For Two Years I Came Down My Own Stairs Sideways. The Pain On The Outside Of My Knee Was Never Arthritis.

My X-ray was normal. My knee sleeve did nothing. A physical therapist pressed one spot two inches above my kneecap, and I finally understood what had been stabbing me on every step down.

The stab on the outside of my knee, every time I went down

It started on the back steps, carrying a laundry basket. A sharp stab on the outside of my right knee, right on the bony part. Not an ache. A stab that made me grab the rail.

Going up was fine. Walking around the kitchen was fine. Going down anything was the problem: the stairs to the basement, the slope of our driveway, the curb outside the grocery store.

Within a few months I was coming down my own stairs sideways, one step at a time, both hands on the banister. I am 64. I retired from the school district office three years ago with a list of things I wanted to do, and I was planning my days around a flight of fourteen steps.

"It's arthritis. Normal for your age."

My doctor ordered an X-ray. It came back with "mild wear, normal for your age". She said it was probably the start of arthritis and told me to rest it, ice it and take something for the pain.

So I rested it. I iced it after every walk. I bought a knee sleeve at the pharmacy, then a more expensive one online, then one with metal hinges that I wore exactly twice. I took glucosamine for five months.

Every single thing in that drawer went on my knee. And every time I walked down the driveway, the same stab came back in the same place.

The physical therapist who did not look at my knee

My neighbor gave me the name of a physical therapist, Karen Whitfield, DPT. Twenty-four years in practice. I expected more exercises on a printed sheet.

Instead she asked me three questions. Is the pain on the outside? Is it worst going down? Does it ease when your leg is straight? Yes, yes and yes.

Then she pressed her thumb into the outside of my thigh, about two finger-widths above my kneecap. I nearly came off the table. That spot was more tender than my knee had ever been, and in two years nobody had touched it.

What was actually rubbing: the IT band over a bony bump

She showed me on a model. There is a thick strip of tissue called the iliotibial band, the IT band, that runs down the outside of the thigh from the hip to just below the knee. On the way it passes over the hard bony bump on the outside of the knee.

When the knee is bent about 30 degrees, the band crosses that bump. Going down a step, your whole weight is on the leg at that exact angle, so a tight band gets dragged across the bone on every step down. That was my stab.

She told me she had the same thing herself at 56, coming down a trail in the Smoky Mountains, and that it arrives late in people who have never run because the hip muscle that keeps the band at the right tension weakens after 50.

Two years, and everything I had bought was in the wrong place.

Where the pressure goes: just above the kneecap

What she put on me was a strap. Black, with two bands and an open gap for the kneecap. The top band went just above my knee, firm against the outside of my thigh on that tender spot. The bottom band went below the kneecap to keep it there.

She explained that pressure there changes the angle the band takes over the bump, and spreads its pull across the strap so one small point is not taking all of it. Sports clinics have used the same idea on runners for forty years.

The one she recommended is the Vellstride Lateral Knee Strap. I fastened it in her office and walked down the three steps to the parking lot facing forwards. The stab was not there. I stood at the bottom and went back up so I could come down again.

See the Vellstride buy-1-get-1 offer90-day money-back guarantee

Fourteen steps, facing forwards

That was in the spring. I put the strap on for the stairs, the driveway, the dog and the grocery store. The first week I walked to the end of our street. By the end of the month I was back on the loop around the park that I had given up the year before.

My husband noticed before I said anything. He heard me come down the basement stairs at a normal speed and called out to ask who was in the house.

I can only tell you what happened to me, and everyone is different. But if your pain is a stab on the outside of the knee and it is worst going down, press your thumb two finger-widths above your kneecap on the outside of your thigh. If that spot is tender, you will know what I knew on that table.

What I tell my friends with "arthritis" in one knee

Buy the pair. They sell them buy-one-get-one-free, so an order is two straps for $60, which is $30 each instead of $120 for two. Shipping in the US is free.

My second strap went to my sister in Kalamazoo, who had the same stab and the same normal X-ray. There is a 90-day money-back guarantee, so if you are not glad you bought them you email and get a full refund.