Nagging Knee Injury. Doc in Detroit Area?

Training Injuries
1

finally back after a loooong time but will finally be getting some good health care coverage in a couple weeks so I can afford to get things fixed up.

so here’s the long story:
Decided to get in shape a couple years ago. went from 250 never worked out regularly to 180 with a 300lbs DL and a six pack in a pretty short period of time on a strict meal plan an Cosgrove’s complexes routine. Did those for several months in a row with no time for deloading.

Was doing military presses towards the end of a complexes workout one day and got a very sharp pain from my right shoulder on the way up. Did the remaining 1-2reps and realized I had actually done something so stopped the workout. Took a little time off and did mainly lower body/non-shoulder lifts(deadlift, front squats, etc).

So now I was doing much more legs than normal and mostly heavy lifts. Was in a hurry one day and started doing squats without a proper stretch/warmup. My left knee felt very odd on the way down. Not painful but jerky and not smooth movement. I immediately stopped. I do remember some bruising at the medial patella area where the quads attach to the knee.

This pretty much benched me from lifting and I’ve had issues with both ever since. I did go in for my knee and had it looked at by an orthopedic surgeon(for about 30sec) and had an MRI. The consensus was that knee has a medial meniscal tear but that probably wasn’t from lifting. The advice I got was ‘your knee structures look to be there. go ahead and lift if you want’.

Since then I’ve done some minor work for that knee with mixed results. Lately ,2 times in the last couple months, I’ve ‘injured’ my knee again by seeming innocent things. 1st was a bunny hop(not more than 3-4" vertical jump), 2nd was squatting down to put a heavy box on the ground after being woken up by the GF to move it.

I’ve always had joint issues and very loud popping and a creaking feeling from most of my joints if they aren’t moved for any length of time. For my knee(both) there is a very loud pop if I plant my foot and pull back with my foot planted. Normally this feels like it relieves pressure and makes my knee move more smoothly however since the 2nd injury this is very painful for my left knee.

The medial back of my knee(very back, not under the kneecap) feels odd. Sometimes it’s a burning sensation, sometimes it feels like my knee is going to bend backwards. Most of the time is an uncomfortable, off feeling. Up until now the odd sensation has never been in this area.

I have completely ignored soft tissue work up until now and will be starting that shortly however I have several questions on where to go since I feel much better when I lift and want to fix/avoid anything like this in the future.

Short version:
probably repetitive strain injury in my right shoulder caused me to do more leg work. Didn’t stretch/warm up enough for squats and did something to my left knee. Been sidelined ever since. knee is touchy still and I now have an intermittent burning sensation behind the knee joint at the back of my leg. sometimes is mostly medial sometimes its in the center of the back of my leg.

Questions:

  1. I need to find a good orthopedic doctor that deals in sport med for this in the detroit area(closer to Northville the better).

  2. I need to have a functional mobility assessment done

  3. I need to find a good person for active release therapy

  4. In the meantime what do you guys thing/what can I do about it?

I figured T-Nation was my best bet at finding an awesome doctor that can get me straightened out and actually work with me to fix my issues even though I’m not a famous athlete.

Hopefully in a year I’ll be back to looking like my after photo and be breaking my PR’s but I need help from you guys to do it!

Thanks!

P

2

Sounds like you have most of your questions answered yourself. From the location of your pain in the back of your knee, it sounds like you may have developed some tendonopathy of your medial hamstrings, medial gastroc, and/or possibly your popliteus.

But like I said, you already have all of your questions answered yourself and are on the right path. Get an FMS done, start your SMR/soft tissue work, and begin a dynamic mobility routine. Once all of those fall into place, I think your symptoms will begin to clear up. Definitely get the meniscal situation checked out because you do not want that to go unresolved.

Best of luck!

3

Glad to hear I’ve got the basics covered with what I need to get tested. So does anyone know any really good doctors in/around Michigan that can help me out with this? I guess that was my big question.

4

Bump for anyone’s input on a reputable orto or soft tissue Doc in Southern Michigan. Hell I’d even drive to another state if it was a doctor that would actually try and really diagnose and fix my issues.

5

Well I found a good ART doc in my area that also has experience with athletes(triathalon people mostly). Went in for an exam today for a consult. The shoulder appears to be a nerve that runs through the rhomboids that is pinched off and very fixable. I about levitated off the table when he put his thumb into it. The knee is a little more of a question still. He found a large knot on my popliteus which is probably causing the feeling my knee is going to hyperextend. He also found a spot where the tendon that rides against the medial side of the meniscus appears to be inflamed and is likely causing some of my discomfort. This is not likely the cause but symptoms of something else possibly in the hips. Going back friday with my MRI of my knee and should have some results from my X-rays today to tell him what else is going on. Wish me luck! I might be able to be lifting again before I know it!

6

I had pain from the same exercises that ended up being my Iliotibial Band, might consider it, it’s a pretty common injury if you look up some stretches online you might be able to at least rule this out!

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[quote]awb182 wrote:
I had pain from the same exercises that ended up being my Iliotibial Band, might consider it, it’s a pretty common injury if you look up some stretches online you might be able to at least rule this out![/quote]

OP’s pain is medial and has been told he has a possible medial meniscus tear, so that would exclude IT Band friction syndrome, which is sometimes misdiagnosed as a lateral meniscal tear. If it is a tendonapathy causing the medial pain, it would more than likely be a Pes Anserinus issue.

To the OP. You have had an MRI done and has found a meniscal tear. If you have been having locking and continuing knee issues, you may have a significant tear or even furthered the previous minor tear and may require a scope to clean it out or repair it. Definitely have the docs review the MRI and re-evaluate the knee.

8

Update to the group. Been a busy last month. Spent a lot of time at ART and the shoulder is worlds better. It gets tired pretty quick but working on that.

The knee still has good days and bad days. The tear I have was labelled as equivocal or something like that which means it’s seen from one section of the MRI but abesent in the other where it’s expected to be so it can’t be confirmed as a tear. The knee feels a lot better most of the time although standing around for long periods makes it ache.

Spend 3-5 days a week on the recumbant bike in the mornings and have been doing scuba skill in the pool 2x week for the last few weeks two in the evenings. Between that and a clean diet I’ve dropped 8-10lbs since a month ago which also helps I’m sure. Still taking lots of fish oil and glucosamine.

Fortunately I’ve never had my knee lock and it appears that the tear isn’t a flap tear or anything that gets caught in the knee joint but is still connected so it creates an off feeling most of the time.

I still have some patellar issues as I can feel a slight clicking in my knee when I do the bike until everything gets warmed up really really good. I was told to keep with the recumbant bike for another month or two now that ART is pretty much done to help with proper joint movement.

Hope to have some good news again with the next update!