Bad Knees
 

Have you experienced Patellar Tendonitis? What have you done for bad knees?

i have not experienced patellar tendonitis. however, i have had other leg injuries or discomforts, not from umpiring, but i went to the doctor for them. that was and always will be my first step when an injury occurs...pretty much no one on an internet umpiring message board is going to have a magical recipie better than what a doctor is going to have you do.

i dealt with patellar tendonitis from about 2 months into my second year through the end of the season. if you have it, i certainly don't k-need to tell you that it sucks. they tried an assortment of different prescriptions, none of which quelled the pain. i finally had some of that curt schilling crap injected in there in the off season. one little shot right under the tendon. it worked, and has not bothered me since, which is fantastic.

however, after speaking with someone who knows a little bit about knees, i found that that was probably not the best idea. my third year in the game i had a brutal case of plantar fasciitis. while i was dealing with that i asked the guy about my knee, cuz the guy that i had gotten the injection from only went to the injection cuz nothing else we tried worked. turns out the guy i asked worked under the US Ski Team doctor and called him for me. he said that the patellar tendon is a bad place to use that injection stuff cuz it weakens the tendon, and then the tendon becomes brittle as the stuff wears off. he said that it leaves the door wide open for it to split apart and be a lot bigger problem than it was as tendonitis. he said if it acted up again after the injection wore off to get in touch with him, but, thankfuly, the tendonitis has not returned.

it's likely that none of that helped you, but i hope you enjoyed my story.

As with all soft tissue injuries, if you must begin treating it before seeing a doctor, follow the R.I.C.E. protocol and add another R.

Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation and Referal to a competent medical authority.

Check this out:http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pat...625/DSECTION=7

Get it checked out by a good doctor. I know someone who ended up tearing his patella tendon and after a year and a half is still not back to 100%. That might be a long reach from tendonitis, but you never know.

Knee
 

No tendonitis but had meniscus tears in both.

Ice helped reduce pain but eventually needed surgery to correct. Still under care for the left knee which was 'repaired' last September.

Still have recurring pain there but it is reduced.

My advice: get a good Ortho and follow his instructions.