Bee's Knees

My Knees are messed up.

I've been having dull discomforts below my kneecaps for a few months now. It's only recently that they start to hurt. At first I suspect that it was injury to my meniscus plates, since I do quite a bit of weight transfers on my legs in low stances when practicing Baji. I thought that I might have twisted my knee sometimes in my practice when I was still doing thing incorrectly, and that worried me quite a bit. Meniscus injuries are no walk in the park, all my researches came into the conclusions that it probably requires surgery. Well my knees don't feel THAT bad, and I seemed to recall that my knees started worsen after my 5 km run June. So I looked up runner's knee, and it seemed to fit my condition. However without a doctor's diagnostic I can't be certain.

So I went and got professional opinion. After I told my doctor that I ran the 5 km on concrete with my only pair of crappy shoes, he gave me a dirty look and simple said: "Those are not running shoes" ( no shit Sherlock ), I'm pretty sure he was thinking "What a bloody idiot!". After he manipulated my knees a bit, he came away with the conclusion: Patellofemoral Syndrome. Patello-what? It's basically irritation below the kneecaps with improper tracking of the Patella bone. Supposedly to be a very common problem, probably from over-use and improper running form and footwear ( ding ding ding! ).

The moral of the story? Footwear is important, especially running. I ran out and got myself an open knee-strap, as well a new pair of shoes. Now my knee feels pain feel with them! I will need to give them sometimes to heal, and then everything should be ok. It's a good thing I caught this before the trip. I can't imagine what I'll do to my knees backpacking around Japan in those shoes for two weeks.