Knee Problem
I've been having a problem with my left knee since last Thursady. A little background. I had a torn mensicus in this knee 7 or 8 years ago. I did not have surgery and it healed just fine. Follwoing the injury I had a bike fit and ended up with inserts and some cleat adjustment which addressed the cause. About three weeks ago I swapped cleats from my road shoes to my tri shoes. I've done this many times. I felt some minor knee discomfort when I did this but it passed and I wasn't worried about it.
Fast forward to last Thursday. I did my bike intervals in the morning and then I had some soreness in the rear medial portion of my knee that got worse as the day progressed. I had some discomfort when I straightened my knee. There was no swelling. I took some NSAIDS and rested the following day and it got significantly better. I swapped my cleats back to my road shoes and tested the waters without problem on the bike. The lingering issue I am having is when I run. I have what seems like a tightness/tugging/pressure on the medial front portion of my knee. I feel this when I am bringing that foot forward in my stride. It comes and goes. I ran 9 miles on Saturday, 2 miles yesterday and 5 miles today-all easy. It seems to get worse if I try to speed up. I didn't have any kind of flare up from these runs. I really only feel it when I run. It also comes and goes. I have no real pain or swelling. No stiffness or weakness but there is definitely something wrong.
I'm concerned that it's my meniscus but am not sure. Thought I would run it by you all before I went to see someone.
Comments
i actually just went to this forum for a somewhat similar problem.
Similar to you, I tore the miniscus in my right knee several years ago. basketball was the culprit. Also like you, it healed on its own, without surgery. no pain it in at all until about a week ago. felt something a little off after a bike last Thursday. no swelling, the slightly off feeling is on the left side of my knee Saturday bike was fine though and I ran 8 miles on Sunday. Slight tightness in the knee, but nothing more.
Fast forward to today, I finished my Wednesday OS run workout during lunch. Felt good during the run. however, was just in a two hour meeting when I got up, I could tell that my knee has some minor swelling around the top and inside portion. Took two advil and going to ice/elevate when I get home, and skip my bike workout tomorrow. Hopefully that will help. If its still bad after my next run, I'll probably go see someone.
Good luck with your knee.
hard to tell without laying hands on you.
any tenderness?
-hb
No localized tenderness.
That part of the knee is where the inner hamstrings and adductors meet up and wrap around to the front to attach at the pes anserine. Super common place to get torqued on the bike if the feet/knee get twisted. It would also rear it's head during the run when those muscles are working to slow the swing leg down and then pull it through as you stand on it again.
if it were me.... without swelling or instability, I'd see what I could do to loosen up the knee and everything that attached to that front area (inner hammies, adductors, inner quad, + outer hip). Hit up your ART person for a few visits and follow it up with frequent stretching. This will do the trick if the cause is muscular but will also help if it's inside the joint. The rationale being that if you can loosen up everything around that part of the knee, you can open up the joint space and take pressure off of the meniscus. You know you have a tear and because it doesn't have a blood supply it doesn't actually heal (which is why surgery is so common)...the little tear "flap" just lays down in it's normal space and doesn't get caught when you move the knee. That's the goal versus healing it outright. Calm it down and let everything get back to it's normal space. If it's getting caught or getting worse, that's when you're going to start to see swelling and that's when it's time to start thinking about the surgery option.
Carrie,
Yes, when I'm swinging my leg forward. No weight bearing pain. The pain (if you can call it that) is in the medial knee in the joint line. It feels like it's between the tibia and femur which is why I am concerned about the meniscus.
Leigh,
I have no instability or swelling at all. I can actually do single leg squats on it with no discomfort. I just get this twinge when I run. I have been very tight in my legs and have not been as vigilant with my stretching as I usually am. I wll get on that right away! I actually have had some serious tightness in my inner thigh area which seems to be what you're describing. I sometimes get cramps there in the pool. In fact, my upper left leg is a problem area. I've had iisues with my ITB, hip, quad. Changing my running gait and exercises have helped for the most part.
Thank you!
one last thing - can you do duck walks
squat, both legs, with the knees open wider than the ankle, and try walking while squating?
any pain?
hammie stretching can NEVER harm, LTL = LISTEN TO LEIGH!!!!!
-hb
No pain doing the duck walk, although I suspect you were just trying to make me look silly.
Whew! My second scare since I started the OS. Puts into perspective the primary goal of making it to the starting line.
I think you got the point
now seriously, It's kinda a relief you don't have pain with duck walking!!!!!
The adductors seem to be the biggest problem. I've been working on them the last couple days. I went for a run this morning to test the waters. Started to feel the twinge 4.5 miles in. I stopped and stretched the adductors, quads and hammies. Got another 2 miles and it started again. Stretched adductors really well and that did the trick! Ended up with a solid 12 mile run and I was able to cautiously add some intensity the last few miles with no discomfort. I'm going to stretch and ice now.
Going to see my ART guy this week too.
Thanks for all your help!