A couple weeks after I finished Ironman, Kona, I started feeling some minor pains around me kneecap. I was just coming off a nice break and wanted to get going for the upcoming 2010 season. I went to the weight room and when I tried to do leg extensions with my right leg I could barely lift the bar! I stayed away from running and went to my primary care physician who diagnosed it as runner's knee. I took anti-inflammatory drugs for 4 weeks and stayed off it but it just never felt right.
I stayed away from running until Jan and after a week new something was wrong and went to a specialist. I got an MRI that found a 5% tear of my patellar tendon. My doctor gave me a cortisone shot and said I would be fine if I would take a month off running and take it easy. I did but it didn't heal much. I never noticed and difference and was tired of waiting around. I returned to training and spent the full 2010 season trying to make up for lost training time. It never happened.
On the way back from a work trip, my knee was pounding in pain after sitting in a plane for several hours. I was really for a change and went to a different specialist, Dr. Daniel Keefe. Keep in mind, I could run/ride/swim with little to no pain but I couldn't stay seated for more than 30 minutes without pain.
Dr Keefe looked at my MRI and discussed several treatment options. I had already tried 2 months of physical therapy, 3 months of Graston therapy, gone to two chiropractors, one ART person and was working with the Wolf Studio. I felt confident I had exhausted all non-surgical options. He agreed. He suggested a new procedure call Topaz microabblation. I had never heard of it so I looked into it. The operation involves opening up the knee and burning a series of small holes in the tendon near the damaged region. The idea being destroy the damaged area and then stimulate new tendon growth in the holey region under post-op conditions.
I found a pretty high success rate for tennis elbow so I agreed to give it a shot. Yes a patellar tendon is different but from what I can tell my injury is rare. Most people either completely tear it off or have tendonitis. A partial tear is less common. I was informed to think about it because the small tear I have shouldn't effect my triathlon ability but I knew it was affecting my quality of life so I scheduled the procedure to occur 3 days after my last race of the year, Austin 70.3
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