Knee trouble

My knees have been bothering me for over a year. Writing that down it seems crazy that I waited so long to see a doctor. I spent a lot of time thinking it'd get better when I lost a little more weight. Then I thought I was just getting old. Gillian helped me get good shoes for running and told me how to stretch properly, but still my knees hurt. At first only when I was running, but then more and more often going up stairs, and then most recently my left knee started hurting whenever I use the clutch in my car and sometimes when I'm not doing anything at all. I thought taking a whole month off exercise might fix the problem, but no.

I finally went to see my doctor, who diagnosed it as Patella Femoral Syndrome. This is a pretty vague "knee pain" diagnosis, she referred me to a physical therapist to get a better idea of what's going on.

I saw the physical therapist yesterday and the problem seems to be that my hips are both too tight and too weak. My knees can go out of alignment because the hip muscles aren't holding them in place securely enough, and also the tight IT band across my left hip is pulling on my left kneecap. I have stretches and exercises to do twice a day and physical therapy for six weeks. The therapist seemed to really know what she was doing, so I'm hopeful that this is going to work.