tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9142068982446715373.post7502019992743413341..comments2024-03-13T11:19:08.598-07:00Comments on Saving My Knees: Comment Corner: How Do You Heal Through Movement When You're Always in Pain?Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03960907174716515553noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9142068982446715373.post-58408874553433718902011-09-30T09:28:42.243-07:002011-09-30T09:28:42.243-07:00A few years ago I too was diagnosed with patellafe...A few years ago I too was diagnosed with patellafemoral syndrome (chondromalacia of patella) and was only able to shake it after reading Doug's blog on articular cartilage. Like the above emailer, mine was so bad I couldn't walk for more than a minute or two without increased pain.<br /><br />So here's what I did:<br />1)crutches with no weight bearing on affected leg for 3 days. <br />2)crutches with putting some weight (maybe 50%) on my affected leg for another 5 days. By now the knee was largely pain-free, but I could tell if I did too much it would start hurting again.<br />3)took it easy for the next couple of weeks by only walking for a few minutes per pop, made sure when on stairs to only take the initial step up with my good leg.<br />4)built up my walking stamina and using both legs for stairs over the next 5 months. was back to running at month 6, doing the couch to 5k program. A few years later now, and I'm back to marathon training, 100% pain-free knee.<br /><br />Now, I also had a 40 hour/week desk job during this ordeal. I basically just made sure to flex and extend my knee (pain-free range, which started off with maybe 10 degrees of movement!) every few minutes on a small bosu ball I brought to work (like Doug's skate board recommendation). I also lightly (10% of strength) pushed my foot into the floor or wall of cubicle starting at about 100 times a day, up to 1000 times (and built up the pressure used as long as it didn't hurt the next day). I also did squats at around 4 weeks, but did them with reduced weight bearing (kind of like dips for your chest but with my feet on the ground), and not to sound like a broken record, but built up my weight bearing on this as well.<br /><br />I'd be interested to try my experiment again without the use of crutches - maybe my decreased weight bearing, high rep exercises would've been enough.<br /><br />By the way, I was so psyched by my results and by Doug's blog, I decided to switch careers; now I'm just a few weeks away from graduating from PTA school.<br /><br />Hope some of this helps.can standnoreply@blogger.com