Back from physical therapy

I just got back from physical therapy for my ongoing knee problems. I was really impressed with the therapy I received. I have an appointment for Friday.

I'm going to take a few notes here so I don't forget what I'm supposed to do and what I was told. It is very possible that I am remembering incorrectly, or incompletely, this is just what I recall, and my memory can be lacking.

There were a few things going on that we are going to try correcting. Hopefully, this will correct the situation. Although the pain is relatively minimal now, it's been ongoing for 5 months.

Here are the contributing factors he identified:
1) Weakness in a muscle on the medial side of the knee... I want to remember the name of this... he said there are four muscles around the knee and this is the only medial one, it's the one you see large on Lance Armstong, he said. Biking will help strengthen this muscle. Maybe the vastus medialis? That looks right. Here is some info on it being weak. This sounds similar to what the PT was saying. That's right. Now that I read more, he was talking about the quads (hence, four muscles) and I remember hearing the term VMO (Vastus Medialis Oblique) which is the lower part of the Vastus Medialis. This link really confirms what was said, including the patella tracking, and this link sounds a lot like what I've felt.
2) Left leg is shorter - might have helped cause some of the other imbalances?
3) Left leg muscles are tighter and less flexible than right leg, especially calf, this tightness and limited ROM was pretty obvious when he compared with the right side
4) Hip bones out of alignment - apparently there are times of the month for women when the things holding the hips together loosen up and the hips can get out of alignment
5) Patella not tracking straight - it was pretty apparent the "detour" it took in the middle of the range of knee movement (probably very related to #1) - my right patella tracked straight as an arrow

He checked other things like my ACL and PCL and the meniscus, but all of those checked out fine. (I'm glad about that!)

So, he put a warm pack on my back for a few minutes and realigned my hips. That went quickly.

Then he used electromyostimulation or Electric Muscle Stimulation on my knee (I believe that's what it was). He put the electrodes on my knee and made my muscles pulse. He said that this would help get the little bit of fluid from behind the patella that was a result of the inflammation. My knee was clicking some which indicated some irritation from the patella rubbing. He wants me to take some ibuprofen to decrease the inflammation. Also, I should ice frequently to keep the inflammation down while I am working on correcting it.

He taped my knee using "McConnell taping", which is basically pulling the patella medially to try to help it track better. (I'm unsure of how you use that in a correct grammatical way!) I'm not sure this is totally correcting the situation, because I can feel the clicking still. I think my vastus lateralis (outer quad muscle) is just plain strong.

I have a list of stretches and exercises I am supposed to do 3 sets of 25 of each day. I'm not supposed to run for a while and I'm supposed to avoid squatting, especially deep squats, until we get this fixed. Those activities would keep the inflammation going. So, I'll be modifying my weights and not running for a little while.

All in all, I think it was a productive session (almost two hours) and I was impressed with the therapist who saw me. I am satisfied that we're looking in the right direction and that I'll be able to correct the situation!