La Vida Loca De Flores

When Blaze was finishing up playing basketball this winter, he began to complain of some knee pain. I assumed it was just "soreness" from maybe overexerting himself (or being stepped on or tripped too many times) during basketball, and I gave him Ibuprofen and told him to "settle down" at bit. Over the weeks, the knee pain did not seem to resolve, so I finally relented and took him in to the doctor, thinking she would tell him the same thing I had, and have him take some Advil and relax... but instead, she diagnosed him with a patellofemoral disorder. A patellofemoral disorder is where the muscle of the thigh (quadricep) is not strong enough to hold the knee cap centered in the middle of the leg, and the larger (and stronger) muscles of the glutes and the hamstrings begin to pull the knee cap towards the outside of the leg, which causes pain when climbing up and down stairs and squatting and those types of movements. So the doctor prescribed him some physical therapy.

In physical therapy, they taught him some exercises to do to strengthen his quad muscle and they do ultrasound treatments on him. He also wears a patch that actually has an electrical current running through it that puts cortisone into his knee through his skin and he has to wear knee brace with special contouring to push the knee cap back towards the center. He is so happy with the results and especially relieved that his knee isn't going to keep him from playing baseball! Luckily though (I love living in a small town!), his physical therapist's son also is a baseball player and he keeps a close eye on Blaze at the fields as well as in his physical therapy sessions!