I had my first visit to the PT yesterday, and he did some of the tests that are typically performed to see if there is a torn meniscus (like the Dr. should have...just saying.) Chris (PT) said that I do not have a torn meniscus, but that I do have very poor alignment between my hips, knees and feet. His theory is that when I backpack, I usually irritate my knee just because of the way I move, but after most hikes I rest it so it doesn't get worse. After this hike, however, I continued to run and irritate my knee more and more, until my knee cap popped out of it's usual groove (hence the popping noise). In response, the muscles surrounding my knee stopped working as hard, so as to not further throw my knee out of alignment, and they got weaker (hence the feeling of instability). I am so glad I didn't pay for the MRI! I can visit the PT 10 times for the same amount of money that an MRI would have cost me.
He wants me to take 4 weeks off of running and do daily hip, quad, and ITB strengthening exercises, and that I can still bike for cardio as long as it doesn't make my knee hurt. If the 4 weeks is enough for me to heal and start training again, that will leave me 11 weeks to train for the marathon. I have contacted the race organizers to see what I can do if I don't feel like I can complete the race by February, and they said all I can do is defer my race until 2014. I'm going to do my best to finish it, going into it with a mentality that I might have to walk some of it... but the good news is that I can wait until the Monday before the race to decide if I want to defer it or just give it a shot.
Fingers crossed for me:)
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