Planning on consulting a doctor, but curious...

dorianaldyn

I'm planning on consulting a doctor; however, I'm curious if anyone has experienced something like this. Sometime back in February/March, I fell about 10 miles in to an 18 mile run. I landed kind of hard on my left knee and shoulder, but after a brief rest I was able to finish my run back home. It didn't bother me during any training runs, during the marathon I ran, etc.

Now, since then I have avoided kneeling on that knee because it kinda felt like the bone was bruised or something. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that it looks and feels like I have a little pillow sitting on top of my knee cap. It's a little pocket of fluid a bit larger in diameter than a quarter. I still can't kneel on that knee, but I'm still not experiencing any pain during runs, or during normal going about life activities. I feel rather silly going to a doctor about it, but the pillow isn't getting better, if anything it's getting worse.

Has anyone had anything like this? I would so love to hear, "why yes, that happened to me. I did nothing and it went away all by itself. My knee has never been better!" Most likely I'll be calling the doctor on Monday... Better to be safe than sorry I suppose.

ZenInTexas

Could it be a Baker's Cyst?

http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/tc/bakers-cyst-topic-overview

WebbyShoo

While I've never had this happen to me (I have had others in my life it's happened to, google bursitis, most people's clear up without doctors intervention and just resting, reducing the ongoing inflammation/fluid build up with icing etc, but it can very rarely become infected in some people, more commonly with autoimmune/joint issues). While I have nothing to say that would be helpful in terms of treatment (Dr Google should be able to help you if you want to avoid the Dr, I'd not bother going to a Dr unless there was pain, but that's just me I'm stubborn like that. It still sucks and I feel for you. Could have been much worse though, hubby tore his MCL playing basketball. He's terrified of surgery laying him up so keeps putting it off and just wearing a brace... now how stubborn is that, lol walking around for years on a torn MCL.... sigh.

dorianaldyn

Could it be a Baker's Cyst?

http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/tc/bakers-cyst-topic-overview

Close - but that one is behind the knee, and mine is definitely right on top of my knee cap.

While I've never had this happen to me (I have had others in my life it's happened to, google bursitis, most people's clear up without doctors intervention and just resting, reducing the ongoing inflammation/fluid build up with icing etc, but it can very rarely become infected in some people, more commonly with autoimmune/joint issues). While I have nothing to say that would be helpful in terms of treatment (Dr Google should be able to help you if you want to avoid the Dr, I'd not bother going to a Dr unless there was pain, but that's just me I'm stubborn like that. It still sucks and I feel for you. Could have been much worse though, hubby tore his MCL playing basketball. He's terrified of surgery laying him up so keeps putting it off and just wearing a brace... now how stubborn is that, lol walking around for years on a torn MCL.... sigh.

I'm sure it is just general inflammation (ie bursitis); I guess I just expected it to be getting better by now. I was more curious about whether or not the fluid should be drained (??), if I should be taking some anti-inflammatories (??)... But, because it's not hurting me much, I do feel silly taking up a specialist's time ~ if only there was a specialized sports injury / knee doctor that I could call - I really only need 5 minutes, max! I don't know, with my kids I always err on the side of at least calling and speaking to the nurse; I feel like I at least owe myself the same level of concern.

dorianaldyn

Alright - so I figured out that Doctor Radio (a channel on XM) had their orthopedics show yesterday so I called in with my knee issue and WebbyShoo nailed it. They said it sounded like pre-patellar bursitis. They did warn that the main complication was infection, but unless the skin was broken, that wasn't likely to happen. The orthopedists on call were all sports injury doctors and it was funny, they knew better than to tell me to stop running. They did say that when I get a break in my training schedule between races, that I might consider consulting a doctor at that point. They could potentially drain the fluid and then wrap my knee to discourage the fluid from coming back. So, that's a relief - at least I know I'm not doing irreparable harm by running on my funny pillow knee. All the sports I did growing up didn't come with these sorts of issues ~ concerns like joint health are totally new to me.