Im on crutches because I cant walk due to my knee, ive spend 100s on mri, ct, ultrasound, xray. all normal.

doctors and physio are all saying conservative treatment which ive done for 6 years with only slight improvement

I dont know what to do.

hi all as 19f diagnosed with patellfemoral instability and patellafemoral pain syndrome

I have been diagnosed by physiotherapist since age 12, i have done exercises/physical therapy for months at a type with a physio, then gone and done my own exercises but still symptomatic, rinse and repeat. I'm at the point where im on month 6 again of physio. I'm tired.

My physio doesnt believe mri is necessary as he is certain I have a shallow groove which can only be supported with exercise and strength but im in so much pain.

but hes refered me now to a doctor I saw years ago who didnt take any action. Also now getting an xray and ultrasound before my consultation with his doctor, which isnt for a few months.

Im just so tired.

I've been taking prescription painkillers as PRN and a lot of the time i cant walk.

I use to be an amazing runner but I haven't been able to run, jump or bear weight properly since I was 12-13..

this is impacting my mental and physical health so much. im at breaking point.

I just needed to rant. Have a nice day everyone

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I had a tibial tubercle osteotomy (TTO) done on my right knee in December last year, so I’m now about 8–9 months post-op, with around three months left until the one-year mark. I have patella alta in both knees, but before surgery, my left knee never really caused me problems. My right knee would mainly hurt when I overloaded it for example, pulling or lifting something very heavy and putting a lot of pressure through my knees.

Otherwise, I was fairly active. I would exercise my lower body once or twice a week, including Romanian deadlifts with dumbbells and weighted squats. I had a decent amount of muscle in my legs and could do these exercises without significant problems.

I decided to have the TTO because the underlying problem wasn't going away. My physician basically told me that physiotherapy could help, but it wasn't a permanent fix and that I would always have to be conscious of what I could and couldn't do. Surgery was presented as the more definitive option, and since I was young and expected to recover better, I decided to go ahead with it.

The reality of recovery has been very different from what I expected.

For the first three months, I couldn't walk much, although I was doing physiotherapy and whatever exercises I could manage, even while lying in bed. By around three months, I was off the walker and no longer needed even a single-arm crutch. I could walk, but my knees couldn't tolerate much activity.

I was then advised to try BFR and controlled knee extensions. I genuinely felt that they helped me, although I also wonder whether regular, controlled knee-extension work would have produced a similar benefit. I started physiotherapy around the end of March or beginning of April, and I've continued for months.

I have gained some muscle back in my right leg with physiotherapy and increased protein intake. My leg doesn't look like a toothpick anymore, which is honestly progress. But I still cannot walk for more than about 20–30 minutes without needing to rest. My muscles start feeling weak and I develop pain in the middle of my knee, which feels like the knee is simply being overloaded.

I still cannot kneel, deep squat, or do many of the things I could do before surgery.

And now I'm starting to have problems with my left knee too.

Because so much attention has understandably been focused on my surgically treated right knee, my left knee wasn't really the focus. Although the MRI showed patella alta of moderate concern on the left, it never caused me significant pain before. Now the left knee is starting to feel almost like my right knee felt before surgery, while my right knee is still struggling after the TTO.

That's the part that is really frightening me.

Something else has happened during these months that I genuinely don't understand.

Around 4–6 months after surgery, I started noticing that seemingly normal exertion could cause strains or injuries in different muscles, tendons, or ligaments. Before surgery, I had never experienced anything like this. Growing up, normal exertion never caused my muscles or tendons to rupture or become injured. I was exercising, had reasonably strong wrists and legs, and could lift relatively heavy weights without this happening.

Then suddenly:

I pulled open a cupboard/wardrobe door using two fingers, something I've done countless times, and strained my finger. I developed swelling over the area where the ligament/tendon runs. It took almost a month to improve, and even now, using that hand excessively can make the finger hurt.

My wrist subsequently started hurting with certain positions, even something as simple as resting it on a hard wooden table.

If I walk too much, my ankles start hurting.

And most recently, I picked up a bucket of water. It couldn't have been more than around 7 kg. Before surgery, I was routinely lifting dumbbells and doing weighted exercises. Now, that simple movement has left me with what feels like a significant strain around my upper back/trapezius, and I've barely been able to sleep properly for the past week because of it.

I don't understand what is happening to my body.

Is this something that can happen after a TTO because of prolonged deconditioning? Can being relatively inactive for months somehow lead to this kind of generalized loss of tolerance to normal exertion? Or is there something else that should be investigated?

I've had blood work done recently, and I'm already expecting someone to suggest a vitamin or mineral deficiency. My B12, vitamin D, and other vitamins/minerals are adequate.

I'm not looking for a diagnosis from Reddit. I can Google things, and I can ask ChatGPT, and I'll get a list of a hundred possibilities. What I'm really looking for is people who have actually gone through a TTO or experienced something similar after prolonged postoperative deconditioning.

Did anyone else have a recovery this difficult? Did you eventually get back to normal walking and strength? Did you experience problems in other joints or muscles during recovery?

I'm honestly struggling a lot with this and feel like I'm dealing with it almost entirely by myself. My current physician hasn't been very helpful, and I've considered getting a second opinion, but I don't even know where to start.

If you've gone through something similar, I'd really appreciate hearing what happened in your case, what helped, and how long it took.

How many of us has patellar tracking disorder

Where your kneecap shifts (or pops out then in) unexpectedly if you move a certain way .?

I’ve had it for 13 years…

I’d like to ask you some questions regarding mental health things like do you feel it causes you to have anxiety? Social anxiety? Unnecessary paranoia fears or stress ?

Now I know PT can be helpful for a lot of people. But sometimes I feel people make it sound as if PT is the only way to treat kneecap instability when in reality it’s much more complex.

There a certain ppl whose kneecaps are unstable because of weak muscles, and for them strengthening the quad muscles are helpful. But there also is a lot of people whose instability comes from structural issues (patella Alta, shallow trochlear groove, etc), and for these people PT isn’t as effective.

As someone with Patella Alta, I’ve tried doing all sorts of strengthen exercises. And although I still keep strengthening my quads, no amount of PT can fix the structural issues I have.

So I would say that PT is helpful, but I think we have to consider the fact that for a lot of ppl it isn’t the end all be all.

I’ve heard a good amount of people have had success with these surgeries, but I was wondering if any of you have had knee instability even after having surgical intervention.

I know everyone is different so I’m sure for some of you surgery didn’t fix everything. But I wanted to get a sense of how common this is.

This was a question I’ve always had because ppl say how PT and strengthening the muscles around your knee is helpful, but if you have Patella Alta or another condition that makes your kneecap pop out despite strong muscles is the only option surgery?

Have any of you prevented subluxation or dislocations without the use of surgery? If so, what did you do?