Chronic knee injury rehab

[Longgrassyhills]

I have had knee pain / injury for 18months. Been through several physios and feel my current one who I have been seeing for 3months is excellent (previous ones all give very generic guidance and I made little progress). I am really struggling mentally with the duration of this injury and the ‘will I ever feel better again.’ Had a pain flare following an exercise progression and feeling stressed and sad. Anyone else dealing with similar? Any advice? Thank you.

I injured my knee a decade ago. I live with chronic pain which flares with wet weather, cold weather and over use. I can also aggrevate it if I 'twist' it or spend too long kneeling (weeding, painting skirting boards etc). I'm told that the pain will be cured when my knee is replaced (saving up to do it privately but still classed as 'too young' to have it done now). I manage it with daily pain relief (ice if I've been stupid), very occasional steroid injections, using the exercise bike to keep the rest of the leg strong and generally refusing to let it affect my daily living. My consultant was amazed I was able to walk on it at all once he saw the MRI and then did surgery to clear out all the broken bits from inside - I told him that I don't like being a patient so I just get on with it 😂 Good luck and I hope you feel better about it all soon!

Do you know what you've 'done' op? I've had bad knees since before Christmas and if I'm honest they were going downhill for a long time before then but I ignored it or put it down to my herniated discs. I've seen three different physios and now gone back to the first one. She basically said it's the way my knee is made and I probably won't be able to fix it. Obviously I didn't want to hear that but having tried lots to resolve it, it's seeming to be true, so far. I'm doing exercises every day to strengthen the support muscles and glutes. The issue is to do with my knee cap support being misaligned, hoff-something insufficiency. It's hard to deal with. I used to do running and cycling but now I would like to be better enough to do a 5km walk without paying for it for weeks. I do feel it's really impacted my life and how I saw it. I'm 42.

hi @Monvelo
i have patellofemoral pain, diagnosed by a physio. I also had a MRI which ruled out any degeneration, tears etc. The MRI was pretty clean, surprisingly! I also used to do a lot of running and hiking but I find it hard to see me ever getting back to that. It’s so tough, isn’t it, such a limiting injury. I am 41

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is also known as 'runners knee'. Have you spoken to an orthopaedic surgeon (specialising in knees and preferably sports injuries) to see if there is anything further you can do? Most cases should resolve in a few weeks (definitely within 6 months) with physio but as yours has gone on significantly longer you might want to explore other treatment options.

Yes, I saw an orthopaedic surgeon after I had my MRI and said to focus on addressing muscle imbalances with physio, there was nothing he recommended from a surgery perspective as my MRI didn’t identify anything.

I was given some bad advice by the initial physio I saw which is part of long recovery reason. I also had a virus and I couldn't exercise for 6 weeks then had to v gradually build back up which again set me back. A few week recovery would be pretty impressive!