between the corner of a wooden platform and huge, heavy boom pole. 17 stitches on top, 13 underneath. I'm still a bit numb around my first knuckle. A picture of the top scar:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/twylyght86/Me/Finger_Scar.jpg

-Oh, once I threw my ribs out of place. So bad, in fact, that I had trouble walking or doing anything except lay on the floor. I went to my doctor, a sweet, older country doctor named Dr. Witt, and he cracked them back into place in less than five minutes. I miss him. :(

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. There's been little incidents, but nothing too bad, and I hope it stays that way. *knocks on wood*

[akitaka]

Fujin: That's really great news; so it could be a case of overworked joints that simply need a more easing pace, until you don't feel pain doing so many lifts/sprints. All I know is that my back no longer screams when I perform various twist jumps (unlike several months back). Heck, I even did a 4-hour gym session of those, last saturday; only the muscles were aching.

Crazyace: That's a lot of close calls, there. How did you throw your ribs out of place?

[Beowulf]

Crazyace: That's a lot of close calls, there. How did you throw your ribs out of place?
Well you have to expect some injuries in cage fights...:karate:

[Myrsilus]

New update: I'm fine.

Well, as fine as I can be with tendonitis and tight IT Bands.

The doc checked me for meniscal tears, grinding, pain in general, and found nothing wrong in any of those areas. When he touched my IT bands, he and his partner found they are too tight and they are causing tenderness, tendonitis in nearby muscles, and runner's knee (I think he meant jumper's knee since he noted no grinding or popping). Good news is that this is very treatable with stretching and conditioning.

I'll be starting physical therapy in a few weeks to loosen the bands and rid myself of the tendonitis and possible scar tissue from straining. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can finally relax and get into training with appropriate boundaries.

[Lan]

Great, Fujin, that's good to hear, although tendonitis isn't something too minor either. But I'm glad you'll be on a new training regime.

And Lacey, perhaps all those reasons are why Robert doesn't want to fight you ._.

[akitaka]

Beowulf: Yeah, really. (http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2300/75ds8.jpg)

Fujin: Tight IT bands....that's something I haven't heard of. I guess the rehab/stretching is all that you need in the end, then?

[Myrsilus]

Unless it's a condition which requires surgical intervention, which is highly unlikely given my history.

So basically, that's right. I need to work on stretching the outter quads better.

[harper]

I had surgery today to repair my ruptured achilles tendon. I got in a bit early and the surgery started around 2:30. I was given a general anesthetic, so I woke up around 5pm in the recovery room and was able to go home at 6pm. I'm on Vicodin now and I'm a bit tired from the surgery and pill. I'll be spending tonight at my parents' house and then will be going home tomorrow. No driving for a month, though.

I was told the surgery went well, though I need to rest, ice and elevate for a while. I'll probably start walking again around August 1st.

[Roxie]

wow, no driving for a month?
what're you going to do?

[harper]

My mom is going to spend a fair amount of time over at my place for the next week or two and chauffeur me where I need to go. I also have a buddy that I teach with that lives nearby who has offered to drive me places like the library or wherever. We're both on summer vacation, which is cool. I'll probably spend a lot of the time being a homebody, though, since I won't be out playing softball or tennis. Lots more time to read or visit message boards.

[Roxie]

what about working?

[Pierrot le Fou]

The pain is chronic at times
I know this isn't a joking matter, but I found this phrase to be worth a chuckle.