Bone Bruise

Since the summer of 2011, I have been bothered by stiffness in my left knee.  I could tolerate the pain but finally this fall the swelling in my knee became obvious and I had an MRI done in October.  It showed that I have moderate chondromalacia ... and subchondral edema.  This translates to a bone bruise.  I stopping running and switched from playing a lot of tennis singles to doubles.  It still wasn't getting better so I stopped all tennis and began swimming for the last 5 weeks. Swelling is almost all gone and no pain but some stiffness remains.  How will I know when it is OK to go back to playing tennis doubles?  Also, if I play with some pain, does this mean that I am doing more damage.

[justsurf64]

Please be sure that what you had was truly a bone bruise. My son was told he had a horrible bone bruise in his thigh this was the findings after an MRI read by the radiologist and his Ortho doc. He was placed on crutches for 6 weeks. When he was off the crutches he was still in pain and put back on them for 4 more weeks.at this point I felt we needed a second opion. I took the current MRI that was used to confirm the bone bruise to a new doctor who in one second looked at it and said your son has a 3 inch fracture in the growth plate. A second MRI was ordered at Childrens hospital to confirm. It seems not MRI machines take as many cuts as others so the one at childrens showed more detail but the fracture was clearly seen on the first MRI.He was then on crutches for another 6 weeks with tons of therapy and the possibility of one leg being shorter than the other.do yourself a favor if you have given the aloted time to heal and you still have pain as for a new MRI and do your homework as to the equiptment used at the facility.

[tennisplayer4]

Thank you for your comment.  You were very prudent in getting a second opinion and hopefully there was no permanent damage to your son's leg.  In my case, I checked the calendar and what seemed like 5 weeks a while ago will be 4 weeks this Saturday. I can tell that my knee gets slightly better every few days. I was told to listen to my body and after a month if not better, give it another month.  I plan to play doubles again after 6 weeks and see how I feel.  I am finally convinced that a  bone bruise does take a while to heal.