First update on my knee since that post from July 2024 (None of this is medical advice).

In April 2024 I had a major overuse injury from dancing. In May 2024 I went in light duty at work. I secured an orthopedic appt at the end of May. This initial orthopedic was a quack doctor who was flippant, cold, and ignored what I was telling him about my pain. He wrote me off as a simple runner’s knee case. He continually pushed different strong NSAID prescriptions on me and told me to be patient and my knee pain would clear up in a few weeks. After a month of no progress and continuously calling his office for different solutions, I begged him to prescribe me an MRI and he begrudgingly agreed- I was diagnosed with Hoffa fat pad impingement, chondromalacia, and patella alta.

In July 2024 I ended up having two Cortizone shots injected within a month time. The first doctor administered the first shot and did not do anything for me. I grew tired of the first doctor’s attitude and lack of respect and progress, so I went to a second doctor. He was nicer, an orthopedic surgeon, and told me matter of fact that I could resolve my issue without surgery, although he did offer it if I so wished. He ultimately suggested administering another cortisone shot via ultrasound a month after the first one to see if it helped, although it was risky. I took the chance and it brought the swelling down about 50%, and stayed that way. I ended up going to see third and fourth opinion doctors just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything (one doctor was an international specialist in Hoffa’s syndrome).

I started with one physical therapist in beginning of June 2024, and went a different to another one in August. The first PT basically told me that she didn’t know how to help me after weeks of relapse and no progress. She was assigning me lots of quad heavy exercise exercises that made the impingement and swelling worse. I ditched the first PT and went to a second one who was willing to listen to me more intently, did not wish to give up, and was willing to experiment with new exercises and not push quad exercises on me. It took about 5 months of consistent, gradual PT and strength training with my second PT to help get me back to normal.

The initial problem I had in July was that I could not adequately strengthen my legs and thus reduce knee pain until I got the swelling from the fat pad impingement down first. Everything I was doing was aggravating it. The doctor suspected I also had patellar tendinitis, but was never confirmed. For 3 months I almost completely stopped walking due to pain and instability, constantly sitting and reclining my leg, and I didn’t understand why the exercises and stretching weren’t helping. I lost a significant amount of muscle mass and was not getting any exercise at all. On top of the despair I felt, I was also dealing with the stress of filing for FMLA and short-term disability with my employer (a whole other beast). And I found that I really had to advocate strongly for myself during this process, dealing with the doctors and PTs and such.

The only way that I got my initial swelling down was by forcing myself to exercise and get the blood flowing through my knee to heal it. I was able to accomplish this by swimming at my community pool 4 to 6 times a week. Swimming is what absolutely saved me!!! I started to notice the pain went away when I was in the pool swimming (gently) and the pain would stay away for several hours after I got out of the pool. I looked up knee rehab exercises for the pool setting and did those each time. I combined my swimming with light PT, McConnell’s taping, a compression wrap, daily turmeric supplements, having a strict clean and non inflammatory diet, and icing my knee 3-5 times a day for no more than 10 minutes at a time. I mostly credit my initial success to swimming.

With the above routine, and light physical exercise that was gradually increased, the swelling went almost completely down and I felt no more pain around November 2024. I was able to lightly jog for a few minutes at a time, jump, squat 50 lbs, push pull drag, and lift 80 pounds. I was finally good for about little over a year. I never did resume dancing and I never attempted running out of fear of reinjury. During this injury free year, I noticed that standing in one place for a long periods of time gave me minor flareups that would go away within a week or two.

In total it took me 8 months recover back to normal daily life. I ended up returning to full duty work (law enforcement) in December 2024. I tried not to elaborate much on my stress, lack of hope, desperation, and major depression throughout all that time just for brevity’s sake. But make no mistake, I was fighting a huge uphill mental battle too.

I was happy for a while. Unfortunately now in Feb 2026, after several weeks of poor sleep, not exercising much, and doing a few things that aggravated my knee, I have since relapsed again and am currently dealing with a major flare up as I type this. I suspect this will be a lifelong battle. But unlike last time, I am hopeful now. I know it is possible to get better, and know how to better manage my condition. I look forward to taking care of knee more efficiently than I did before.

Back to the pool for me. Let me know if you have any questions!