On Friday, I went to the physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor, also known as a physiatrist, to get a second opinion, as advised by my primary care physician. What I learned is that my PCP is pretty darn good! After a more involved examination involving twisting and pushing my legs this and that way and making me walk back and forth around the office and walk while crouching, the physiatrist confirmed what my PCP said — that indeed I do have patella femoral syndrome.  He gave me a set of exercises and stretches to do and prescribed that I get a chopat strap for BOTH knees. Apparently my right knee is also exhibiting symptoms of it though I have not felt them yet. Bummer.

The doctor said that if I did the quad exercises and stopped running for a while (probably months or longer), it should go away.  I have another check in with him in a month. If it still is an issue, next steps would be physical therapy.  He said I could run the race if I really wanted to but I would need to do so with knee straps for both knee and that at the first sign of pain, I need to stop running. The race is less than a month away and I stopped training about 3 weeks ago. I want to give it a try and just monitor the situation, I guess. I have a 3h and 45min time limit — maybe I can speed walk the 13.1??
Today, I bought a knee strap from REI. At first I tied it on too tight and my calf started throbbing in pain (cutting off circulation!).  After loosening it and walking around for a while, it seems ok. Though not as tight or “supportive” as the knee brace. I hope to go for a jog or longer walk or get some time on the elliptical with that and see how it feels. I would be sad if it turns out my genes and biomechanics point to the fact that I’m not meant for long distance running. Running has been a great stress reliever and a good way to exercise with minimal equipment. The other thing I like to do is play tennis but that is a high maintenance sport: rent a court, get a partner, and get tennis balls (luckily I have over 30 cans). With this knee, it will be a while before I can handle the quick and speedy back and forth shuffling required in tennis! 🙁

I know this is a very common knee injury, not just for runners but for many athletes and also for older people and people who do work that requires a lot of repetitive movements of the knee but I still feel disappointed about being injured while trying to be healthy and active. Well, I guess I have to focus more on the other other muscles in the hip, quads and core as well since these injuries happen when the body isn’t trained holistically.

Update on the KT tape: They keep falling off after one day! And I got a slight rash from the 3rd one I used. It may be because I haven’t figured out how to apply them properly or something but that was a bit disappointing as I was hoping the KT tape could be the best thing to support my knee during the work days (something that isn’t bulky under my pants and won’t cut off my circulation after 12-14 hours of mostly sitting). I have been wearing the knee brace to work and let’s just say by 2pm, I start to feel a tingling in my leg and by 4pm, I feel my lower leg go numb and soon my toes start to feel weirdly cold and before I leave the office, I have to remove the brace. Not fun.

The cost of knee pain so far: $78. Ah. It could be worse, I guess. Let’s get healthy!

• $10 – first doc visit
• $20 – physiatrist visit
• $18 – knee brace
• $13 – KT tape
• $17 – knee strap