The knee bone is connected to the...

So my poor knee isn't filled with fluid like I had thought. It swells, yes; but that isn't the main problem. No. The knee cap is subluxed. I've been running on a partially dislocated knee cap? I've been weight lifting with a partially dislocated knee cap? For a month and a half?

Back in March I took a rather nasty spill landing straight down on my knee. No twisting or jerking, just down. It swelled pretty bad and the knee was heavy; and I thought I was done with sports. Done with anything intensive. The pain wasn't too bad but I cried. Not bawling, it was as if my eyes turned on a faucet and the tears just flowed without noise. I was on crutches for a couple of days to help allieviate the swelling. The x-rays showed nothing particular and I was sent home with a bad contusion. I rested for two weeks and went back to working out, light at first and gradually back into more intensive workouts. Presses, benching, squats, lunges, but no jumps. It was still bugging and went back to the orthopedic. She looks at the same x-ray I had back in March and determines that I have a subluxed knee cap and I need a lateral release surgery done to the knee. 

She never mentioned physical therapy. 

 For a surgery that has a success rate that is about 50/50 and is treatable with rehab why would I do this? Especially at my age? I had the same problem with my right knee after years of soccer, baseball, camogie, and Derby. My knee healed with rest and tough rehab sessions. Again, why would I do something extreme that is easily treatable with rehab?

It got me thinking about how military women are different from female athletes. And the reason why I put female instead of an inclusive term is that females are more prone to knee injuries. If I started out with very little muscle mass and so did my male counterpart; and we both want to train for Derby; if I want to have a long career in the sport, I will have to build up a lot more leg muscles to compensate for my flexible joints while my male buddy would not. Now that's the basic, obviously if we want to be top athletes we will have to do an overall strength training regime.

There's a lot of running in the military and running is one of the worst things you could do to your knees, ironically. That is if you don't run correctly So how do you prevent the injuries? You build strength and you listen to your body. Rest when you need to and take care of yourself. I'm aware that there are PT days but is any part of that day geared to strengthen the muscles to prevent injury? Is health maintenance encouraged in the military? As in giving members ample time to workout? Are there seminars on health issues? I'm thinking it would be ...."the suck"....if one injured themselves during a simple three mile run due to lack of knowledge of knee care.

I would know. I spent years not listening to adults, because what teenager really wants to hear responsible advice given by caring parents/coaches/teachers? I'm paying for it now with muscle imbalance and doing stupid things. Or maybe it's just the activity level catching up.....

The one thing I can say is, build up your hips and glutes. We forget that our knees are really at the mercy of our hips and feet. We wear the wrong shoes. We don't workout. We don't care and take ourselves for granted. We have poor posture. We have poor walking/running habits. Get that changed folks. 

The bee's knees


Knee Pain from Cool Running.
Worst title for an article about knee injuries.
11 Exercises that help decrease knee pain.
Female hormonse cycle affects knee joints.
Epidemic of knee injuries that afflict female athletes.

There's more out there.

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