Dec 09 2005
Bone crunchingly good fun
Just got back from the osteopath about my knee.
I have had an ache in my knee for almost 18 months now. This spring I went to see a physiotherapist who diagnosed me with patellofemoral pain. She told me to do some leg raising exercises, and over the next few months told me to just keep doing them while I continually reported minor or no improvement.
Today’s visit to the osteopath was much better. For a start within 5 mins of beginning the hour long appointment I already felt she had taken a more detailed and through assessment, and that was before she put me on the table and did all sorts of prodding, poking, pulling and so on.
The final assessment is that the patella is indeed out of track, as with they physio’s diagnosis. This is irritating and inflaming the ligament connecting the tibia to the patella, which causes the ache. However she isn’t convinced by the cause. A long time ago I had some bad shoulder pains, which eventually were traced to a problem with my right hip. Meeta (the Osteopath) thinks that this is what is causing the problem again. My right leg is all every so slightly turned in wards (kind of like a permanent tango position) which is cause the miss-tracking of the patella. However she isn’t sure, partly because the Quad is so tense as a result of the exercises from the physio, that i have to go back in a week after doing a week of stretches on the quad to relax it a bit. If I get a major change before then I’m to put ice on the knee, and report back on what effect that has.
In the meantime, dancing is apparently good for the knee, it disperses the inflammation, which prevents the pain from getting too bad. However, standing in static positions with weight on a bent right knee is bad, and to be avoided. So I now have an excuse to straighten and take weight off my right knee in Tango lessons :)
