Knee Pain

by Jaime
(Redondo Beach, CA)

I had knee surgery years ago. I hit my right knee onto a car dashboard during a car accident. Part of my knee cap was removed. It has worked fine for a long time.

No trouble (except obvious things, it will not recover to full 100 percent . It bends less than the good knee, and it hurts if I attempt to squat with weights. Other than that it worked ok.)... until about a week ago.

After having stopped running for about 10 days (trip to Florida) I begun running again (3 times/wk 6 miles ea). I did my 1st run after coming back. I ran fine.

I did my exercises after running (pull ups, dips.) and took a shower. Eat dinner and went to sleep.

When I woke up, I could not bend my right knee much, it was swollen and painful. Swelling has gone down, but I am afraid to run again. Knee is still somewhat painful, and like I said before, I can not bend it all the way. Help.


Answer by Dominique:


Hi Jaime,
Thanks for your question about your knee pain after running.

It is a bit tough to answer without knowing where your knee pain is located (inside of the knee, front, outside), how much swelling we are talking about, etc.

Hard to relate it to your short break from running. If you have been running your six miles fairly consistently then you would not expect a short break to affect your running that much normally. So, I am not sure if it has got anything to do with your ten day break.

Several things may have happened. Maybe during your run you had to make an unexpected move which put your knee out a bit and could have torn or strained the ligaments around the knee. You may not have noticed it at all during the run, but as you cool down the legs stiffen up and you get these pains.

You can try self-treatment via rest and applying ice. After a few days the swelling and pain should hopefully go down. If it is incidental, then just rest and ice would give you a good chance of success.

However, the bad knee cap makes me worry that there may be something else going on. So, although rest and ice are always good, if you do not return to normal within a week I would definitely go visit the specialist, e.g. an osteopath.

I have been visiting an osteopath recently after a not so successful squash game in which I screwed up my running season by twisting my knee and injuring the medial ligament in the process. What I like about my osteopath is that he can combine massage and other treatment at the same time as providing me with exercises to do at home which help build up the muscles around the knee.

Sorry that I can't pinpoint your knee pain to one specific thing. I hope that just resting the knee and applying ice will do the trick, otherwise, as said before, really do go to the specialist to give your knee the best possible chance of a quick recovery.


Kind regards,
Dominique