Help! - Leg surgery because of knock-knees?

trainlikekatniss

I visited an orthopedic specialist today, because of my hurting knees after running.

Good news: I am allowed to continue running, my knees are only hurting because I have knock-knees and there won't be done any damage while running, but I'll have to deal with the pain afterwards.

Bad news: If I want to get rid of my knock-knees, they will have to do leg surgery. I will be able to go running without being in pain after that.

I need help with my decision! I am scared of surgeries but I don't want to have hurting knees after running for the rest of my life either? What should I do?

dhakiyya

Did you ask about whether anything like knee supports might help? If the pain is non-harmful (i.e. it's not going to make something else degenerate or put you at greater risk of injury) maybe there's some other way to manage the pain? I don't know if there is, but this is the kind of questions I'd be asking if it was me.

Personally I'd go for a 2nd opinion rather than jumping right into surgery, as generally you should try less invasive treatments to see if they help. Sometimes "this can only be fixed with surgery" means "this can only be permanently cured with surgery" and that doesn't mean there aren't options to manage the pain better. I have no idea whether there are alternative options in this case, but if you get a 2nd opinion from someone else, they'd be able to confirm it. Also you could ask the doctor you saw what options there are for managing the condition rather than going for surgery (if you didn't ask that already). In addition there may be websites for this problem with more information about managing the condition, the risks of surgery, the risks of not having surgery, etc, so you can make an informed decision. Without the facts, you can't make an informed decision, you're just trusting a doctor's opinion. Personally, while I respect doctors, I prefer to have all the facts, pros, cons, etc before making decisions.

penny_eclipse

Have you looked at exercises that might help strengthen your legs and correct it slightly/completely?

http://www.livestrong.com/article/405631-knock-knee-correction-exercises/

There also appear to be loads of links on google for other things?