My knees hurt and there's nothing wrong?!

[secondmonkey]

6 months ago I had a bad reaction to some medicine and blacked out a few times. Each time I fell and smacked into a tile floor, and woke up with some serious pain in both knees. Ever since then I've been limping around like an old man.

Anyway, I've had about 10 physical therapy sessions and it hasn't helped at all. So then I had an x-ray, and they found nothing wrong. Then I had an MRI, and yesterday they called and told me they also found nothing wrong. I still have to talk about the MRI with my physical therapist, but he seems pretty stumped too.

Does anybody have any idea what could be wrong? Where do I go from here? I mean...if it hurts so friggin much...why doesn't something show up on an MRI? I'm totally confused at this point...

 

[SexyGuy]

Hmm.. It could possibly be pinched nerves. But I can't think of anything else... Bruised bone would show up on your MRI, and possibly on the X-Ray.

 

[Orlandude]

^^^ I had a similar problem a few years ago with my left knee after a mishap with a ladder. I wasn't limping but my knee was constantly sore. It turned out to be a pinched nerve.

 

[PhoenixRising]

Have they ruled out Bursitis? It's an inflammation of the fluid filled sacs in a joint.

 

[country long hair]

Try taking Tumeric & see if it helps. May take a couple of weeks but helps with soreness in joints. Twisted my knee on ice several yrs ago & also a little arthritic. Have been taking for 5 yrs now & it does wonders for joints. Also supposed to reduce risk of several different cancers. I just by the spice off the shelf & take 1/4 tsp every morning but you can buy in capsule form at walmart. Might give it a try. It could help.

 

[sc_jock2004]

Could be bursitis or sometimes damage to the ligaments can occur....there's several key ligaments there. I pulled one of mine by playing a pickup football game with my little brother.... just turned my foot wrong and hit the ground... ended up stretching the MCL... Get them to check them good, knee injuries are tricky! Good luck!

 

[MikeS72]

Try a Chiropractor

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106448&highlight=Chiropractor

Worked wonders for me when I had leg pains which turned out to be a slipped disc!

 

[Pfizer101]

I had a similar things a few years back. Had knee pain that was only getting worse. Turned out a peice of patela had chiiped off and started to grow cartlidge around it. This would then shoot around indside my knee so sometimes the pain would be on the left or right side or not at all. Eventually showed up wuth a mri.

 

[Yngbldhwk]

At your age, osteoarthritis or erosive damage to the joint is somewhat unlikely, especially if you had it X-rayed and they weren't able to see any damage. Nonetheless, you might want to take your X-rays to an orthopaedic surgeon just to get a second opinion.

That suggests the real problem may be soft tissue damage (strained muscles/tendons/ligaments) and/or nerve entrapment, as others have stated. A torn ligament, in particular, is excruciating. Still, there are a lot of things left that you can try to relieve your pain totally on your own before seeking more medical treatment:

• Heat
• Ice
• Rest
• Tylenol or Acetaminophen
• Over the counter antiinflammatories (Aleve or Naproxen Sodium; Advil or Ibuprofen) can help a great deal
• Ace knee bandages (they can help support the knee joint)
• Chiropractic adjustments (a good chiropractor can do wonders and they often know the optimal exercises to strengthen the muscles in a particular area; the stronger the muscles, the less pain in the joint)

If, after several weeks, your knees still aren't improved, then definitely see an orthopaedic surgeon.