Quick background: 37 yo female, former soccer player. Triathlete for the past 5 years. I’ve had some patella femoral pain in both knees in the past and ITBS on the right side in 2009. Always worked through it with RICE and PT exs. Been told by a PT that I have weak glutes and hips, calf gets tight esp on the right side.
I started to have right knee pain this spring/summer. My right knee was achey and it hurt to go up and down steps (sharp pain at a specific point in bending my knee). I laid off running for a few weeks and the knee seemed better, but maybe just a little weaker than the left. I went to ART and had him work on my hips and IT bands. I was back to running 20 mpw then suddenly in the middle of a run, I got sharp pain under and to the outside of my right knee, it stopped me in my tracks and when I walked home, the right knee felt very weak and unstable. At first I thought it was ITBS but the pain seemed lower, at the fibular head area and under the knee area. The knee felt bad all week, esp on my feet at work so I made an appt with the ortho. He referred me for an MRI for “Pain and Instability. Evaluate for lateral meniscus tear”. The results of the MRI showed no meniscus tear, but did show " Prominent bone contusion at the anterior aspect of the lateral femoral condyle and involving a focus in the lateral aspect of the patella. No discrete fracture. Mild chondromalacia patella "
The ortho said this was likely an overuse injury and sent me on my way with instructions to rest it for a couple of weeks, but said it could take 2-6 months to heal. I wasn’t armed with the right questions at my appt because I wasn’t expecting this diagnosis. I am quite happy to rest the knee from training but I am on my feet all day at work. I am curious as to what exactly happened? I didn’t have a major injury to cause a contusion, except that I did crash on bike last October and went down hard on that knee, however I would have thought the pain would have shown up sooner if it was related to that? Is a bone contusion a big deal, possibly a pre-cursor to a fracture? I am also unsure if I have a secondary problem with my knee related to the pain I was feeling at the fibular head area? Ortho said it could be referred pain or from the IT band.
I am debating getting a second opinion or maybe making another appt with my ortho to go over the results. Not looking for someone to give me better news but I would like to understand this better to make sure I heal properly and prevent it hurting again. I did a search here on ST and read through several knee threads but didn’t see anything about this type of bone contusion.
Any thoughts/advice appreciated 