I have had a very slight and occasional pain in my left knee. It has had no effect on my running.
However, if I feel the front of my left knee, there is a little flap or bulge of tissue, almost feels like a little loose, edge, maybe 3/16 of an inch. Right knee is perfectly
smooth, nothing there. I am concerned this could be a little bit of loose cartilage or something.
Any thoughts? Should I get it checked out even though I really don’t have any pain?
I am a nearly 38 year old male. Running about 25 miles a week, but I also play indoor soccer and have been doing a lot of
skiing and am worried one of these activities might have caused me to tweak my knee.
"I am a nearly 38 year old male. Running about 25 miles a week, but I also play indoor soccer and have been doing a lot of
skiing and am worried one of these activities might have caused me to tweak my knee. "
Yoda … Knees tend to click, grind and clunk … but pain can be a sign of problems in the knee or muscles or tendons around them. Probably worth getting checked out…a good PT or doctor and an MRI if warranted can be your guide. And drop the skiing part… I went over a 4 foot drop in heavy fog, landed straight legged and have blown a hole in my cartilage to the bone likely putting my triathlon future in doubt. Stick to swim bike run!
The bump you are feeling could be loose piece of cartilage but more likely it is fluid in the knee that you are feeling. Either way it should be checked out. Fluid in the knee is a non-specfic sign of something not right inside the joint.
To me, sounds like definitely something isn’t quite right. I’ve had my knee scoped twice - once for a partially torn meniscus, the other for a cartilage injury. If you do make an appt with an ortho, they’ll likely do an inspection of the knee with lots of poking/prodding while at the same time manually manipulating your leg. Afterwards an MRI is likely to either confirm or refute whatever their thoughts/findings based on their assessment.
If the pain is not a constant, that is a good thing, as even if there is a problem, you may be able to make it through the season without incident, and deal with it at the end of the season or even in the off-season. Recovery times on both of my procedures was right around 2-3 months. Good luck to ya
Cutting sports such as soccer & tennis won’t help your torn meniscus either.
I’m not sure I am following you. If you mean that just not playing soccer anymore (but continuing to run and not getting treatment or taking time off to recover) won’t fix the problem, I get it. Once I get this checked out, if there is a problem, I think I am done with soccer, even after this heals.
To me, sounds like definitely something isn’t quite right. I’ve had my knee scoped twice - once for a partially torn meniscus, the other for a cartilage injury. If you do make an appt with an ortho, they’ll likely do an inspection of the knee with lots of poking/prodding while at the same time manually manipulating your leg. Afterwards an MRI is likely to either confirm or refute whatever their thoughts/findings based on their assessment.
If the pain is not a constant, that is a good thing, as even if there is a problem, you may be able to make it through the season without incident, and deal with it at the end of the season or even in the off-season. Recovery times on both of my procedures was right around 2-3 months. Good luck to ya
Did some research online. Thanks for the input.
I think it is definitely a little bit of cartilage, not fluid.
I am going to make an appointment on Monday to get this looked at, even though right now it is not really affecting my running. I like to think long term, so if it is minor and I can just rest for 2-3 weeks, stop playing soccer altogether and/or do some therapy just do it now, not put it off.
In my not so limited experience, being able to “feel” a torn meniscus as a palpable bump is non-existent. Even a fully displaced, bucket-handle meniscus tear (with a locked knee) does not extrude beyond the contours of the bony joint line. There is a “McMurray test” that may be a palpable torn meniscus with circumduction maneuvers, but even that is rarely positive and not that accurate. So, in my opinion, a bump is unlikely to be a “bit of cartilage”.
Of course, you could still have a degenerative meniscus tear resulting in some pain and swelling :-).