swelling underneath kneecap

[Guest guest]

My knees feel " tight " all of the time. My PT said that it was

probably due to swelling underneath the kneecap that I can't see.

Question: My right knee is much much worse than my left in terms of

cartilate loss. Yet, my left knee feels as " swollen " as the right.

Are there other conditions, other than chondromalacia that would make

the actual underneath of the kneecap feel swollen? Also, I know

certain diets can decrease inflammation. Does inflammation go hand

and hand with swelling? In other words, if I can decrease

inflammation, would the swelling decrease as well.

Finally, still having CHRONIC tight IT band on the left side.

Tried " everything " - stretching, anti-inflammatories, massage,

strenthening. Anything I'm missing??? Prolo?

[Guest guest]

Kim:

After I started running again after the prolo, I increased my

mileage too quickly and gave myself an ITB problem. I mentioned

this to my doc as an " isn't that funny? " kind of story.

He did prolotherapy on my ITB (just once or twice) and it hasn't

come back. Full disclosure: I have since been much more sensible

about increasing my mileage, so it may not have come back anyway,

but the point is: yes, I think prolotherapy can help with ITB

problems too - my doc certainly thinks so!

HTH,

Doug

> My knees feel " tight " all of the time. My PT said that it was

> probably due to swelling underneath the kneecap that I can't see.

> Question: My right knee is much much worse than my left in terms

of

> cartilate loss. Yet, my left knee feels as " swollen " as the

right.

> Are there other conditions, other than chondromalacia that would

make

> the actual underneath of the kneecap feel swollen? Also, I know

> certain diets can decrease inflammation. Does inflammation go

hand

> and hand with swelling? In other words, if I can decrease

> inflammation, would the swelling decrease as well.

>

> Finally, still having CHRONIC tight IT band on the left side.

> Tried " everything " - stretching, anti-inflammatories, massage,

> strenthening. Anything I'm missing??? Prolo?

[Guest guest]

>My knees feel " tight " all of the time. My PT said that it was

>probably due to swelling underneath the kneecap that I can't see.

I would agree with this.

>Question: My right knee is much much worse than my left in terms of

>cartilate loss. Yet, my left knee feels as " swollen " as the right.

>Are there other conditions, other than chondromalacia that would make

>the actual underneath of the kneecap feel swollen?

Don't forget that my surgeon found a plica running around loose inside my knee

that didn't show up on MRI. It did tons of damage and a plica sitting in the

right place could feel like swelling.

>Also, I know

>certain diets can decrease inflammation. Does inflammation go hand

>and hand with swelling?

Swelling is a part of the inflammatory process your body initiates to bring

curative biochemicals to an injured area. The swelling is extra fluid that

brings the extra chemicals.

>In other words, if I can decrease

>inflammation, would the swelling decrease as well.

But if you have inflammation (acute, anyway), you may need those chemicals.

>Finally, still having CHRONIC tight IT band on the left side.

>Tried " everything " - stretching, anti-inflammatories, massage,

>strenthening. Anything I'm missing??? Prolo?

Prolo is for loose tissues. You have a tight IT band. My guess is you have a

tight IT band because of pain inside your knee translating to the extra-patellar

soft tissues (one of which is the IT band). Doug has suggested that prolo in

the medial coronal ligament (which holds the kneecap to -- well, I forget, but

whatever it holds it to) can help de-sublux the patella.

Ann

[Guest guest]

I don't see how prolo, which tightens tissues, can help with a too-tight IT

band. Maybe he injected non-ITB tissues.

Ann

Re: swelling underneath kneecap

Kim:

After I started running again after the prolo, I increased my

mileage too quickly and gave myself an ITB problem. I mentioned

this to my doc as an " isn't that funny? " kind of story.

He did prolotherapy on my ITB (just once or twice) and it hasn't

come back. Full disclosure: I have since been much more sensible

about increasing my mileage, so it may not have come back anyway,

but the point is: yes, I think prolotherapy can help with ITB

problems too - my doc certainly thinks so!

HTH,

Doug

> My knees feel " tight " all of the time. My PT said that it was

> probably due to swelling underneath the kneecap that I can't see.

> Question: My right knee is much much worse than my left in terms

of

> cartilate loss. Yet, my left knee feels as " swollen " as the

right.

> Are there other conditions, other than chondromalacia that would

make

> the actual underneath of the kneecap feel swollen? Also, I know

> certain diets can decrease inflammation. Does inflammation go

hand

> and hand with swelling? In other words, if I can decrease

> inflammation, would the swelling decrease as well.

>

> Finally, still having CHRONIC tight IT band on the left side.

> Tried " everything " - stretching, anti-inflammatories, massage,

> strenthening. Anything I'm missing??? Prolo?

[Guest guest]

Ann:

Prolotherapy doesn't just tighten tissues -- it heals them.

ITBFS (Ilio-tibial band friction syndrome) is not simply a case of

having too-tight of an IT Band. What happens is, the IT Band gets

weakened and stretched from rubbing back and forth over the lateral

femoral epicondyle.

All the literature says to stretch the IT Band (they should say to

stretch the tensor fasciae latae, right?) to keep this from

happening. While that may be good advice as far as it goes, it does

nothing to address the injured tissue. They just offer the R.I.C.E.

protocol (rest, ice, compression, elevation) which does nothing to

heal the injury, and may, in fact, prevent the injury from healing.

From Dr. Cohen's perspective, the ITBFS was simply a matter of the

IT Band not being strong enough to withstand the rubbing across the

femur. After administering the prolotherapy, the IT Band has been

able to withstand everything I've thrown at it, including weekly 20+

mile training runs to prepare for the marathon.

Ann, I'm telling you (no B.S.), once you start to think of all these

problems in terms of weak connective tissues, all the pieces of the

puzzle fall into place.

The hard part is finding a good doc who does anatomical analysis,

prolotherapy, chirpractic adjustments, trigger-point therapy, etc.

AND has a clue what he/she is talking about.

The other hard part, for you specifically, is your age. Your immune

system isn't as strong as a 25-year-old's, so prolotherapy will take

longer to work, and may not work as beautifully for you as it did

for me.

HTH,

Doug

> I don't see how prolo, which tightens tissues, can help with a too-

tight IT band. Maybe he injected non-ITB tissues.

>

> Ann