For the past 12 months I have been hurting my left knee from every angle! First up, last summer I twisted my knee when tripping over an errant power cord. While I didn't fall over, I landed completely wrong. This made it difficult, but tolerable to go up stairs, and I had to curtail my walking commute and biking for the rest of the year. I had lingering pain well into November. I had to cut out my favorite workout classes due to knee instability and pain.
Then finally in December, thing were looking pretty good - I was at 75% of normal motion. And then I was on vacation in January, and we were doing a mini hike. My foot slid down a path a couple of inches and that re-aggrevated things. This time the pain was even worse. The first few days I could barely walk up the stairs - and our hotel didn't have an elevator. It was really horrible on the long flight home.
That made it impossible to bike, take the stairs, and walk more than a short distance - no long walks for me! Not only that, I ended up having some tightness in my IT band or hip flexors so I couldn't stay balanced on one leg. Putting on pants was a lot harder. I started using a chair to balance for that leg. This stuff started making me feel old. In the February or so, I was feeling around 50% and could more walking and standing without too many issues. The rain had finally slowed and I was going to start bike commuting, but my bike got stolen. Grrr. So I didn't get any of that great low impact exercise to help rebuild strength around my knee.
So finally it is mid-May and I am feeling 75%. My normal balance is back. The tightness is gone, so my range of motion is back in my hips. My new bike is almost ready. I am able to take the super scenic route on my commute and walk more. Things are pretty good. I have been taking some spin classes. Activity levels are trickling back up.
And around 2 weeks ago, I hyperextend the same left knee! Ugh, I landed wrong stepping onto a curb. And it is a new knee pain. In a different place this time. On the up note, this is healing a lot faster than the previous ones. I've been adding a brace for sleeping and occasional periods during the day, which is when my tendency to be a side sleeper can be a bit aggravating. While I was able to resume decent distance walking, standing for too long is a bit aggravating - and leaves my knee a little sore. Hopefully I am back to normal in a week or two.
This knee pain has been so irritating. I am so over it. Once things feel fully healed, I am going to dive into more knee stability exercises, particularly on this one knee because apparently it is the problem child.