Knee pain (knees)?

Question

I have severe knee pain when I sit, stand, walk up/down stairs. It starts at the top of the kneecap and shoots down to the very bottom of the knee. It is this huge pressure pain (probably fluid under the knee cap?) in both knees. One is worse than the other but to get up, or down or walk up or down I am having to grasp things. This has been going on for more than five years, getting worse over time. I've been to the doctor and are waiting for the results of an MRI to be faxed to my doc. Does anyone else suffer the same type of pain, and if so what were you diagnosed with?

Answer 1

Yep, I had patella-femoral syndrome, which has since become floating knee caps - translation, my knee caps don't track as they should. Stairs were a big thing for me (grasping the railing sounds very familiar).

Um, you can do a quick eyeball check if this is something you have by standing up square with your knees over your toes and slowly bending your knees to about 90 degree. When your legs are bent (you may need a mirror) look to see if your knee caps are directly over your toes or not. If not - welcome to the club (lots of young women have it), believe it or not, you can survive this, and get lots of relief (little things like careful shoe shopping can make a big difference).

you might want to check out knee1.com for some good resources of info for knee problems. I know it's scary facing all this, but the more you know the less scary it becomes.

good luck!

Answer 2

This may be a case of patellafemoral syndrome, where the articulation between the knee cap and the end of the femur is not congruent. This is usually more prevalent in women due to our structural differences. Yet, it can also be caused by weakness in one particular part of the quadriceps as well as tightness of the iliotibial band on the outer part of the leg. Pain usually occurs when the quadricpes are required to be active...going up and down stairs, getting up and down from a chair, etc. It also sounds like you need further evaluation to make sure there is not any structural damage such as a torn meniscus. If it is either of the above, your next step in care should be physical therapy where more hands on examination can be done in order to attempt to correct the problem and decrease pain.

Answer 3

My knee's ache as well. I have rheumatoid arthritis. Your doctor would have surly gave you the blood test if he thought you had this?
Good luck dealing, do not do what I did before and fell on the wood stove, be careful walking when pain is bad (numbness) and walking is hard!