J

I’ve been seeing this a lot… and like… I’m not an orthopedic MD… but, I’m a RN, that’s worked in the field for 11 years and my primary role is education patients… Ant finished the season with runners knee in his right knee, a still-healing hyperextension and a bone bruise in his left knee.. From my experience with conditions like runners knee, and with bone bruises this is how the healing process goes. Patient walks in, gets told you have to stay off the knees for 2 weeks and they’ll do an MRI. Then in 2 weeks they do a MRI and the orthopedist and radiologist go, “yeah, keep staying off the knee for 2 weeks and we’ll do another MRI” Then 2 weeks pas, MRI happens and they go “it’s close, but let’s stay off it for 2 more weeks and do another MRI” Then after those 2 weeks, patient goes in and gets the MRI and they get what’s called “restrictions” like only bend the knee this much, no stairs, no carrying into heavy boxes, but you can resume walks and light jogging and well see you in two weeks. Then in two weeks they go, “by golly, looks okay, no you can run on the treadmill on a 4.5 and we’ll see how it looks in two weeks” Then after those two weeks maybe you get to run at 6 on the treadmill and they’ll check in two weeks. Then often even after a patient is fully healed, they go back in for a month and 3 month MRI. Side bar- ———— This is like literally what all of us in the medical world talk about when we are screaming about medical waste, this is why the medical field is so expensive, people get 417 MRI’s that get charged to insurance and most medical practices get a reimbursement for sending patients to get more MRIs, and us normal people pay our co-pays. ———— The point being, for what Ant had, “it’s not take two months off it and go back to normal” it’s “take two months off then spend a month getting back to normal, all the while we keep a constant eye on it to make sure it doesn’t go backwards” And that’s for a normal person, that’s for like a grandma that has arthritis flair up… for Anthony Edwards between Mayo, the Wolves and Adidas I bet he had a MRI every week all summer. Furthermore, runners knee, it’s not like a thing, like it’s an idea, it’s a term, it’s an umbrella. I talked to a handful of therapists about it last season for a story and it’s just a term. Side bar- ——— Stop using AI to try and learn medical stuff, there’s a reason you go to school for it and I have to take classes every year to stay up to date. ——— Runners knee is “patella-femoral pain syndrome” it’s literally pain, behind the patella, under the femur, that is persistent. That’s it, it’s pain, in a specific location… it’s not an anatomical thing, it’s like a stomach ache. You don’t get diagnosed with runners knee because something is anatomically wrong, you get random pain that doesn’t usually have a reason and someone diagnosis’ you with runners knee. Bad fitting shoe causes knee pain=runners knee Bow legged and have a limp that causes knee pain= runners knee Diabetic neuropathy that causes knee pain= runners knee Bought new gel insoles and now your knee hurts = runners knee You run a lot and your knee hurts = runners knee. Its like the diagnosis “unspecified dementia”, that’s used when something is off cognitively but medical professionals can’t point to a reason why like Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia Could Ants runners knee be related to a long term condition that means his knee is cooked? Sure, the worst case option is always there. However, it’s much more likely that Ants runners knee, is likely because of something dumb, like clip an ingrown toenail that caused him to walk funny, then put weird pressure on a joint, then he felt pain. The only way to get the pain to stop, is to stop doing stuff that causes the pain and often, by the time you’re feeling pain, you’re already dealing with stiffness and inflammation that your body naturally sends to an area in pain.