Knee Pain: Patellofemoral Syndrome?

Patellofemoral...I first heard of this about 6 weeks post-op while working with my PT after noticing an audible clicking in my knee with each step up the stairs.  It was painless, but loud and left me with no warm fuzzy feeling.  If I remember correctly, she suspected it was due to my weakened muscles causing the kneecap (patella) to be off track in the groove of the femur (thigh bone).  This is called Patellofemoral (Runners Knee) and can be a real problem.  I was encouraged to focus on strengthening those muscles for improvement and we would take another look if it didn't.  Sounded like a good plan (that I neglected to follow).

Fast forward a year later and here I am about a month into my return to running, icing my knee as i type this and facing my first roadblock, literally.  Funny thing is it's been in the back of my mind, I need to strengthen those darn muscles, afterall my knee still clicks everytime i go up steps.  But you know, when you hear your knee click for over a year you learn to tune it out and eventually don't notice.  Looking back that just sounds stupid. 

Yesterday morning when I woke up things felt wrong.  The night before I did some weights and 2.5 miles on the eliptical that hurt a little and I had this sinking feeling as i started my morning run there might be trouble in the knee.  But i broke my own rule and ran anyway, slowly and with several recoveries.  The problem came when I had gone too far to get home in time for my husband to leave work.  So I ran on a hurting knee, a little over a mile.  Then spent the entire day walking around on concrete and taking the kids to a fall festival. The result, pain in my kneecap with a buckling weakness that makes even walking around the house difficult.

So where to go from here?  I've learned enough from my mistakes to know if this does not improve soon to see the doctor.  In the meantime I am going to ice and rest until it hopefully feels better.  In a couple of days I'll start working on those weakened muscles.  This article looks like a good place to start. 

I will continue travelling to Nashville to see Byrd with any hip issues, but for this knee I'll be looking for a new surgeon in Birmingham, AL.  Preferably someone with experience with FAI related problems, so if anyone has a name to suggest I would really appreciate it.

Happy Healing!
Vanessa