Any medical advice?

I am not a doctor so I can't give you out-of-the-book medical advice, but I am a runner and I've had chronic tendonitis for about 12 years and have not had long-term flare up in years. Maybe you have already tried the following, but I'll throw it out there just in case you haven't! **Strengthen the hamstring and quad - lower weights and more reps. Also, straight leg exercises, especially during flare up seems better (i.e. leg raises with weight on ankle). **Orthodics: Do you need them? Do you need to get yours re-built or slightly altered? **Stretch, stretch, stretch - all those muscles that pull on your poor knees - but be gentle! **Continue with the ice, etc. :)

For me, I can just feel it coming - so I stop whatever I am doing - completely stop running right there. I give it a couple days and do my gentle stretching and lifting. Usually, it is completely gone in a couple of days as opposed to when I didn't know better and ran through it, didn't lift, etc. and it would be months before it was better. AIso, I try to limit anti-inflammatories and pain killers as I want to be able to tell if the tendonitis is getting better, getting worse, or with any luck - gone.

I also noticed that if I rested too long (weeks) without using that knee (or those knees) too much, it/they remained stiff even longer. Try gentle walking, etc. after you've rested a long while to see if it gets rid of some of the stiffness.

Hope this is somewhat helpful.

I've been bothered for over a year as well, but over the past 6-8 weeks I've seen progress. This is what the PT has done.

Phase 1

Ultrasound 2x week, with steroid creme.

Massaging the tendon every day to break up scar tisssue. Use two fingers and kind of rub back & forth across tendon (~2 minutes/day)

Icing every day (5-10 min), massaging the tendon rather than just letting the ice sit there.

Once the pain has subsided, then proceed with phase 2, while contining PT.

Phase 2

Easy knee dips, by standing on 4" platform and dropping down to heel of opposite foot (strengthen's quad and tendon). 2 X 15 reps.

Gentle jumping exersise. Stand on 4" platform and jump off. Land on toes with knees flexed. Let your quads absorb the impact. This stresses the tendons while the muscles are extending. Do 1 X 10 reps.

Stretch quads (but don't do hurdlers stretches).

Phase 3

Start running easily every other day. Start at 2 minutes, and build up slowly from there. Continue icing, stretching, and strengthing exercises. Allow complete rest at least 2 days each week.

According to therapist the running actually helps increase the blood flow and will help the healing process.

Expect several months of plodding before being able to start training.

I am now running 20-25 minutes every other day. It's slow going, and sometimes 2 steps back for a step up. But 2 months ago I couldn't even run 1 mile without hobbling around for the next 2 days.

Bump

Stop icing. Icing a tendon injury is the dumbest most misguided medical myth out there. STOP. You are inhibiting recovery. Use heat and compression if anything. Stop resting too. Active recovery is what heals. BYE.

Moonface wrote:

Stop icing. Icing a tendon injury is the dumbest most misguided medical myth out there. STOP. You are inhibiting recovery. Use heat and compression if anything. Stop resting too. Active recovery is what heals. BYE.

I sure hope OP recovered, ice or not. It’s been 19 years.

Um.

docLorna wrote:

Moonface wrote:

Stop icing. Icing a tendon injury is the dumbest most misguided medical myth out there. STOP. You are inhibiting recovery. Use heat and compression if anything. Stop resting too. Active recovery is what heals. BYE.

I sure hope OP recovered, ice or not. It’s been 19 years.

He clearly forgot his password and had to bump this under a different username.

Moonface wrote:

docLorna wrote:

I sure hope OP recovered, ice or not. It’s been 19 years.

He clearly forgot his password and had to bump this under a different username.

Sure, let’s go with that.

Also, I agree with your advice.