Karma - I do this kind of surgery, when needed. Can you give us a little more info? Why you went to the doc, had the MRI in the first place? Age? Type of racing/training you typically do? Previous problems with this knee? Did you have regular x-rays first? Show any thing? How big/deep is the chondral defect?
I went to see the doctor because following a rather difficult (OK - BRUTAL) Xterra Triathlon on May 8th I couln't walk down stairs without pain. I rode my MTB I have been rinding pain free for years and ran in a pair of trail runners I have only got about 100 miles on at this point. I noticed the knee pain about 30 minutes into the bike on a steep uphill. I forgot my saddle was a bit low from a descent the week before so I got off and raised it back up about 1.5 inches to where I normanlly ride it. The run was either straight up hill or downhill, very steep. The knee was yelling at me on the downhills so I went very slowly and gingerly down the hills. Immediatley got Ice on it after the race. It never really swelled up. Rested it for about three days and continued ice treatments. On the fourth day I went to see my deep tissue / AR guy and spent the next two weeks going in twice weekly for work on the tissues surrounding my knee, including my quads, hamstring and calf muscles. After two weeks he said it should really have seen improvement and he was worried about a possible miniscus issue or a problem with my knee tracking.
I couln't sleep after hearing the words "bad miniscus" so I decided to see an orthopedist. I went to the St. Mary's Sports Medicine Clinic in Walnut Creek, CA. Orthopedist measured my muscle strength and didn't think that was the culprit since I'm pretty fit from doing a lot of cycling the past few months. Since I have a PPO and I can self direct my care, we had an open playing field. Their x-ray tech took the day off so there was nobody around to take the images that day. The doctor put in a request for an MRI to the insurance company to see if they would do it without an x-ray. They responded within a day that I was ok to go to get the MRI if I wanted to. MRI clinic had an opening that afternoon so I took it. Got the images the next morning with the report that said I have a Stage II Condral defect and secondary to that was a bit of runners knee.
I am 41 years old.
I adventure race at the sub-24 hour distances and have done an IM every season for the past 4. Never really been a runner. Lifelong biker and did a fair share of backpacking as a younger man. That was until I jammed my back (l4/l5 ligament tear in 1993). I started to up my mileage running in February because I decided to give IM a break and try a little ultra-running. My mileage at the time of this latest incident was only about 80-100/wk of cycling and 30/wk of running. Nothing extreme by my past experience. Only new thing was an increase in trail running since the ultra I was planning is a trail run.
No previous problems with this knee, except that both of my knees are somewhat "stiff" in the morning after a nights sleep. They sometimes "pop" when I first straighten them from the bent position, more so after sleeping, but sometimes after sitting. The patella doesn't track smoothly, it's best described as "crunchy".
Right now I can't work out because of the pain and going down stairs is pretty much painful with every step. I have completely laid off all exertion of my knees/legs (no cycling or running because they both hurt too much to do even if I wanted to) for the past two weeks and it has not gotten even the slightest bit more bearable. The pain is on the very edge of my knee cap on the inside (medial).
Hope this information helps, I'm going NUTZ !!!!
Dave
Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach
I went to see the doctor because following a rather difficult (OK - BRUTAL) Xterra Triathlon on May 8th I couln't walk down stairs without pain. I rode my MTB I have been rinding pain free for years and ran in a pair of trail runners I have only got about 100 miles on at this point. I noticed the knee pain about 30 minutes into the bike on a steep uphill. I forgot my saddle was a bit low from a descent the week before so I got off and raised it back up about 1.5 inches to where I normanlly ride it. The run was either straight up hill or downhill, very steep. The knee was yelling at me on the downhills so I went very slowly and gingerly down the hills. Immediatley got Ice on it after the race. It never really swelled up. Rested it for about three days and continued ice treatments. On the fourth day I went to see my deep tissue / AR guy and spent the next two weeks going in twice weekly for work on the tissues surrounding my knee, including my quads, hamstring and calf muscles. After two weeks he said it should really have seen improvement and he was worried about a possible miniscus issue or a problem with my knee tracking.
I couln't sleep after hearing the words "bad miniscus" so I decided to see an orthopedist. I went to the St. Mary's Sports Medicine Clinic in Walnut Creek, CA. Orthopedist measured my muscle strength and didn't think that was the culprit since I'm pretty fit from doing a lot of cycling the past few months. Since I have a PPO and I can self direct my care, we had an open playing field. Their x-ray tech took the day off so there was nobody around to take the images that day. The doctor put in a request for an MRI to the insurance company to see if they would do it without an x-ray. They responded within a day that I was ok to go to get the MRI if I wanted to. MRI clinic had an opening that afternoon so I took it. Got the images the next morning with the report that said I have a Stage II Condral defect and secondary to that was a bit of runners knee.
I am 41 years old.
I adventure race at the sub-24 hour distances and have done an IM every season for the past 4. Never really been a runner. Lifelong biker and did a fair share of backpacking as a younger man. That was until I jammed my back (l4/l5 ligament tear in 1993). I started to up my mileage running in February because I decided to give IM a break and try a little ultra-running. My mileage at the time of this latest incident was only about 80-100/wk of cycling and 30/wk of running. Nothing extreme by my past experience. Only new thing was an increase in trail running since the ultra I was planning is a trail run.
No previous problems with this knee, except that both of my knees are somewhat "stiff" in the morning after a nights sleep. They sometimes "pop" when I first straighten them from the bent position, more so after sleeping, but sometimes after sitting. The patella doesn't track smoothly, it's best described as "crunchy".
Right now I can't work out because of the pain and going down stairs is pretty much painful with every step. I have completely laid off all exertion of my knees/legs (no cycling or running because they both hurt too much to do even if I wanted to) for the past two weeks and it has not gotten even the slightest bit more bearable. The pain is on the very edge of my knee cap on the inside (medial).
Hope this information helps, I'm going NUTZ !!!!
Dave
Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach