How To Avoid A Knee Replacement To Keep Running

Hi, I'm Dr. Molly with Your Goals Physical Therapy. If you are a runner who is trying to avoid having a total knee replacement, this video is for you. I work with a lot of active adults. And one common thing, especially with runners,  is that they get knee pain. And when they go to the doctor, oftentimes they're told “come back when the knee pain gets so bad that you're willing to have a joint replacement.” And for some people, they believe that they walk out of that meeting believing that that is the only thing that is available to them.
I'm creating this video, so that I can give you a new option. Something that is beyond just waiting for your knee to be replaced, just waiting for that pain to keep progressing. Something other than waiting and just taking anti-inflammatories, having several rounds of steroid injections, cortisone shots, thinking about going in for stem cells and all these other steps you go through. They're not major medical procedures, but they're rather expensive and they're time consuming. Oftentimes it leaves people with very minimal pain reduction and ultimately it doesn't help you get back to running.

I'm gonna talk about Mindy. Mindy is a client of mine and I met her several months ago. She came in with knee pain. Okay and the backstory for Mindy is that she is in her forties, like mid to late forties. She's been running for over 10 years, in fact, she remembers having fun running in elementary school and high school. She wasn't running on track, but it was a way for her to exercise and feel like she was moving around while expelling a lot of energy. When she became a parent and needed to find an outlet for some energy, some place to unwind her mind, and get away for a few minutes she got into running. 
Through the process of getting back into running, she downloaded a training program, started following Facebook groups and other people who are running. Now Mindy is part of a big running social group; they'd get together on the weekends and run. She would have a running partner intermittently because everybody's lifestyle changes over time. You know, you get small children and then they get a little bit more independent. You have more or less freedom. Overall running has not only made her feel like she was taking care of her body and helped her with her mind, because it was again her decompression time, but it was her social circle. She and her friends get together, they talk about running things. They do weekend trips. They do Tough Mudders together. They sign up for races in other cities and get hotel rooms.  Running is just a big part of her life.
When her knee bothered her, she would either ignore it if she could but over time it was a little too difficult to ignore it. Then she started having massages once a month to help with the ITband problems. She told me that she used to get really severe ITband tightness and it would just be really, really painful. But after the massages, she could go for a couple weeks before that pain would come back. Unfortunately after a while that stopped being as effective. Even if she was getting them bimonthly, the massages were just not lasting as long as they used to.​

After doing some research she found out she should be doing some cross training. That led her into going into the gym. She started doing some strength training with the trainer and doing group fitness classes. And for a while, that actually helped, she was doing better. She had less knee pain, but it was always lingering. It just wasn't enough, the right knee was not as strong as her left knee. It was just not quite right. Time keeps passing because she's just trying to work through this. She likes to run, she likes the social aspect. She's not really willing to give it up altogether, but she is willing to do other things so that she can make that happen. 
Well, about a year ago she went to her doctor and the doctor did x-rays and MRIs because she just couldn't ignore the grinding in her knee, the clicking and the popping was getting so intense. It was so constant, she couldn't ignore it anymore. She knew she needed to go get help. She just didn't know what kind of help she needed. She goes to the doctor, who states x-rays and  MRIs came back that she has arthritis in her knee. The doctor suggested she should just come back when the knee pain is so bad and she needs the joint replacement. 
Obviously that's shocking.Everybody would be shocked. Nobody wants to hear that they need a joint replacement, but her goal in her mind is “I wanna get back to running”. Her follow up question to the doctor is if I replace my knee, can I go back to running? And the doctor was like, “No, you can't go back to running after you have a knee replacement.”

For more blog post like this, click the links below.
what-are-non-invasive-knee-pain-remedies.html
​knee-pain-after-running.html
​runners-knee.html

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