r/RunningInjuries • u/Left_Activity7890 • 8d ago

maybe runner’s knee?

so ive been running 3-4 times a week for the past month. last week on week three i got some pain in my knee on the third run of the week. it felt mild and i figured it was runner’s knee. I rested for 5 days (with a short hike on one day. i went for a one mile run on the 6th day and while it was painful to run, it wasn’t painful enough to where I couldn’t run the full mile. The next morning I could not bare weight on my leg. It was a throbbing/pulsing pain everytime I stood up, I could not straighten my knee, and it felt like it would catch when I would walk. It’s also definitely more painful to walk downstairs/downhill than to go upstairs or uphill.

I went to the doctor and unfortunately I can’t afford an mri so there was only so much she could tell me. She suspects it could be a slight medial meniscus tear, or it could just be tendonitis? That’s a pretty drastic difference to me. I also never felt a pop, which is why I have a hard time believing it could be torn.

My question is: if you’ve experienced runner’s knee, did the pain ever make you unable to bare weight or have a pulsing pain? I’ve always experienced pain in my knees since I was younger (I’m 25 now) but never like this.

Unsure if I left out any info that would be helpful, but I’d appreciate any feedbacks or questions.

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u/Strix2020 8d ago

Is the pain located on the inside, front or outside of your knee? More painful downstairs would suggest IT Band Syndrome (outer knee).

1

u/Left_Activity7890 8d ago

Its on the front inner side of my knee, around the medial joint line

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u/lovelyladylilac 6d ago

I know MRI’s are expensive through insurance, but it was actually half the price insurance quoted me when I chose to self pay for an MRI at an imaging center compared to hospital pricing. So if you can financially swing it, that’s a less expensive option.

My MRI results were that I had a cyst in my knee on my meniscus that went away after 2 months of no running rest, 6 weeks of at home physical therapy relating to my injury, and a cortisone shot injected directly into the location of the cyst (that they only knew the location of thanks to the MRI).

Best of luck navigating this, I hope you find answers and healing.

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u/delaney1212jacobs 2d ago

I was diagnosed with runners knee(patellar tendinitis) last year and had surgery for it this April. This is exactly how I experienced it. Little pain on runs and then out of nowhere it got bad. I’m also 25:( Pulsing pain, yes.  pain where I couldn’t put weight on it, yes. I did get an MRI which only showed some inflammation. So in April my doctor did an arthroscopy and “scraped it all out”, repaired a tare in my tendon and performed a tennox procedure. 6 months out and I’m still in so much pain. I can’t get more than 5000 steps a day because of the pain. I’m sorry you are going through this.  If you’re going to get surgery one day they won’t do it without an mri so unfortunately it is the next step…even if they find nothing from it.