Inner/back of knee pain from driving?

[Storm Bride]

Not sure if this is the best forum for this, but I'm wondering if anyone knows what causes pain the inner/rear knee and back of the lower thigh after driving? I'm sure it's related to the gas and brake and all that - did a long road trip, mostly on the highway, this summer, and had it for days after we got back (but not really while we were on the road). Yesterday, I did a lot of driving around, locally - about 65 miles or so - taking my son to chess club, my nephews to and from their gifted program (two different time slots), etc. It involved a ton of braking and hitting the gas and whatnot.

Anyway, the pain is back in my right leg. It started last night, and I woke up with it this morning. Do I need to be closer to, or farther from, the pedals? Is there a trick to how you hold your leg? Does this happen to everyone? (I've only been driving for a little over seven years, and kept it very minimal until the last couple of years, so this is something pretty recent for me.)

And, are there any stretches that will help? I've tried lunges, and they don't seem to matter, one way or the other - no improvement, but they don't make it worse. Anything that torques my knee out seems to make it worse.

Thoughts?

[jenniferlynne]

I don't know if this will be helpful to you, but I have pain in that area from a small meniscus tear.  It can be aggravated by certain positions.  For example, I will often wake up with pain there from having slept in a certain position, so maybe driving could irritate it as well.  Did your pain come on suddenly or gradually?  Have you had any injuries lately?

I would suggest you maybe see a physical therapist.  They can often recommend exercises and stretches that will help a lot.

Good luck!

[Storm Bride]

Well, this is really weird. When I had the pain August, it lasted for days...about moderate intensity the whole time.

This time, it was really severe - kept me awake half the night, in fact - but it was gone this morning. Weirdness.

[Victoria John]

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Edited by Victoria John - 11/7/12 at 8:19pm

[jenniferlynne]

I would really encourage you to go see a doctor or PT about this.  The stretches and exercises they can give you really will help, and even though the pain is gone now, it will most likely come back if you don't do anything to fix it.  If you can't or don't want to go to a doctor, you might want to check out this book:    http://www.amazon.com/Treat-Your-Own-Knees-Responsiveness/dp/0897934229/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

It has a lot of great, simple and easy exercises that will help strengthen your knees, no matter what is going on in there.  Even so, it would be worth a doctor visit to see exactly what's wrong.