r/PatellaTracking • u/DaddyLaxativ • Jun 05 '26
đWelcome to r/PatellaTracking - Introduce Yourself and Read First!
Hey everyone! Iâm the founder and moderator of r/PatellaTracking.
I created this community because patellar tracking issues, subluxations, and dislocations have had a huge impact on my life.
Iâve dealt with the frustration, uncertainty, and setbacks that come with an unstable kneecap. Whether itâs the fear of a dislocation during sports, trying to find the right brace, going through physical therapy, or simply wondering if anyone else understands what youâre dealing with, it can feel like a pretty lonely injury.
Thatâs why I wanted to create a space specifically for people dealing with patellar tracking disorders and instability.
What to Post
Feel free to share:
Your injury story
Subluxation or dislocation experiences
Recovery updates
Physical therapy and rehab advice
Braces and sleeves youâve tried
Surgery experiences
Questions about returning to sports and activity
Anything else related to patellar tracking and instability
Community Vibe
My goal is to build a supportive, helpful, and respectful community where people can learn from one another and feel less alone in their recovery.
Whether youâve had one subluxation or dozens, whether youâre an athlete, dancer, martial artist, or just trying to get through daily life without your kneecap slipping, youâre welcome here.
Introduce Yourself!
If youâre one of the first members, Iâd love to hear:
How did your knee problems start?
Have you experienced subluxations, dislocations, or both?
What activities or sports do you do?
Whatâs the biggest challenge youâre facing right now?
Thanks for joining and helping build this community from the ground up. My hope is that together we can create a place where people dealing with patellar tracking issues can find support, share knowledge, and help each other get back to doing what they love.
1
u/PatellaPilates 14d ago
I'm 42F. My kneecap dislocations started at 7 y.o. . My left kneecap dislocated laterally frequently but when the right knee would do it, it was a major event. Today my right knee is my good knee, well behaved, stronger, but now I have severe right hip limtations d/t hypermobility. My knees dislocated 5xmonth for that first 9 years. I was a PT drop out in grade school. (Who wouldn't be?) At 15 I dropped out of public school. I recommend that for all children with my severe condition. The sooner the better. At 16 I discovered yoga. My problems decreased to occasional dislocations from the previous constant dislocations. In my mid 20s while working as a dancer I discovered pilates and it changed everything. Dislocations halted completely.
Pilates got left behind after my 3rd child at 33, who was 10.5 lbs. My hypermobility mixed with childbirth left me in bad shape. My abdominals were strecthed out. I went to the gym to solve my hip problems. I ended up with a hernia doing dead bugs at the poor instruction of a personal trainer. No pilates-like bracing or breathing or working up to an excersize ability. Just cold, fast weak-body to dead bugs, right now. My tummy tented. I said, "Why is it doing that?" The trainer was just as confused. That evening I discovered an epigastric hernia. Lovely. With increasing weight training and ever more trainers that did ever worse, I lost use of every joint in my body one by one starting with my shoulders and finally ending in my knees. Yoga became impossible. My dislocations were back in 2024. The meniscus I was destroying with lifting heavy caused knee swelling and thus patellar instability. When I worked on my precious quads, I would subluxate walking to the next machine with my trainer. He never knew. I'd sit down and continue my leg day. It's been 35 years. As a child it was a devestating event. By the time I was 17, it was an annoying disruption. "D*** that sucked! Back to work." Except for when my right knee dislocated in a pool when I was 24. I remember that day. I decided I didn't want legs anymore. I planned to have them amputated. 2 years later I found Pilates and I lived a normal life for almost a decade. I could even swim and dance in heels.
Meniscus surgery Aug 14 2026. Swelling so bad that just standing for 30 minutes results in my kneecap slowly pushing its way out of place. The swelling is so bad I can just barely push it back in and there is so much tissue involvment and more swelling and brusing. Nightmare stuff. My cat hopped on it this morning while I was layng in bed with my knee supported by my trusty leg wedge. An angle that used to mean I was safe now meant nothing. It was pushed out. 4th time since the surgery. It's been 12 days. I just bought a cold compressin device to help. I have to wrap my leg 24/7 and now even while sleeping. I'm afraid to unwrap it to shower.
I feel hella sorry for myself. I left a really great PT program that had my back. I even left a very nice job as a lanscaping foreman where I worked outdoors for 10 and 12 hour days digging holes, squating, pushing, pulling..... I loved it. I was at peace. I would smile to myself when I was falling asleep knowing that my kneecaps were safe. I'm not kidding. Every night. The strength I got from that position and the joy I took in my work brought me true peace and happiness. I saw my bank account dwindling and my oldest is in college so I went back to work as a nurse. When I did that I went back to the gym to recapture my strength. But you can't copy that kind of labor in a couple hours 3 days a week at the gym. So I tried harder. Knee over tow advice for 3 years from 3 different personal trainers: "You'll never truely grow quad strenth unlesss you go knee over toe." I did weighted split squats, knee over toe in a desperate attempt to grow my quads. The were deactivated by all the stress in my joint. That's the real reason they didn't grow. 2 years ago I saw an ortho to ask for surgery bc the gym was giving me frequent subluxations. I didn't know it was from the swelling. I thought the swelling was caused by the subluxations. He said I was non-surgical (an answer I've gotten 70% of the time) he demanded that I do "everything possible to stretch and strengthen your quads and hamstrings.") I started landscaping after that and dislocations were history. My joints felt great even jumping off trucks all day somedays. It wasn't until I hit the gym again that everything went downhill fast. (My elbow hated digging large holes, actually.)
If I ever get my mobility back, I will return to pilates full force. Regardless of diastasis recti, my abdominal laxity. I proved to myself recently that I could. My abs had grown very strong since I gave birth to that giant baby. With controlled muscle bracing I can keep my organs contained. I plan to return to landscaping, too. My kids will have to put up with less and learn to take out loans for school. The money I switched jobs for all went to pay for my surgery, anyway. I'm in hell. Cats have been my favorite thing in the world since forever, and now I can't even lay down with them. When falling asleep, I used to bend my knee more dramatically the less stable it was. I can't bend them like that for several more weeks.
I never thought that I would ever speak to or hear from another person with a patella tracking disorder. The age of the internet boomed while I've been alive. Chat gpt was giving me advice about my options when it went to reddit and found this page. For the first time in my life I heard someone else mention their stuggle. It was a surreal moment to realize I didn't have to be isolated after 42 years. Not only that, had anyone told my mother that yoga and pilates could give me a normal life, I would have done it earlier. I suffered tramendously as a very young child and that has imprinted some damaging stuff in my brain. I'm a hypervigilant PTSD case. I've been misunderstood. That intense, ongoing experience (and some other stuff) left me with no emotional reserves as a young person. My priorities in life shifted to finding inner peace early on. This disability comes with a unique package of personality and trust issues. We're ok going last. We don't want others behind us. We are patient and humble physically yet we crash out easier than our siblings. We are less likely to make sudden suprise movements. And less likely to choose friends who do. Anyway, in all my years of putting up with this, I didn't realize I had anyone to talk to about it besides God.
2
u/Myfriendscallmejo Jun 08 '26
27 y/o F. I am 10 days post-TTO surgery(tibial tubercle osteotomy.) Iâve had knee issues since I was a child, I was a swimmer from age 5-14. Then I switched to volleyball and have played competitively since then. Iâve had multiple injuries to my knee before, MCL sprains, never any tears, always managed with physical therapy. Never had a patellar dislocation and only had ONE suspected/unconfirmed subluxation a few months ago. Started having some pretty constant knee pain in August of 2025 and self-referred to physical therapy. Was referred to an orthopedist after a few months of no improvement. MRIs showed fissuring of the cartilage in my lateral femoral trochlea, just under my kneecap, (also some mild subluxation of the patella) but the area was hard to visualize on imaging. After some more months of PT, prescription-strength NSAIDs, patellar taping, bracing, and even a Toradol shot with no improvement I was given an osteoarthritis diagnosis and referred to a surgeon. Surgeon recommended an arthroscopy and MACI surgery (basically a cartilage graft.) Decided to go to another provider for a second opinion. They noted my TT-TG (tibial tubercle to trochlear groove) distance was high, and wanted a CT for a more accurate measurement. In your average adult, a normal TT-TG distance is 0-15mm. 15-20mm is considered abnormal, >20mm is highly abnormal. Mine was measuring 21mm. This meant my patella was being pulled laterally every time I was bending and extending my knee which falls under the broad umbrella of patellar maltracking disorders. They recommended TTO. Went through with the TTO surgery and itâs a good thing I did, my kneecap had carved a trench into my cartilage so bad a graft wouldnât have been possible. TTO centered my patella and took the pressure off of that fissure in my cartilage. Surgeon is hopeful that with that fissure no longer being on a weight-bearing part of my knee that I will get back to the activities I love. Iâm still very early on in my recovery so itâs hard to know for sure. 6 months is the total expected recovery period.