[ReturnofAxl]

I guess I have nothing to lose by posting my story. Maybe somebody else out there can take comfort knowing someone else is experiencing the same kind of he!!. :(

I am/was a triathlete. I've been athletic all my life. Whether it was baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, bowling, pick-up football games, you name it, I did it.

I am in my early 30's. Six years ago I hit my first bump in the road. My wife and I were training for our 1st marathon. I made the mistake of running hard 3 days in a row (no formal program, no sensible progression of mileage, etc., young and dumb) I developed pain in my knee that wouldn't let me run more than 10 feet without a sharp medial joint-line pain that absolutely prevented me from continuing. I got an MRI which confirmed a small tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus.

That was 2002. I pretty much gave up running and did some weight lifting (very boring to me) and pretty much wrote-off running. On a lark in 2005 I tried running a short distance...no pain. Huh, well I'll be darned! This time I watched my intensity, etc. and by 2006 I was doing a couple 5k's, no pain!!!

In late 2006 and early 2007 I was training for a Half-Iron distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) which I completed in June in excellent time I might add! It was great. I was on top of the world!

After that I continued my training but dialed down the distances. No pain at all. Feeling great. I decided to train for some shorter triathlons and 5k's. It was right at the beginning of October, 2007 that my he!! began. It started with some slight discomfort on a hilly course at the end of September. I couldn't tell if it was medial joint line or what. I soon had some patellar tendon discomfort. The location was right at the inferior pole of my patella.

I dialed down activities. I did PT. I had ionto with dex. Cross-friction massage, RICE, e-stim, I did it all. No relief. I saw a doc in December, an orthopedic surgeon He recommended dialing down activities to about 50% intensity and duration, along with taking about 2400 mg of ibuprofen daily for 4 weeks. Things were all right for about 2 or 3 weeks, but, the pain returned toward the end.

I decided to just stop running and biking, heck, I even had pain with swimming so I stopped that too. I had another mri done which showed a complex tear of the same posterior horn of the medial meniscus that has worsened since the '02 mri. Tendonopathy was evident as well at the inferior pole of the patella.

I was suspect of what my doc told me at this time. He said the meniscal tear may have contributed to the patellar tendonitis I spoke with another doc who said he's never seen that, ever. I took 13 weeks off running and biking. In this time, I decided to see another ortho doc.

I go almost 100 miles to go see this other doc, and again, x-rays look fine. He explained that yes, some day an arthroscopy will be needed...but...if it was his knee, he'd try something called Prolotherapy. I have to say I was very disappointed. There is very little research on Prolo and "needles"s to say I was very skeptical.

Now, I've been hurt for about 9 months. I'm at my wits end. What should I do???

Currently, I'm doing a weight-lifting program to try and stay sane. I haven't swam in about a month due to some right shoulder tendonitis (due to the run-bike inactivity I overdid the one sport I had left). I am gaining strength in my injured leg, but there is still a lot of pain. All rest did was cause more atrophy, so the weight-lifting is better than nothing.

By the way, did I mention I recently contacted another doctor? Their procedure is to have your other doctor's charts sent to them for review before you even see a doc. I sent it all through...and this guy referred me to a pain doctor! I don't want to be medicated! I want to be fixed!

I will keep you all updated...and to those going through this horrible experience with me, good luck. I am very sad as a result of all this. I feel your pain.