I think your knees hurt from staying up too late . Hope you don't work in the morning!

I definitely agree with other that you want to use surgery as a last resort.

Finding a good physical therapist would be your best bet.

With what you have mentioned about your condition it could be due to a muscle imbalance in the quads. It’s not uncommon for people to have weak inside quad muscles (vastus medialis). What can happen is that the outside quad (vastus lateralis) can overpower and pull the knee cap to the outside. There evidence to suggest that people that don’t do a lot of full range of motion squatting are more likely to have this occur. In the Western worlds people sit on chairs more and don’t squat down to the ground much for rest positions. You will often see young children squatting down so naturally and comfortably.

At this point however full range squats probably won’t help much. If you do find a therapist you might talk to them about this to see if they think this is the issue.

It’s possible by choosing exercises that focus more on the inside quad you could improve your condition. The best exercise I know for this is a reverse step-up (a.k.a. Petersen Step-up). My wife and I have worked with many climbers and hikers that had knee pain. This exercise has produced excellent results. You can learn more about it and see a video at

http://www.bodyresults.com/e2kneetest.asp

Good Luck!

sjarelkwint wrote:After 6 weeks of training I feel bad ... My knee is even worse than 6 weeks ago when I started therapy ...

3 more weeks of therapy and if I don't feel any change I'll go back to my doctor and ask for a new therapist ... Hope to be able to go to anton claes (kneedoctor of most soccer players) or Lieven Maesschalck (therapist of Christiano Ronaldo)

You should let the knee rest. As you are reconstructing your home, it can't rest thus won't get better. No amount of physio will help with that.

A physical therapist will work with you for a limited amount of time. They guide you in the right direction. AFTER that it's up to YOURSELF to continue doing the excercises. Not doing these excercises and only occasionally training out or doing sports will mean that you'll end up with the same problems over and over again.

If you have these kinds of problems, quite ofter it is because some kind of muscle isn't doing it's work. Strengthening this muscle should solve (part of) the problem. I have severe patella tendinitis in both knees. If I stop with my excercises (even now after three years) for a month, they'll be hurting again after a 30min walk.

Agreed, you should definitely give up walking/running/hiking/climbing for some time and focus on the exercises the therapist gives you.

So, doing the Dodentocht, knowing your knees are f'ed up is just a very bad idea...

Yeah well, I was invited to a tennis game two days ago, fun no doubt but a bad idea

Here in NYC, I like to attend symposiums and classes in avoiding problems.

http://www.hss.edu/pped.asp

You might want to see what it available where you live.

I've been amazed how much I've learned about the architecture of the knee, hip and ankle.

John Duffield wrote:Here in NYC, I like to attend symposiums and classes in avoiding problems.

http://www.hss.edu/pped.asp

You might want to see what it available where you live.

I've been amazed how much I've learned about the architecture of the knee, hip and ankle.

Interesting...I'll have to check out if any of the hospitals or Universities around here might have some similar seminars. Thanks, John.

My Running Club also has a learning series. I go when I'm in town. You might have stuff available there as well through the Running Clubs. All of this is common to climbing. Same joints.

http://www.nyrr.org/resources/learning_series/index.asp

I was at the doctor recently and they did an MRI as well and it turns out that I do not have patella tracking disorder but plica syndrom. That means that I had previously been misdiagnosed. The doc gave me some exercises to do and it appears that they are essentially the same or very similar to the exercises recommended for patella tracking disorder. There is also the option of removing the plica by surgery.
Does anybody here have some experience with plica syndrom? Has anybody had the surgery to remove the plica?

mstender wrote:I was at the doctor recently and they did an MRI as well and it turns out that I do not have patella tracking disorder but plica syndrom. That means that I had previously been misdiagnosed. The doc gave me some exercises to do and it appears that they are essentially the same or very similar to the exercises recommended for patella tracking disorder. There is also the option of removing the plica by surgery.
Does anybody here have some experience with plica syndrom? Has anybody had the surgery to remove the plica?

Moni noted it in a previous thread:http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34139&highlight=plica+syndrome

Dave Dinnell wrote:

mstender wrote:I was at the doctor recently and they did an MRI as well and it turns out that I do not have patella tracking disorder but plica syndrom. That means that I had previously been misdiagnosed. The doc gave me some exercises to do and it appears that they are essentially the same or very similar to the exercises recommended for patella tracking disorder. There is also the option of removing the plica by surgery.
Does anybody here have some experience with plica syndrom? Has anybody had the surgery to remove the plica?

Moni noted it in a previous thread:http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34139&highlight=plica+syndrome

Thanks Dave! I just saw that too. PM sent to Moni.

This means you are using your vastis lateralis (outside) a lot more than your vastis medialis (inside) portion of the quadriceps muscle group. Not only should you be focusing on strengthening the VM through some weights, you need to change the load distribution in all other activities you are doing to help build the VM in a functional manner. VM will slight pull the patella medially.