Knee and quadriceps

sdean

Hi all,
Hoping to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.
I have always been. very fit, carry no excess weight and walk 15 miles about 4 times a week and never had any problems apart from the odd niggle in the knees when walking down stairs or hills. A few months ago while out walking I suddenly experienced a sharp pain in my left knee every time my foot touched the ground while walking down a gentle slope, this lasted a couple of minutes then stopped and I thought nothing more of it till I woke in the night and my knee was throbbing. I then started to develop an intense aching in my quadriceps muscle whenever I stood or walked for anything more than a few minutes. At this point I went to see the doctor who suggested arthritis of the knee and sent me for physio, which I have been receiving for the last few months now. My physio is shocked by just how tender and painful my quadriceps is, and the exercises I have been following have not improved the situation at all, so an x ray has been done which confirms the osteoarthritis diagnosis. The trouble is I can no longer walk or stand for more than a few minutes without my leg getting extremely painful, but my knee doesn't bother me much at all. Painkillers aren't having any impact, nor does resting it which I have also tried for many weeks. The doctor hasn't really been able to offer any help, and everyone else I have spoken to with arthritis say they have never had anything like this. Can anyone help explain what is going on and offer any advice please?

[Deleted User]

Welcome to Arthritis Care Forums sdean from the moderation team

As mods we are here to help with any problems you may have on the message boards.

There are lots of lovely people here with a wide range of experiences with arthritis and the problems of living with the condition. Just join in wherever you like you will be made very welcome.

I look forward to seeing you posting on the boards.

Best wishes

Moderator John

stickywicket

Hello and welcome. I doubt I can help as my OA resulted from years of RA but I thought I'd suggest that you re-post on the Living With Arthritis forum where more people look in.

One thing that did occur to me is that you do, clearly have OA in your knee as the x-ray machine doesn't lie. I'm wondering if, given your former levels of fitness, you might have tried a bit too hard with the physio and actually damaged a tendon or ligament or something into the bargain. I don't think such damage would show up on an x-ray though it probably would on an MRI.

Sometimes, in trying to compensate for a pain in one place, we walk awkwardly and create a pain in another. This might be true for you. When my ancient knee replacement joint finally bit the dust, all the horrible pain was in the ankle below it. My knee felt fine. The body is a weird mechanism.

With arthritis it's rare for the pain to ever go away. It's usually throbbing away to a greater or lesser extent all the time and it's a matter of keeping the level to something we can deal with. Having said that, I think you should go back to either your physio or GP and ask if they think there might be something else amiss besides the arthritis.