Patellofemoral Pain Sydrome

    My most recent diagnosis. It's a funny name, isn't it? Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. That doesn't even sound like a real thing. It's sounds like something doctors made up for patients that whine too much but don't have anything actually wrong with them. Upon hearing this, I felt stupid. Really? I went all the way to see an orthopedic surgeon for him to tell me my knee hurts? I left the office feeling really dumb, like I wasted my money and the surgeon's time.
    So here's what Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is. It's pain in the front knee. That's really simple, pain in the knee can have more than one diagnosis. It sounds like something the elderly might develop, right? Wrong. It's actually common in teenagers, manual laborers, and athletes. This, at least, makes me feel a little better.
     If you'd prefer me to get more in depth, sometimes, and note that I say only sometimes, it is the cartilage under the kneecaps fault. It wears down, softens, or gets rough. This can be caused by many things. Overusing your knees could be the problem. Especially intense training (such as cross fit, which happens to be the first time I saw this "syndrome" peaking around the corner at me) can be the cause. Another can be excess weight. Typically, athletes and excess weight don't really align, but if this is the case, an easy fix may be in place, and just try to shed a few pounds.
    And finally, and this is what's causing my problem, a shift in the knee cap. Yes, my knee cap is shifting to the left (my left, your right) and it is as painful as it sounds. I can't tell you what the direct reasoning for this is, but I might guess overuse. This developed during this previous falls cross country season. I wasn't running (surprise, surprise) but biking. This is strange, considering that the biking I was doing was far less physically taxing than the running workouts.
    The pain only accelerated once I tried running again. At this point, I recognized that there was a more serious problem at hand, and decided to mention it to my physical therapist, who then sent me the the orthopedic surgeon. My anger intensified as I was sent away with a laugh and a snort and told that if it hurts me, just quit. Or, if I'd rather, they could give me monthly Cortisone shots. (406)