My Experience - Would Not Wish The Pain On Anybody
Can’t recall exactly what the doc called it, but what you describe as patellar tendonitis hit me the first time several years ago. Woke up about four o’clock on Labor Day morning with my knee throbbing, and badly inflamed. Pain centered front and just below the kneecap. There was no “proximate cause” – I hadn’t done anything outrageously strenuous in the prior day or two, or put undue strain on my legs, or suffered a bump. But there it was.
The pain became so intense I went to the local hospital emergency room. The ER physician on duty that day poked my knee a bit, enough to nearly have me on the ceiling. He theorized that, given my age at the time (mid 50s) it was a calcium deposit particle “floating” around and causing the irritation. X-rays showed nothing of the sort, and in fact gave me a clean bill on arthritic condition. My knees were in very good condition for my age, weight, etc., the doc said. He seemed disappointed about that, fixed me up with a leg brace, prescribed some painkilling dope, wrote a referral to the local orthopedic surgeon, and sent me on my way.
A few days later the orthopedic surgeon did more X-rays, pronounced my knees to be generally in superior condition (all considered, blah, blah, blah), and theorized some kind of tendonitis. He blasted the sore spot with an injection of steroids led by a shot of powerful local anesthetic – I got instant relief. I walked out of doc’s office without the leg brace. The next day I hiked eight miles on flat, easy terrain, without a lick of pain or trouble.
Note well: A few years later I was told that steroid treatment is not highly recommended for this kind of thing.
While hiking on Mt. Mansfield two years ago I had another severe knee episode of similar sort. Same knee. Same place. It gave me minor difficulty both going up and coming down, related, I thought, to some irritation that had developed in the kneecap while I was kneeling on it, loading our van for Mrs. Grumpy’s and my annual vacation extravaganza. Nothing a tough brute like me couldn’t handle, though.
Back at the van after our hike, I did the usual stretches, drank a bottle of beer and snacked on some cheese and crackers, and all was OK. We headed back to camp, and after having been on the road a half hour or so decided to stop and pick up a bottle of wine to drink with evening’s din-din. Straightening my leg as I stepped down from the van, the pain in my knee was absolutely excruciating. I spent a perfectly miserable night in the Vermont state park leanto where we were camped, and the next day zipped down to Hanover, NH to the hospital emergency room.
At Hanover, I was treated by a physician’s assistant, who was familiar with the type of injury I had suffered. He sure knew exactly where to poke and make me jump and yelp! Tendonitis, he said. He fixed me up with an ice pack, prescribed some high powered Motrin, told me to rest and elevate my leg until the pain subsided, and sent Mrs. G and me on our way.
That was on Sunday.
Monday, we headed over to New York for a scheduled stay in the Adirondack High Peaks. I got to ride in the back seat of the van, leg iced, elevated and straightened out, like a prince. By Tuesday the leg was feeling a bit better, and I could walk in reasonable comfort, but with great care. Wednesday was much better: according to my journal, “a lot of the flexibility and range of motion without pain has returned, and I can walk more normally. Even tried walking up and down stairs like a usual person would, and got away with it.”
Thursday, I went on a short hike from Elk Lake to Slide Brook leanto and back, with no problems. Friday I did some more hiking – longer distance, but no real climbing.
Have had no knee “episodes” since. Thank goodness. My only “therapy” has been regular walking and hiking. I would not wish the pain I experienced in those two tendonitis episodes on anybody.
G.
At my age four weeks of inactivity translates into a huge loss of fitness, but I know enough to realize that using an unhealed knee will almost certainly prolong the period of disability. Very frustrating, to say the least.
