What happened is, recently I went and got married and honeymooned in New
Zealand/Australia for 3 weeks.   We did tons and tons of walking, but were
also on a cruise, so I was up in the gym daily either using the bike, the
elliptical and the weigth machines in an effort to keep my workouts up so I
didn't gain too much weight while on the trip.  (I didn't watch my diet).

Anyhow - about 1/2 way thru the trip I started getting lots of pain in my
left knee.   The more I walked, the worse it hurt, and my right knee started
hruting too.

I returned from vacation a month ago, and after weeks of it still hurting
and I also took off from exercise (cardio and weights) to give it a chance
to heal, I finally gave in and went to the doc a week ago.    He diagnosed
me with Chondromalacia (also known as patella tracking disorder, or "runners
knee").   He ordered a month of Physical therapy then a followup to
determine future courseof action.

I've struggled in the past week to find a pt that is on my insurance (due to
the new marriage I switched to DH's insurance with is an HMO - in other
words, a total PITA).  but also to find one that will work with my work
schedule in order to have the least impact w/ my work.

So, here I am.  I get to go tomorrow for the first time, so that I can work
with someone.   The goal will be to build muscles around my knee in an
effort to make it so the patella will track right and Idon't have the
grinding feeling I have now.

For me, it is impacting exercise currently because motions that put weight
on the knee joint as its in an upward motion - hurts.  (squats, bending,
walking, etc).    Whereas before all this, I was pretty active with my
exercise.   If you've got any history with ASD you would be able to know my
exercise activity that is both cardio (in the form of biking, running,
walking, swimming, whatever I feel like) and weights and even weighted
cardio.

The appointment for today was cancelled and I had to reschedule for
next Tuesday.   Why - because HMO's SUCK!!!!    Dispite the fact that
I went to the doc a week ago Tuesday, the insurance still does not
have the referral on file in order to release me to the PT for
therapy.

I just switched insurance because of the marriage.  DH's company pays
100% of the premiums for the entire family, my company offers a decent
insurance, but at a cost of a couple hundred $$ per month for me.  

So, I'm waiting until next week.  

I guess I never did post details, did I.   I got back from my trip to
get hit with a brick wall of busyness.   I've got over 1000 pics and
I've been working on a website photo gallery, but ran into some
programming snafuus, and I usually don't get much time each evening to
work on it.   Not to mention after a day of work hassles, I have been
coming home to relax, and not wanting to spend more time fighting with
computer programming.

<whine, bitch, moan>   :-)

Anyhow - yes, we ran off to Auckland, New Zealand and got married on
January 30'th by a wonderful Celebrant over there.   We then hopped on
a Princess Cruise line ship that took us to Wellington, Christchurch,
and Dunedin, NZ, then we spent a day cruising thru Fjordland Park (the
high mountains) in southern New Zealand before heading across the
Tasman sea to Tasmania, then up to Adelaide, Melbourne and finally
Sydney Australia.     Each port we were at I walked my a.s off.  Days
at sea and a few port days I was in the gym for at least an hour
working out on their equipment.   Did not pay much attention to food
intake, although it wasn't like I totally gorged myself on food and
sweets.   A typical breakfast would be a bowl of fiber cereal w/
yogurt topping, and an english muffin w/ jam.   As apposed to my
normal breakfast of jus the yogurt and fiber cereal.    

So, there's the 3 week marriage/honeymoon in 100 words or less.  :)

I had a similar experience with my knees.  I don't remember exactly
what the doctor called it, but basiclly it was the result of my flat
feet and bad shoes.  Because my flat feet roll in so much, certain
muscles in my legs were stronger then their counter parts.  I did
physical therapy for about 2 months.  It worked out great.  I still do
the exercises, but not as often as i was during the therapy.  It took
me about 6 months to get completely back to my exercise schedule.

The other thing that helped me was getting good exercise shoes.  That
helped correct some of the source of the problem.  Honestly, I really
enjoyed physical therapy.  My therapist was really good about
explaining things to me.  I know a lot more about my body now and how
it works.  And that's a big help if you want to avoid future injuries.

Lisa
190/170/145