Anyone successfully got over runners' knee / knee pain?

[runningLou]

Looking for some positive stories to cheer me up! Am sat here in my office chair debating taking ibuprofen as my knee is hurting. First experienced knee pain related to running in 2013 when training for a half marathon. Then got much worse and after lots of to-ing and fro-ing with physios and orthopaedics eventually had an op for a bad cartilage tear and cyst in Spring 2015.
Recovered really well and had just under 2 years of no knee pain but then recently upped my mileage to approx 30 miles per week (running with a friend who was marathon training - I'm not!!) and the knee pain is back with a vengeance.
Not sure what to do ... is this it for me and running now? I feel so disheartened as I'd had 2 years with no problems and I'd hoped that the op had sorted it.
Have seen a physio who has said that cartilage surgery weakens the knee joint so I am more likely to get injured.
I really, really love running, not just for health benefits but also mental health. I don't want to give up.
Has anyone used certain exercises to strengthen the knee and gone back to running?
Am currently cycling a lot and thinking of doing more swimming too as low impact.

Interesting about Reiki ... What does that involve exactly?

Lou keep going with the physio exercises. When I had a bad knee many years ago it took months and months to feel the benefit! Don't be impatient and don't go back to running too soon,.

Glad you are cycling so you aren't crawling up the walls ( symptom suffered by all injured runners and cyclists)

OP, an MRI showed up badly torn cartilage in my knee about 10 months ago (never felt pain like it!) I used to run, not a lot, but I do a lot of high impact classes and I have to be really careful now not to over-extend/stress the knee or do too much high impact stuff, otherwise it's really painful afterwards. I notice it particularly when I'm walking downstairs or pushing up from a sitting position.

I've been advised to stretch and strengthen my quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves as much as possible to protect my knees, as I'm very tight esp. hamstrings, which can put pressure on the knee joint. I try to mix body pump for strength with swimming and pilates for flexibility, and combat because I enjoy it.

lou it is the simplest thing ever. You just lie on the bed/table, fully clothed, and the practitioner moves their hands around in the vicinity of your body, but not actually touching. I think I dozed off as all
I remember is her tapping me and saying "turn lady".

I hadn't told her anything about my health but afterwards she said she felt 2 energy blocks in my body, one in my knee and one in my ear (deaf) and "worked" on them. It was all a bit seemingly far fetched but it worked brilliantly, came out feeling I'd had a night's sleep, and knee fixed.

Reiki practitioners are around, but ask for recommendations.

We've had some people at our running club, including me, who are prone to injury but have managed to overcome it by using the run - walk - run method taught by Jeff Galloway. I found half marathons made me sore when I was doing continuous running. Now I'm doing ultra marathons very happily and also faster by taking the walk breaks he recommends.
His website explains very clearly how to work out how much run : walk ratio you need. It varies a lot from runner to runner. Might be worth a try for you.