ice helps control the swelling, which is the only continuous symptom i have

I have had bad knees since the seventh grade. I was running a track meet and had just crossed the finish line when I felt a pop in my right knee. I went to the nurse and explained what happened and she looked at me with apathy. "Put some ice on it".

Glad she went to nursing school.

I went to the doctor and he immediately told me that the tendon or ligament (I don't recall which one) behind my kneecap had flipped over and was now on top of my kneecap. Not a fun situation especially for a 12 year-old.

He advised me to wear a neoprene rubber brace; one with a hole in the kneecap to heal the injury. Now these braces are worn by athletes of all walks, but in 1992 they weren't so hip. I showed up to school and was made fun of. I didn't care; my knee felt great!

The same thing happened to my left knee in high school. Luckily I hadn't grown too much and I used the same knee brace to correct the problem without the aid of a physician. I recommend consulting a doctor, but using a neoprene rubber knee brace has helped my knee injuries. While they'll never be healed, at least they don't have to cause pain all the time.

I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was two years old (1984). I was in Russia at the time. Prior to diagnosis I had constant pain and high fever. The doctors got me on steroids. They helped with the fever, but I started developing liver and kidneys complications. We saw leading specialists in Moscow, but they all said that my condition was very rare. Fearing for my life, my mother took me off the steroids. I was in critical condition for a while and my joints became permanently stiff. However, the fever subsided and I haven't really had any pain since then. Apart from being wheelchair-bound, I don't have any life-threatening conditions. I do have osteoporosis, which is why I'm on Boniva. I also engage in exercise, as approved by a rheumatologist.

I first hurt my knee in 1986 playing basketball with some teenagers. I got kneed in the side of my knee. My knee hurt for about two weeks and then went away. Since then if I do too much strenuous activity it starts hurting a little during the event but the next day it will hurt a lot. It doesn't swell it just hurts. The two activities that always make it hurt are playing basketball and running. The reason that I have not been to a doctor is that I can not stand the thought of being laid up for weeks and I can't afford to miss work. Also I have found self remedies that have helped to manage my knee problem. I don't play basketball anymore and I don't run. Plus I use some home remedies that really do manage the pain.

My right leg was twisted in a skiing accident, resulting in a stretched knee ligament. I was unable to walk on the leg at all without crutches. The stretched knee ligament was diagnosed by my primary care physician via x-ray. Treatment consisted of demobilizing the knee with a full leg brace for 2-3 months. Treatment resulted in my knee being somewhat weak, but through gradually increasing exercise, the knee was strengthened; however the knee, to this day, feels as if it is more susceptible to being injured.

I had a Makoplasty in October of 2009 to insert a prosthesis in my medial compartment. I'm 3 months out and had to have a scope done Jan. 19th, just 4 days ago, because I had locking, pain, and muscle spasms. My doctor found a loose piece of cement in my knee joint, which he removed along with 3 other pieces that were in danger of being dislodged. He also found a bone fragment under my skin, near the top of my patella, that was causing me discomfort whenever rubbed by me wearing jeans.
I was unaware of this possibility before the surgery and I wonder how this can occur, since my surgeon is quite experienced with Makoplasty. One would think that this had been perfected, preventing this type of complication, after doing so many. Still, I'm very happy with the results and my knee is doing great now.

I have always suffered from lower back pain and knee pain. For years I thought I would just have to live with it. I thought I would be in pain forever and I began to lose hope for ever healing my pain. I have always been slightly overweight and I knew that was part of my problem. I began seeing a chiropractor in 2006 and I noticed I started to feel better, which led the way for me to begin low impact exercise so help myself get into better shape. I started with low impact because I still had knee pain. I later learned I had a partially torn ACL which is why I had such pain. Due to chiropractic and exercise, my back pain is gone, and my knee pain decreased. I have surgery scheduled for next month to fix my ACL and I should be completely pain free by the February.

I have always been fairly active, running regularly during and after college, and having a job where I am sometimes physically active. I had noticed over the years my knees would sometimes ache after a lot of activity, and grind when I bent them. Finally, after a long summer of being on my feet often in 2004, my knee was in greater pain and was swollen. I finally went to my family doctor, who after a physical exam prescribed me a high dose of naproxen sodium and referred me to an orthopedic doctor. The orthopedic doctor took x-rays and did a physical exam and diagnosed me with chondromalacia. This was due to the muscle on the outside side of my knee being stronger than the one on the inside, so when my knees bent and my kneecap moved, it was pulled toward the outside and rubbed incorrectly aganist cartilage and bone. This caused the grinding and inflammation. The orthopedic doctor prescribed Bextra, a different antiinflammatory, which was more effective, and sent me to physical therapy..

I attended physical therapy for about 3 months. They tried a wide variety of treatments during my therapy. I would usually start with a topical cortisone treatment, but only had a few of these during the first part of my therapy. I would also have ultrasound therapy of the knee, which warms the tissue from the inside out. They would also electrically stimulate the muscles to strengthen them. This was very helpful but somewhat painful if the level of stimulus was very high. I also did exercises at the clinic and was assigned exercises to take home. These included squats, stationary bike riding, and exercises in which a resistance band was tied around my ankle and I would do repetitions pulling the band in each direction, front, back, side to side. These exercises were focused on strengthening the muscle so the kneecap would stay in place better when moving and not be pulled sideways and rub against bone. I was also instructed to ice my knee after exercise. I feel that physical therapy was a great benefit to me, lots of things they did such as the ultrasounds and electrotherapy, I could not have done at home by myself through exercise alone.

After being released from therapy, I have joined a gym. I have lost 20 lbs, which will hopefully lessen the stress on my knees. I also do weight machines at the gym and take aerobics and yoga classes to keep my legs strong and flexible. I continue to wear a knee brace when exercising or walking to keep the patella in place. I have continued to improve some, but do still have some grinding and a small amount of knee pain. Extemely strenuous or high impact activity, such as hiking, is still painful on my knee. On a scale of 1-10, if 1 is not being able to walk and 10 is perfect health, I was probably a 4 at the beginning, a 7 after physical therapy, and an 8 currently. I can do most normal activity, but my knee does still ache occasionally and I must wear the brace when I am being active. I have considered consulting an orthopedic doctor again since it does bother me on occasion, but have decided to ramp up my exercise more first and see if I can improve it on my own, doing some exercises I learned in physical therapy.

A year and a half ago I was suffering from intermittent stabbing knee pain. After a couple months my dance partner encouraged me to go to the doctor. I was diagnosed with bursitis and told to stay off it. I could return to dance after 2 days of no swelling no pain. After 3 weeks I tried it again and didn't make it through the warm up.

This started a long series of doctors and tests (xray and MRI), sports medicine and orthopedics. It took 2 1/2 months to get a diagnosis of a torn meniscus. 4 months after my first doctor's visit I had my surgery. Despite my doctor swearing that I'd be back to my pre-injury workout schedule in 3 months, it was nearly a year before I could train as before, and I still have swelling and occasional pain.

My knee is much better now than pre-surgery (I couldn't walk). If I were a couch potato I would be at 100%. For a dancer, I'm at about 70%.

I was born with a pronounced femoral anteversion and flat feet which puts significant strain on my knees. Around the age of 10, the age most orthopedic developmental problems like the ones I have should straighten themselves out, these problems began to take a toll on my knees. I suffered my first patella dislocation while doing nothing more than walking, however, instead of having to be popped back in, the patella was pulled back into place, the effect of a pop-eye knee cap. I went to the doctor and was told I had subluxed patellas and was told to do physical therapy. I did PT and it seemed to help for a bit but this has been going on for nine years and I still have not found anything capable of taking care of the looseness I experience in my knees, unless I give in and have the ligaments holding them in place surgically shortened to cope with them being over stretched.