Cracking Knees

[tiggerlover]

Last weekend I had some tremendous knee pain and lots of cracking noises when I went up stairs. I went to the doctor on Monday and had x-rays and they said all was well that I probably pulled a muscle. Dr. went on to say that the cracking noises could be signs of early arthritis, however, there is no evidence of arthritis on the x-ray. The pain isn't so bad now, but the cracking noises are still there, does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[lsyorke]

My knees grind all the time. No pain, thank goodness. In my case it's chondromalacia, which is when the back of the kneecap gets rough and rubs. It's also part of early arthritis. Good news is that I've had this since I was 21 and now at 49 it's no worse. Just noisy at time!!

 

[DWDreams]

Mine click and I can feel it on the kneecap (mostly the left) with my palm when fully extending the leg. I've been diagnosed with chrondromalacia patella too and actually just completed some therapy for it. Mine has been around for some time but it got significantly worse between last summer and this past winter to the point where I was having difficulty climbing stairs. The therapy has worked wonders and really helped strengthen the muscles around the knee to the point I can climb stairs without pain for the first time in months. The ortho doctor I saw said it's a degenerative thing and can't be changed but can be managed as it goes along.

I'd have it looked at and maybe you can have some therapy for strengthening also. The more it's managed now, the slower the progression of it I hope. Good luck!

 

[Nancy]

I have arthritis in both knees and the noises they make are pretty interesting. My kids thought the stairs always made the noise when I was walking up them (sounds like the creaks floors make) then one day they realized the noises were coming from me and they all got pretty grossed out by it. When the house is quiet it's really funny to hear how loud the noise is. It is a grinding noise more than a crack sound and if I hold my hand over my knees when sitting and bend my knee you can "feel" the grinding.

 

[Froggyswife]

Just rename me rice crispies because mine go snap crackle pop everytime I bend them. I'ts called getting old. I've also have had arthritis in my knees since I was 16 it is a little bit worse than it was then but not by much. My knees are better than the weatherman I can always tell when it's going to rain or get colder.

 

[Zandy595]

My knees just started (about a year ago) making a crunching noise when I squat down. They do hurt a little, but nothing too bad. I haven't been to the doctor for it. My mom (nurse) says it could be a joint problem and it wouldn't hurt to take some OTC joint meds. Haven't tried that yet though.

 

[NCDisneyMom]

I have arthritis in both knees and the noises they make are pretty interesting. My kids thought the stairs always made the noise when I was walking up them (sounds like the creaks floors make) then one day they realized the noises were coming from me and they all got pretty grossed out by it. When the house is quiet it's really funny to hear how loud the noise is. It is a grinding noise more than a crack sound and if I hold my hand over my knees when sitting and bend my knee you can "feel" the grinding.

You've just described my knees to a tee! My husband calls them "celery knees"

 

[DISUNC]

I always had cracking knees my whole life!
It ruined my chances of being in a life of crime! I can't sneek up on anyone!

 

[happybratpack]

Count me in on the creaky knees club. Sometimes to gross out my nephew I made him hold my knees while I bend, you can feel everything grinding and rubbing in there.

I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I got up to go to the bathroom during a movie, I was about three steps down during a quiet part of the movie and realized that I was attracting attention. I kind of just stopped walking till noise happened on the screen.

Makes you cringe, but it's a fun parlour trick.

 

[beattyfamily]

Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement really really works for this!

My sister had the cracking knees on her trip to China (climbing the Great Wall) and her Dr. suggested the supplement and she swore by it.

Then I described what was happening to my knees a couple of years ago and my sister told me about her knees/doctors recommendation.

I bought the supplement and within a month, I noticed a difference. Unfortunately, this is something you should continue and not stop or the cracking knees will come back.

 

[we3disneygo]

is there room for one more in the creaky knee club?? mine weren't to bad till I took up figure skating lesson's !!

 

[Christine]

My knees sound like crushing potato chips when I go up and down the stairs. My doctor said that it is fine as long as there is no pain with it. If there is pain, apparently, that is a different matter.

 

[MELISAZACK]

Count me in too!! I have chondromalacia patella since I was about 17 I am 34 now...I had surgery to clean out the back of my lft knee cap becaue I did have some serious pain when I was 24...It has worked well..the cracking was gone for some time in that knee but has rtn in the last year but no pain to date!!!
If it is just the noise my dr. said don't worry but if the pain comes back I can have the surgery again -it is out pt and it takes approx. 6 wks to fully heal!
people look at me all the time especially at work when I squat and the noises
come out really really really loud....

 

[Tamarap]

My knee makes alot of noises too. I am not sure exactly what my condition is but I did have an MRI and a muscle is pulling my kneecap off center to the left so I need surgery. My problem is I hate being put under so I haven't scheduled the surgery.

 

[paigevz]

Both my knees have "popped" since I was a teenager. I can actually feel the whole "system" get kind of "off" when that happens. Sometimes I have to stop and flex my leg to get everything back in order. I was jumping on a trampoline at home at age 18, when I came down just as my left knee popped.........one of my (geez, I can't remember the name, but there are two big tendon things that keep your bones from moving up over or down under each other.........one of those), was cut in half. I had to have surgery and a series of braces. The other knee continued just occasional popping, no real big deal, and the one that had surgery no longer made any noises or too much movement. Now, in the past year, both knees have started swelling with rainy weather, and my left one, the one that was fixed, has started crackling and honestly hurting on stairs.

 

[MBeds]

aaarrrrgggghhhh! Reading this thread gives me the heebie geebies...

But i will say and then i have to get the heck out of this thread that after sitting for awhile, i get up and HAVE to crack my kness...If i saw and heard someone else do that...OMG!!!!
Ok, i'm outta here...bbrraaghhh

 

[azgal81]

My knees crack all the time and always have! They don't hurt though.

 

[AuntieM03]

I'm a cracker too! I don't have pain, but one of my patella's is misaligned. It feels very strange when I walk up stairs.

 

[munchkin bunchkin]

My DH was having alot of knee pain for months -finally I told him to get to the Dr's and find out what's going on because I don't want him to be miserable during our trip to WDW in August .Come to find out he also has Chondromalacia and they injected him with cortisone and said that there was a treatment available that would give him relief for 6 months to a year.The treatment consists of 3 injections(1 @ week for 3 weeks)of artficial fluid that resembles the fluid behind the knee cap . I hope it works!

 

[hydster]

While sitting in the orthodontist waiting room for what seemed like an eternity I picked up a Woman's Day magazine and was reading through it. I saw an article about people always claiming that popping your knuckles would give you arthritis and since I have popping toe *knuckles* I started to read. The article said that if you have popping without pain in any joint generally it is because of air "pockets" in that joint and when it cracks it is like popping a balloon. I thought that was really interesting because I can crack my toes on demand and always wondered why.