deborahjross | knee update (Reply)

Eval with PT was very interesting. I was in an unexpectedly grouchy mood, I suspect from having been in too much pain for too long, but kept reminding myself that in general I have more confidence in PTs than MDs. We looked over the radiologist report, talked about the History of My Knees and what hurts/what doesn't, poked and prodded and measured a lot of things. For all the pain, I haven't lost much range of motion, and the meniscal tests were all smooth, the ligaments sound. She did a chondromalacia test, which turned out negative (that was my suspicion, but she doesn't think so, at least not without arthroscopy). However, she did find a leg length difference (1/4", not trivial), apparently coming from my femurs (not pelvis, that's level) and suggested that the right leg, being long, is subject to all kinds of distorsion as my body tries to shorten it up. Also a couple of weak muscles in strange places. So goes the theory, the knee was under a lot of stress, something overcomes its ability to compensate, and although the ice etc. can temporarily calm things down, as soon as I walk around, I irritate the sh!t out of it again.

So we're going to try a heel lift, specific strengthening exercises, continued ice, and an eagle eye on alignment. I have to admit, I've gotten sloppy about that. You'd think from all the years of dance and martial arts, plus being a chiropractor and being (formerly) married to a Rolfer, I'd know better.

I think it's a wee bit better today, but the pain has been so variable, it's hard to tell for sure.