Sometimes I like to kid myself into thinking that I'm not a superstitious person, when in reality I probably knock on wood more than your average woodpecker. So at the self-perceived risk of jinxing myself, I kind of almost want to say that my knee has been feeling better lately.
Now, I have to be extremely cautious about even thinking this for multiple reasons:
1.RE-INJURY!!!!
The last time I got it in my thick skull that my knee was feeling decent was a few weeks after my initial injury. So what did I do? Get back on my bike and ride full out, of course!! And what was the result? RE-INJURY!!! Which I am sure has massively prolonged this whole craptastic experience sometimes charmingly referred to as re-hab.
2. PAIN FLUCTUATION
That's a somewhat technical sounding way of saying that one day the ol' knee might tell me he's doing pretty OK! Later that day?? Uh...turns out, not so much. Good days and bad days?? Hah! How about OK hours and downright miserable ones. Knee shenanigans abound!
3. JINX!!!!
I'm superstitious, remember?
That being said, I think that maybe...possibly...please??...some of the things that I've been doing, may have contributed to some positive results.
So here are the winners...for now:
1. FOAM ROLLER
Purchased on the advice of the chiropractor I saw awhile back, the foam roller has turned out to be quite a useful tool. I kind played with it a little for awhile, not using it to it's full potential, and subsequently blew it off. Then I stumbled on a part of my inner thigh, right around my VMO, that seemed to trigger pain right in the spot where it always hurts the most (inner or medial side of right knee). Some refer to this as a trigger point, and it turns out there is a whole part of "medicine" revolving around myofascial release and trigger points. The more I roll out this part of my leg on the roller (which hurts like bejesus at first, but gets easier if you stick with it) the better my knee would gradually feel! I also found some additional good techniques for this here.
2. TAPING
My last physical therapist had me using Leukotape to use the McConnell methods of taping my patella so it would isolate and move medially where it belongs. That has yielded mixed results, and I've used it quite a bit. Recently I found Kinesio Tape, which works on a totally different principle. Rather than immobilizing or restraining muscles etc. It allows full range of motion and instead encourages lymphatic / blood flow and may help muscles to contract / expand properly. It's all a bit voodoo-esque, but I saw so many Olympic athletes and Lance "Mellow Johnny"Armstrong himself using the stuff, so I figured "what the hell?" One of my big issues has been the swelling just below my kneecap that just won't seem to go away, so figured I could benefit from some lymphatic flow, whatever that may be. Well, so far, so good. It's hard to tell if the swelling has really gone down, but my knee has been feeling better so hey, GO KINESIO!
3. NEW KNEE REGIMENT
This one is still somewhat unproven, but I downloaded a new knee regiment. I've seen lots, and most of them were free, but I had to pay for this one. They seem legit with their money back guarantee, so why not? It seems pretty right on so far. It seems to stray away from all of the "strengthen your VMO" heavy stuff that seems to be out there. That makes more sense to me because as this program says, there are WAY more muscles connecting your knee to your hip, than your quads. And your hip muscles control the alignment of your femur, which directly affects patellar tracking. Which is my problem!!!
4. AVOID FORUMS LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!
They seem like a great idea at first, don't they?? You throw your symptoms into the ol' Googler, and holy crap, you actually get some relevant results!!! You might even actually find some specific treatments after hours of digging through stale threads on "bike forums" or "knee guru" and think that you might be on to something. And then you dig deeper, past all of the snarky one liners, beyond the flame wars and other tom-foolery, still further into the depths of ultra-depressing threads that match your questions exactly, nearly word for word...only to go un-answered, just hanging there in cyberspace like a deflated wallflower at the junior high dance. And what do you have to show for it all of your desperate searching? A bunch of contradictory advice, scary horror stories and a massive headache to boot. Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY!!! In fact, why are your even reading this? I'm not a doctor!!! Sheesh.
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