What was your experience with this painful thing. What helped you????

I found that certain anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen helped. I also found that working the joint throughout the day helped a lot too--especially considering that the more time I didn't use my knees (especially at nighttime) the more stiff they felt.

I was just diagnosed with PFS. I am a 20 year old college student. My dr. said physical therapy. I cannot afford it right now .... Insurance will pay some but not all. Any ideas for exercises that help?? Or anything to relieve the pain??

I was diagnosed with it when I was 14 or 15. I have had three knee surgeries. Two were open surguries and one was just arthroscopic. I live in Nebraska and no orthopedic doctor has any idea what to do with me because they say that I'm not healthy enough for a cartilage transplant and I'm not old enough for a knee replacement. I am trying to go up to the mayo clinic right now but they said they may not be able to do anything for me either. If anybody has any ideas for doctors to contact it would be very helpful because if I can't find a doctor I may end up having to use a wheelchair for the rest of my life and I just not ready to accept that yet.

I was diagnosed with patellofemoral syndrome when I was almost 16. I did physical therapy with 3 different groups at different times for about a year. It didn't really help me. Neither did pain meds. Anti-inflamatory meds didn't help at all, I was on vicodin for a while, which helped but made me feel quite loopy. I ended up having surgery on my right knee last fall. They did both open and arthoscopic. They did a lateral release and a tibial tubercle transfer. Quite extensive surgery. It has helped quite a bit, although I still get pain with impact, like when trying to run or hopping out of my dads truck. My knee gets really stiff still, but I've figured out that if I massage the area around my knee a few times a day, especially if after being up and about for a while, it definately helps.

tiggerRJ, everyone has said leg lifts. Also, you want to try to strengthen the insides of your legs, I've found that putting a ball between your legs and squeezing really hard for 10 seconds, then relax for 3, squeeze again, relax, do that for a while, it helps. Also when sitting or doing whatever, you want to always try and activate those muscles...kinda hard for me.

Eastgirl06, what surgeries did they do on your knee? I've been told that the tibial tubercle transfer is sometimes used when patients are too young for a knee replacement. Basically they graft up part of the bone where the tendon on the bottom of the kneecap inserts the leg. Then they move the bone over medially (tendon attached) and screw it back in. This is what I had done. My surgery was at the Childrens Hospital of Phila******a. At the time that I had the surgery, the surgeon told me that I could definately wait until the summer (another 7 months) but not much longer than that because if I didn't have it done, I would be using a cane/wheelchair by age 23 or 24. I'm so happy that I had the surgery done, my knee isn't perfect of course, but it's liveable...

froggy123, that's exactly what I had done to both of my knees.it helped at first but then it stopped. My family doctor has now put me on an antideppressant and ever since he did the pain has almost completely gone away. I am also going to see a new orthpedic on Monday and he might be able to do knee replacements on me even though everyone else has said that I was too young. I'll let you know how it goes.