Doctor, Doctor, my knee feels weird

May 9, 2016 2:32 PM

For the last month or so, I've had this weird sensation of pressure under my left knee cap. There's no pain really (after some workouts there's a smidge of a twinge when going up stairs but that could be unrelated). When it first started, I felt like I had less push on that side when skating but I haven't noticed that lately.

I know you're not my doctor but what could it be and is it anything to be concerned about?

My mum has osteo-arthritis and had to have a knee replacement when she was in her 50s, so I'm cautious about knee stuff but at the same time I feel stupid going to the doctor just because my knee feels weird. I'm morbidly obese and quite active, but it really started during a bit of a rest period - only skating about 90 minutes a week. I'm trying to step up my workouts - 4 hours of skating, 2 hours of crossfit plus some open gym time and I don't want an injury to ruin my momentum.

posted by missmagenta to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

Not your doctor, but when I was cycling a lot I had what sounds like a similar "weird knee" for a while. It never really hurt, it just felt weird. In my googling I came across some stretches for Iliotibial Band Syndrome and they seemed to do the trick. I'm partial to stretch number 2 there.
posted by clockwork at 2:44 PM on May 9, 2016

Even if it's not femoropatellar pain syndrome, I'd suggest you google that and do the exercises because it will support and stabilize your knee and prevent it from getting worse. Rolling out your IT band, IT stretches, quad strengthening, glute strengthening, it's all good for your knees.
posted by matildaben at 3:42 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, patellofemoral pain syndrome. Ouch. I've got it along with arthritis, and basically they tell me to strengthen my quads.
posted by Stewriffic at 3:52 PM on May 9, 2016

Physical therapy can work wonders here. It might not be worth a trip on its own, but next trip in you might ask about getting a few PT appointments to head off instability or "wrongness".

I say this as someone who injured her knee (tie your shoelaces before you unicycle, kids) a decade ago, went in to see a doc a month later with "no pain but feels wrong", got dismissed with "I can't fix no pain". And then a few years later when "wrong" turned into "ok ouch" saw a PT, got exercises, and now when it bugs me I do the exercises for a while and it goes away. If you're a better person than me you will just keep doing the exercises.
posted by nat at 8:18 PM on May 9, 2016

I'm a runner but had similar problems and self-diagnosed it as patellofemoral pain syndrome. From what I read there's evidence that this is a problem, especially for women, because of weak hip muscles. I added some of these exercises [PDF] and it's really helped.
posted by radiomayonnaise at 8:24 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]