Numbness Sensation in Knee Won't Go Away (Read 44 times)

Hello -

While training for my first marathon I was inflicted with a severe case of IT band syndrome, my first running injury in close to 10 years. This was back in February; when it first started I couldn't even go down stairs without wincing in pain, which affected the lower, lateral outside portion of my right knee. I did PT for 2 months and then stopped once COVID hit, but continued my stretches and exercises. I also got an X-Ray, an MRI, and two other doctor's opinions to ensure it was truly IT-band syndrome. It was.

It's now the end of August - 6 months later. I have no pain anymore, I can freely bike, do the elliptical, squats, etc without pain. However, the area of my knee that was giving me pain is basically in a permanent state of numbness and tenderness. I wish I could describe the feeling better, but I can sense that my knee does not feel right, even though i'm not experiencing pain.

Last month I started to attempt running again. I can run, and during my runs I do not experience any pain. That said, the feeling I described earlier does affect how my knee feels during my run, and since I am wearing knee sleeves and braces, the friction of those braces against my knee during the run can almost feel like "pain" at times. Sometimes I am unsure whether it's simply the friction sensation or pain, so I stop, adjust the brace, walk, realize i'm OK, and continue running. But I still find it a bit alarming that 6 months later, although my pain is gone, this issue still hasn't gone away. There is clearly still some kind of underlying issue affecting my knee, even though I don't have pain, and I don't know what it is. I have described this to my doctors and they offered no solution other than RICE.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, and if so, how did you address it?

Well, firstly do not ICE. My God your injury has healed with no pain and you are being told to ICE.???  Horrible advice and ice can negatively affect the superficial nerves on side of knee. I wonder if you iced a lot during recovery and did nerve damage? I would ditch the sleeves. Why are you wearing them? Nerve issues are tricky and unless you have an EMG you don't know of any long term damage. I would try to keep running without sleeves for next month, do not ice and see if you see some progress. Sometimes we do things that get in the way of allowing our nerves and soft tissue to regenerate and re-educate. Reach out to me anytime.