IT band pain, anyone experiencing?

[kath]

I had my first tkr in Jan and the second in March. All is really well for the most part I guess, but my right knee has given me some problems, mostly quad issues which are slowly getting better, but the main thing is the pain from my IT band running on the outside of my right knee. I have tried all sorts of exercise and stretches and the more active I am the more spasms I get in it, and mostly at night of course. I am so uncomfortable I can't sleep.
I am curious if anyone else has had this problem and if so how did you handle it? I had problems with this prior to surgery, I had a few different diagnosis, one being periformis (sp?) syndrome, so on and so forth. My surgeon felt it would improve after my knee surgery because he felt my bow legs and bone on bone for so many years caused it. It has been 5.5 months though and it seems worse. I am hoping someone out there can relate and offer some suggestions.

Also so happy to see familiar names, hope you are still here for support and friendship and not for problems, that you are all jumping, running, bike riding, walking, working, having fun and just living life.

 

[Doug]

Kath,
My IT band gave me fits up until a couple of months ago. I did a lot of painful stretches and have hopefully resolved it.
During one of my follow ups with the surgeon, when I was complaining about the pain, he said it could be snipped to relieve the tension on it.

 

[Kimgrif]

What is an "IT band?" I have what feels like tape or something taped right around my knee, tighter on the inside than the outside of my knee. It really hinders my movement. Is this IT band?

 

[Doug]

Here's a good site for the I.T. band....
http://www.itbs.info/

 

[kath]

thanks Doug, I guess I will just keep going with the stretches, it is crazy though the most relief is when I do nothing but who can live like that? Didn't go through all this knee surgery for this...will let you know what my surgeon says after the 18th

 

[kath]

kimgrif, runs along outside of your leg from hip down, has a huge long name I....... T.....

 

[Linda2]

I also have piriformis and IT band problems. They so deep tissue massage/myofascial release stuff on me at PT. It really helps, along with the stretching.

 

[Josephine]

Here's the IT (ilio-tibial) band.

 

[ladyblue]

I still have problems with mine since my TKR in January of this year. Stopped PT until the OS decides what he wants to do with both my knees. (The left one has arthritis and a large tear plus the right is full of scar tissue despite two manipulations...UGH!)

 

[rosbif]

3 months out and still need to do major stretching exercises for IT....it is sloooowly getting better (in fact the IT band is the thing that blocks me using my knee the most, not the knee itself....)

 

[Doug]

My I.T. really hurt at the three month mark. The stretches are very uncomfortable but do eventually pay off.
Funny that with a lifetime of sports and athletics, I had never heard of the I.T. band.

 

[kath]

That is my problem also, knee itself feels great, both of them if I didn't have this IT band problem things would be really good.
Even if I oculd just sleep a few hours without spasms and jabbing pain in the darn thing. It feels to me like it is getting better during the day slowly but night time, oh it is really a pain and I am getting frustrated with it.
I think the deep tissue massage sounds good, because I try to do that to myself and it helps alot at that moment. All I have to do is move, stretch, massage it a moment and it goes away for the moment, seems like I no sooner fall asleep and it happens again. I try all the pillows between your knees, even the special foam thing. Helps for a little while, but same thing happens. It is like I can't keep my leg in any position for too long or it spasms. The most relief I get is if I sleep on my right side (it is my right leg that bothers me) with knees slighly bent and a pillow sort of under my right leg a bit.
Ladyblue, wow sounds like we have some similar problems. I have a feeling dr. may send me back to PT for this thing. I still have trouble with the steps other than that I do feel much better. I can walk better, stay on my feet much longer. Surely not the miracle I was hoping for at this point, but I can go grocery shopping and short walks pain free and it has helped a lot for my job as I am a caterer and need to be on my feet for events.

 

[kath]

Doug, I know me either, neither did my husband and he was a football player through college and had a severe knee injury and had to have surgery and he still never heard of it, never had problems with it. I guess if it doesn't hurt you at all, you don't ask about it. I am sure we have a ton of muscles, tendons and things that I don't know the names of because they never hurt.
Doing the stretches I am ok with, that doesn't bother me that much, it is the night afterwards.

 

[wolfensteinsmom]

I am having trouble with what I am assuming is the IT band. However, it continues down into the lower leg. What the heck is THAT about? The biggest problem is like so many others there, sleeping (or rather lying down). My TKR was right leg. If I lie on my left side, lifting my right leg causes me to scream in pain. It hurts all the way from my hip to my ankle. It really just started in the last 2 weeks. I am not due to go back to the doctor for another 4 weeks, and my insurance coverage for PT has run out. I am going to the same PT office as a fitness member to have the advantage of having my therapist to tell me if I am doing something wrong, but they bill for other services. I have started trying the exercises for the IT band, of course it has only been a couple of days, but I just want some assurance that it will eventually be worth the suffering. Right now (12 weeks after surgery) I almost wish I had not had the procedure. At least I was used to the kind of pain I was suffering then. Please give me some insite! I really trust you guys to tell me like it is. You always have.

 

[carolinagirl]

Last Saturday night I was lying on my left side and when I went to turn over, I felt my kneecap move to the right some. WEIRD FEELING! Anyway, the outside of my right knee along with my quad tightened up like crazy! It felt like a vice around my knee. That has gone away, and only today has the quad relaxed some, but when I walk the right side of my knee and below it
is soooo tight! I sure hope that goes away soon. Could this be that IT band you guys are talking about?

 

[Josephine]

Well, for starters, W-mom, the pain you HAD was only ever going to get worse! And if I had a pound for every person who, at 10-14 weeks, has said they wished they'd never had it done, I'd be a wealthy woman. Happily, most post some months later and say it was the best decision they ever made!

But this is in your other leg and so I would think it is probably a sciatic nerve problem. The coping with the operative leg may have been the caused of it. I suggest you go see your doctor about this - it's not actually to do with a post-op visit so don't cancel that.

 

[edk]

If you think about the disease process as your knee gets worse it gets more knock kneed. Which means your IT band can get shorter since the outside of the lower leg is closer to the outside of your upper leg. When they do a TKR they usually give your knee a "normal" alignment. Which means your IT band is a bit too short after surgery - no wonder we all have some discomfort from it.

 

[wolfensteinsmom]

Hi, Jo. I think you misunderstood. The pain is in the operated on leg. If I lie on my left (non operation leg) and try to pick up the right leg (operated on leg) to put it across or on the left one,the pain becomes unbearable for me and my poor husband, as I usually scream. Last night was worse yet. Now I am having pain in my hamstring and on the inner knee and inner thigh of the operated on leg. Pain medication does not help this kind of pain. This morning I am feeling the pain on the inside of my thigh, in my hip, and down the back of my thigh on the operated on leg. The only pain I feel in the other leg is the minor pain of the arthritis that still exists there. I am considering pushing to get back to the doctor, but I have a feeling that he will just tell me it is part of the healing process. If that is the case, I want to try to work through it.

By the way, Thank you for listening to my ravings.

 

[JudyS]

Hey Doug and Kath,

As far as not hearing of the IT Band before, it is a runner thing. I have known of it for years as an obsessive runner!!

I did have problems with it after hip replacement and the deep tissue massage at the pt (which hurt like he....) calmed it down a lot.

Judy

 

[Linda2]

I saw my rheumatologist today for the first time since my surgery. He decided that I was having trouble with my IT band, but also that I had trochanteric bursitis (which was much improved in the six weeks since surgery). Who would have thought that the sore spot on my backside was part of bursitis in the hip? Anyway, he prescribed Voltaren gel for the IT band problem. He's been having some success with this approach. For those of you who have taken Voltaren as a tablet, they have recently started making this gel for topical application. I'll keep you posted on how it works for me. I have to go back in six weeks so he can keep tabs on my progress.