What is causing my knee pain and the cracking noises my knees are making?
A few months ago my right knee started to make a little noise when walking up/down stairs or when extended while sitting. It was making a crinkling noise, but there was no real pain. Until now.
Now walking up or down stairs causes mild pain. I feel a dull pain in it occasionally and the pain is growing in intensity. It still makes the crinkling noises.
I exercise regularly, but since the knee pain started I have been avoiding anything that puts a strain on my knees (like squats or running). I am 31 years old and I have never had any significant injury to my right knee.
Also, my left knee has started to make the same sort of crinkling noises, but no pain in my left knee yet.
I have a doctor's appointment Friday, but I would like an idea of what I may be facing. I do not have medical insurance, so I am worried at what kind of diagnosis and treatment I'm looking at.
Thanks in advance.
Public Comments
1. Sounds like cartilage damage. Looking at having an MRI to confirm, then surgery to clean up the cartilage.After surgery you might have an ice machine (rental or purchase) to pump cold water through a bag that is wrapped around your knee and a machine (rented) to move your leg (increasing the angle of bending over a few days).
Then there we be physical therapy for 6 weeks or so to get it all back in shape.
I'd find some insurance before you get too far into this. Can get real expensive without it.
2. could potentially be a problem with your knee cartilage.
(very common amoung professional soccer players)
its mainly due to wear and tear so if your very active (running regularly, sports that involve twisting and impact to the joint) it could be that.
3. It sounds like you have just what I have been dealing with in both my knees for over 24 years now.
Chondromalacia patella is the softening and degeneration of the tissue (cartilage) underneath the kneecap (patella).
Here are the symptoms
* A grating or grinding sensation when the knee is extended
* Knee pain in the front of the knee that worsens after sitting for a long period of time
* Knee pain that worsens with using stairs or getting out of a chair
* Knee tenderness
The best place to start treating this is to see an Orthopedic Surgeon and have them do an MRI on your knee. You might be lucky and NOT need any surgery as surgery is not recommended unless the case is severe (as it is with me unfortunately) or there are other underlying issues (I have those 2 )
The first thing that they will try is Physical Therapy with specific exercises that are targeted at strengthening the supporting muscles around the knee to lessen the grinding of the knee.
If they do recommend surgery it is really not that big of a deal. It is done with 3 tiny incisions and they just clean up the damaged cartilage. You go home on crutches but I was always off mine with in 1 week, then once the stitches are out (or even sooner with some docs I had one that sent me to PT 3 days after surgery) You start Physical Therapy to develop your muscles.
I know a lot about these arthroscopic surgeries I have had a total of 6 of them done on my knees, 5 on the right and 1 (so far) on the left.
Unfortunate I was one of the lucky 15% that was not helped with anything that they tried and it just got worse and worse until the right knee was effected with a severe case of arthritis under the kneecap and no cartilage left. I just had surgery number 6 on the right knee to life the kneecap up so that it is "floating" above the joint and wont rub. My doc was honest and told me this would not "fix it" but will help somewhat with the pain. The only fix for me is to remove the entire kneecap.
You are lucky in that you are just really starting to have symptoms there are LOTS more treatment options than there where when I was diagnosed at 13 years old (I am 37 now) I know my mom just started having issues and she tried the Synivic injections and had wonderful results with those.
Good luck to you and welcome to the bum knee club!!!
4. When you grow older,the body show you what is going wrong.So that was normal for everybody.You have to do some exercise for your daily life after that you'll feel better and also get good health.
5. I suggest after your doctor visit that you visit a new interactive,web site; www.360footcare.com. They are a new site with strong interactive features. They have pedorthist on staff who can provide you with free information that can help to resolve your issue. You can tweet them or send email or see them on youtube. Keep in mind,frequently, knee problems can be related to your feet, it all depends. If nothing else, they might offer some suggestions that will help you deal with the pain. I suggest that you email your question to them. info@360footcare.com You may want to visit their site and look at the Q&A link.
