Type of Doctor to see?
 

I have this pain when I'm cycling. It only started last month after a century ride and its been bothering me whenever I put a consistent effort - maybe even only after a few miles. Its centered around the back left side of my left knee, and it hurts on the downstroke. I know forum people can only just guess what's happening and why - so what kind of doctor should I see? A generalist? or is there a specialist that would be more appropriate?

I'd look at a sports medicine guy. THey see lots of knee stuff.

Orthopedist

Not a proctologist.

My wife is a doctor, and she said google Baker's cyst as she walked through the den. She said you regular doctor will be able to handle. She said if it indeed is, a cortisone injection will probably be how it is treated. So, going to see your regular doc should be fine. Feel better.

The one with an actual degree and not a correspondence degree! Probably an orthopedist would be my guess!

First check with your health insurance and follow thier policies on going to a primary care phsycian before going to a specialist. Make sure you get the refferal paperwork done before making the claim to pay the specialist.

Unless you're pay as you go.

Did you get the bike fitted properly? That would be my first place to look. Every time I get a new bike, I get aches and pains for a couple months while I get it dialed in (I'm stubborn and fit my bikes myself), then I'm fine when I finally find the proper fore/aft and height position of the saddle.

If your bike is properly fitted, then start worrying about which doctor to see. In which case, refer to the other posts.

Depending on your insurance, you may need to start with a family practice doc or other general practitioner, but if you play your cards right you can often find one that's trained in sports medicine and is a little more savvy with such things. Most insurance plans won't let you go straight to an orthopedic surgeon, nor is it worth it for something non-operative (read: $$$$$).

Maybe it's because we're paid to be paranoid in medicine, but if your knee is bothering you, make sure there's nothing bad wrong with your knee, THEN fiddle with your bike fit--not the other way around.

When I sustained a knee injury several years ago I went through all the layers of doctors, per my health care guidelines, till I got a referral to the one I wanted. At that time he was the "knee" doctor for a pro hockey team. Do your homework.

cute dog

Or maybe I'm just young and stupid still. I'm sure spending 2 months trying to work out knee pains isn't healthy, but at 26 it's more likely to be the bike. When I'm 40+ it'll probably be more likely to be me :D

I've been dialing in the fit on my bike for the past 4 months and I have some knee pain to show for it. After taking some time off to recover and making some calculated adjustments on the bike, I think I have it dialed in and I've noticed the knee pain subsiding. I read the bike fit section in "Serious Cycling" (as well as numerous online sources), and it turns out I was able to get the seat post height, fore-aft position, and cleats almost exactly the same as what was suggested. In short, those fit guides can be really helpful!

Whichever doctor you find, consider getting a professional fit done. I wish I had done it instead of fiddling with it on my own :/

One of the things about being a specialist vs. a primary care doc is that you see a lot of the unfortunate cases that slipped through the cracks because someone (patient OR doctor) thought it was no big deal. For instance, a young kid, 22, who had a little bleeding from you-know-where and was treated for hemorrhoids, because that was the "more likely" diagnosis. Next time his doc saw him a year later he had lost a ton of weight and had a huge abdominal mass. That was when his colon cancer was diagnosed, and at that point he was stage 4 and inoperable. He died a miserable death a few months later.

Again, I know that my view on the world skews things, but there's an actual reason why folks say "see your doctor." It's not so you can pay for a visit to be told your knee will be fine. You pay for the visit to make sure there's no tumor there that'll cost you a limb, however unlikely that may be--remember, the chance is 100% if it happens to you.

I don't want to scare the OP, but rather explain where I'm coming from. Once you've ruled out the really bad stuff you can have a field day popping motrin and dialing your bike fit. Sorry to get all serious about this, but I really believe that getting it evaluated is the right thing to do.

i certainly wouldnt see a general practitioner - they will have absolutely NO IDEA what is appropriate care with regard to muscular imbalance issues.

right, a general practitionner will only guide you to a specialist, in this case an orthopedist.

Not a fair statement in the least, at least not as a generalization.

very fair statement to me,
I saw a general doc for shoulder pain, was guided to an orthopedist, the general doc wasnt equiped to see that it was bursitus.
I had knee pain, went to a general practitioner, he sent me to an orthopedist, they found was what wrong.
I partially tore my achille's tendon, didnt waste my time, went straight to an orthopedist.

to be fair in this debate your opinion has a heavy bias attached dr. pete. there are many providers of care and paths an individual can take to achieve a sucessful outcome. blindly attending your GP in this instance isnt sound advice. In this instance best to bypass the GP and head straight to a sports medical professional - they can then refer you to the best specialists in the field. You then just ring your GP and ask for the referal without even having to see the GP. Its often best to cut them competely out of the loop (with regard to these types of injuries).

I couldnt agree more.
After wasting my time twice with a GP, I finally caught on, no need to waste my time anymore. You just call in a reference to the appropriate doctor.
Saves steps, saves money.

there is a huge trend towards this actually. people taking charge of their healthcare - demanding access to high quality specialist care immediately. the days of blindly shuffling off to the GP as the 'gate keeper' to all healthcare solutions is ending. Ofcourse you have medical pracitioner associations all over the globe sqweeling like babies about it - its called 'trying to protect market share' lol anyway i digress.....

Thanks for all the replies. I'm definately looking to see a Orthopedist now and am going to setup an appointment. It'll still give me peace of mind if they tell me its just some minor deal that'll dissappear in a month. On the flip side, if its something that'll threaten other aspects of my life - I'd like to know too. Better to err on the side of caution, thankfully, my medical plan covers consultations like this.

I never said anything about blindly accepting advice or anything. What I was trying to say was that there are "GP's" who have received special training in sports medicine, i.e. Family Practice docs who have done sports med fellowships. So what I was trying to say is that you need to be smart about it, and just because one GP doesn't know much about sports medicine doesn't mean that none of them do.

Again, not saying that all general practitioners are sports medicine experts, but some are. My problem was with the generalization that none of them know what they're talking about when it comes to sports related injuries.

I hear what you are saying, but for myself as a patient, Im done wasting my time trying to find out who and who doesnt know how to deal with sports related injuries.
I just head straight to a sports medecine practice, makes more sense as I wouldnt go see an orthopedist for a sinus infection.:)