Quote Originally Posted by arielmoon View Post
And, although I was told I had a great deal of arthritis due to injury and surgeries, my acupuncture/massage guy was able to work on my quads and relieve "knee" pain. If your quads lock up it pulls on the knee, that is where you feel it. Something to think about too.
Yup, been that route.

My arthritis is due to mal-formation of the joint in several separate ways. This was diagnosed by x-ray and MRI when I was 11 - but the orthopaedist (in the USA) 'neglected' to mention to my parents 'oh and guess what, she'll get arthritis at a ridiculously young age because of this'. Xrays and MRI here in England last year showed exactly the same mal-formations... plus degenerative arthritis.

PT and stretching regime helped somewhat when I first began cycling a year ago. I was told it was especially important to stretch hamstrings & quads and the PT did a few other things each week to relieve pressure in the joint / on the back of the patella. However, the PT and the surgeon said cycling was the very best thing I could be doing and felt that, if I kept it up (which I have), cycling would accomplish far more in strengthening and supporting the entire knee joint than PT and/or acupuncture ever could.

But the improvement and relief I got from cycling (which was both marked and revelatory) peaked this spring and then declined. It's as if I passed through that stage of "getting stronger = less pain" and now I've arrived at "knee pain now preventing me from getting any stronger than this".

My mileage continues to go up each week... and I am wayyyyy fitter and stronger and smarter with gears/hills/etc.... which only tantalizes me with the dream of how much MORE cycling I could be doing... how much faster and stronger I could be... if not for the bl**dy knees.

Hence the surgical option coming back onto my radar.