| mr. fragile |
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I'm seeing an orthopedist tomorrow but I would still like the opinions of runners who have experienced ITBS. So here's the story... I have been experiencing knee pain when I first start my runs( starting on a downhill) and walking down stairs for about 2 months. It always went away after no more than 1 minute into my run so I thought nothing of it. This past Saturday, at about mile 5 of my 11 mile long run, I started to feel knee pain. It wasn't excruciating so I unfortunately decided to finish the run. 1 hour after finishing the run, my knee was extremely swollen. The next morning the swelling was even worse, the left knee was noticeably more puffy than the right knee. I rested it Sunday and Monday. Right now, the swelling has gone down considerably. However there is still some swelling. It is at its worst walking up stairs. **** Rather than severe pain, it just feels unstable. When I try and run, my knee buckles and it feels like it can't stabilize my stride...hope that makes sense. What do you guys think? |
| mr. fragile |
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BUMP |
| misery loves company |
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It may or may not be ITBS. Hard to tell. Where exactly is the pain: inside, middle, or outside of the knee? Does it lock up at all? How extreme was the knee swelling? |
| get over it already! |
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Yes it definitely locks up. That's what I meant by "buckling". It's hard to pinpoint the pain but I think it's mainly around the bottom left of my knee cap. Although it seems like most of the SWELLING is on upper right side of the kneecap. Go Figure. |
| asfhlsdhifuh |
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| misery loves company |
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Sounds like it could definitely be ITBS. The swelling is weird, though. However, ITBS seems to effect everyone a little differently so who knows. Comment back tomorrow after you see the doctor. |
| Ye Olde Farte |
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If there's instability it's probably not ITBS. |
| mr. fragile |
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i'm getting an MRI soon...would it detect ITBS |
| not a doctor of MRI |
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I doubt it is ITB. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome My experience with most knee injuries is that rest is usually the best cure once you have inflammation. Doing leg flexions and extensions will strengthen after the inflammation goes away. |
| asdfasfads |
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your doctor is ordering an MRI to check for cartilage damage, which is more likely given your symptoms. |
| someone had to do it |
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| misery loves company |
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+1 |
| jhfghfhd |
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This ^^ I had similar symptoms and an X-ray showed nothing. an MRI, however, showed the cartilage literally sheared off the top of my femur on a non-weight bearing area. Luckily after the surgery I was able to recover and run normally (after a year of PT) |
| wheretobegin |
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It's hard to judged based on pain perception since everyone is different and we don't know you're history. I'm not a doctor, but I've had ITBS several times(in fact it's bothering me now) and I think it sounds about right. If the pain was going away after a short warmup, that's a sign of tendinitis, not a tear and you probably wouldn't see it on an MRI. Locking up of the knee is very common with ITBS. Instability is not, but this may just be false characterization of the sensation on your part. Usually when I have ITBS, I start using a foam roller to loosen up the muscles around it and things get better quickly. I had a severe case once, similar to what you described(unable to run) and it took 6 weeks of no running to recover. Just a side note, I've had probably 10 knee injuries which were bad enough that I couldn't run a step and occasionally could not bend the leg at all. Every time, the problem cleared up with 6 weeks of rest. I'm not against intervention, I've had surgery for other injuries, but I think most of these overuse injuries will heal in a month or so on their own and it's nothing to to panic over. You seem like you're freaking out. Just hoping you'll chill out a bit. It's not fun when you can't run, but chances are you'll recover 100%. |
| not the it band yo |
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Locking of the knee doesn't usually happen with ITBS; neither does instability and especially not swelling. Why would a doctor order an MRI? ITBS is easy to diagnose without any imaging at all. |