meniscal injury or just ITBS?

I've been having some problems with my left knee for a month or so, came on after a particularly hard run - something seemed to give way! Anyway after resting for 2 weeks, started running again, and still painful, especially going down hill. Went to Dr's today, and he thinks their may be a meniscal injury, but i'm not so sure?, am concerned about whether i should be running or not, but my training for LFM must go on! Any thoughts?

Comments

  • go see a physio asap! by training on it you could be doing some more damage. It's likely to be worth paying the money now to get it sorted rather than worrying about it with it coming back to haunt you later.

    Theres still plenty of time to the race, you may want to think about x training while your waiting to see a physio - swimming's pretty good or the aerobic ski trainer thing. These are both low impact and shouldnt aggravate your knee injury.

    Also when the injury's better consider running on differing surfaces, trails or grass or even sand dunes if there are any close to you! While these surfaces can be heavier on the muscles the impact on the joints isnt as much as road running.

    Good Luck!
  • ITB would be pain at the side of your knee where it rubs over bone. Meniscus problems would be deeper in the knee, although your medial (indide) collateral ligament does have deep fibres that go into the menisci so that would again be an inside the knee pain.

    Cruitate ligaments are inside the knee too, sometimes these gove way but I think you would be in extreme pain if that was the case.

    Do you have good quads and hams?? Your quads join into a tendon just above your knee, then the tendon runs over your knee cap into a boney prominence just under your shin/knee if the pain is there it could be patella tendonitus.

    Go see a physio or sports related therapist, they will give your a knee a thorough examination. Try not to keep training, I hurt my knee Feb last year training for FLM and kept going, I still now suffer as I didnt rest and give it a chance to recover, through training I could hardly walk let alone run so be careful and take it easy.
  • Hiya

    I ran the Paris Marathon last year with what was thought to be lateral meniscus damage. As the others recommend see a physio, but then also be wary of their diagnosis - mine diagnosed the meniscus damage - I then insisted on an MRI as I wanted to know for sure - turned out to be Illiotibial tract bursistis - swelling around the tendon in the outside of the knee - in other words ITBS. It then responded well to lots of Ultrasound and a bit of rest and cross training. Cross fingers it has never come back. If I had just taken the physios diag as gospel - I would have ended up having an arthroscopy I didn't need to try to fix mensical damage that wasn't there.

    One thing that got me through the marathon was a patt strap worn about an inch above the knee - not ideal but I was absolutely intent on running it !

    Good luck and don't give up hope :)

    Kiwi
  • Hi.. definitely see a physio!! Rather than your GP.. I have had problems with my left knee on and off for a while, nothing really bad, just niggles on and off. Having eventually dragged myself to physio I discovered that I had probably always had problems lurking just below the surface, and spraining my right ankle doing an intervals session pushed things over the edge. I have patellar tendonitis and slight ITBS, probably rooted in lower back stiffness. Seeing a physio and having massage therapy has helped lots, and I would definitely recommend trying to fix your problem before it gets any worse.
    Good luck..
    PS. While I'm here, any other advice anyone has on dealing and running with patellar tendonitis and ITBS would be v much appreciated!
  • Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I went to the physio today, and i do have ILBS, and so have had a good massage, and ultrasound therapy. The physio reckons, that I should need a week off running, and then should be back to training, after a bit more massage! So i am feeling much happier, and it just goes to show that Dr's don't know much about knees! Thanks again, and good luck with training!
  • I am a relatively new runner. Been seriously running for past 2 months. Ran my first 15k three days ago, and somewhere around the 12k mark, I felt a pulling pain from mid-thigh towards the knee(on the outside). I continued running and reached home with a sore knee (both inside and outside on the collateral ligaments). There was pain on the bony area below the patella on the shin. No running since then and Ive only cycled and did stretches and yoga. The pain has reduced about 80%. I'm going to be participating in my first race event on sunday. Is it advisable to run? Or should I skip the event even though I'm super excited about it? 

  • Well, I did run the sunday 10k event and made it image downscaled my running past one week so my knee gets some rest and recovery. Today, I am pain free and the stiffness is gone!! This time around, no pushing it too much. Will be happy with 1k increase every week for at least a month before I attempt 15k again. 

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