Hey there! Hope your day is going well. I don’t know about you guys but I’m kind of loving weeks where a Monday holiday is involved. It’s like I’ve hardly been at work and then all of the sudden- bam- it’s almost Friday. Works for me!
So for the past few weeks, I’ve been having a nagging pain in my left knee. It started hurting when I was running and the pain has never really gone away. I’ve tried several things- icing religiously, taking an anti-inflammatory every day, drastically decreasing my exercise and for almost the past week, stopping physical activity all together.
So you can imagine my frustration when on Tuesday, my knee hurt so bad that I could hardly walk up the steps. I decided to make a doctors appointment to find out what was going on, and they were able to fit me in yesterday.
The ortho concluded that I have Plica Syndrome, which is inflammation of the synovial tissue in the knee. The good news is this is not a serious injury or anything, so I shouldn’t have a hard time bouncing back.
Given that my knee pain hasn’t improved much with icing and resting so far, this is what the doctor recommended moving forward:
- Avoid running for the next 3-4 weeks
- Limit physical activity for the next 3-4 weeks
- Ice every day
- Upgrade my med to a prescription anti-inflammatory daily
- Avoid anything that causes pain in the knee for right now
There were some physical therapy options he threw out there, but I decided to go with his other recommendations for right now and see how things go. He said cycling generally shouldn’t cause many issues, but since I’ve been having some soreness after my rides, he recommended that I cool it for the time being until my pain decreases.
While I’m glad this really isn’t anything serious, I’m bummed that it happened right as I had settled into an awesome workout routine 
I went back to work and ate my feelings in Thai food.
Good thing I have a buddy to keep me company while I ice my knee.
One thing it sounds like I can do that will not cause an issue is swimming. So I’m going to check out the local Y this week to possibly get a membership… bonus is that it would be discounted through work anyway.
This will kind of force me to practice swimming, which I really need to do if I am serious about doing a triathlon at some point. Silver lining, people.
Have a nice day!
That is such a bummer about your knee. I think getting into the pool, swimming, and trying out pool running might be a good alternative to keep you moving. Aqua jogging definitely looks and feels a little weird, but it is a great resistance free workout and helps with muscle memory. Sending you quick recovery vibes. P.S. I think it is super exciting that you are thinking about doing a triathlon. I vote YES! :)
Thank you :)