Common Sense

My day was peachy. I went to my first physical therapy appointment. I filled out forms, I did some tests and I’ve got the best explanation so far as to why I have such chronic knee pain. My quad muscles are almost non-existent, especially my interior ones. My outside thigh muscles, totally strong. Too strong, in fact, as they pull my knee cap over and out of the groove. The underside of my patella is rubbing against the bone and inflamming the surrounding connective tissue.

The short-term fix was to use sports tape to put my knee cap into place. The long-term plan here is to work out the quadricep so that it does what it is supposed to do.

After my knee was taped, I was extremely optimistic for PT. My knee felt great, an almost immediate cessation of the pain. Since 3 p.m., though, the pain has steadily increased. I left my house feeling about a 4 on the pain scale, now I’m about 8. Once I rip this tape off, I’m going to be around a 12!

I’ve just got to give it time, I’ve got three weeks of this before I can really determine if I can avoid surgery. I’ve also got to figure out what is going on at my ankle. It doesn’t hurt, but the therapist pointed out that part of my left ankle is twice as big as it is on the right foot, but I had never noticed it before. She thought I may have sprained it or something. And it doesn’t have anywhere near the mobility it should.

Anyway, three weeks more, and a doctors visit in two. We’ll see.