During my Mother's Day phone call with my mom today, we were talking about preschool-related health problems, since both of us are special education preschool teachers. Mom is currently having some serious back/neck problems as a result of the strain, yet another reason why I'm contemplating a change of careers.

We were discussing my recurring knee problems, and I mentioned in an aside that I've recently decided I must have had some knee problems going back to childhood, because I frequently had knee/leg pains from activity that I just didn't complain about, because I thought everybody felt that way when exercising. Exercise is supposed to hurt, right? Right! (Wrong, I know now.) But somewhere along the line, I had received the idea that I should either put up or shut up, so I shut up and basically dropped out of sport after sport through childhood (soccer, basketball, dance, softball - went through all of them and couldn't enjoy a one, each one made me miserable). Nothing was ever really wrong with my legs, to my knowledge, so I figured I was just weak or lazy. Everybody else could run, I just wasn't in shape. Even though I was doing all the sports that everybody else was doing.

Well. As we're discussing this, Mom informs me that when I was a toddler, well after I was walking, she woke me up one day and I simply wouldn't walk. Every time she would stand me up, I would collapse and start crawling instead. I didn't seem to be in any pain, but I just would not walk. My legs weren't working. Mom, with her background working with handicapped kids and knowing everything that can go wrong, panicked and rushed me to the ER, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Later that day I started walking again and seemed fine.

Later, probably around age 4 or 5, I was complaining of frequent leg pain, so they took me to the doctor and I was referred to a pediatric neurologist. He couldn't find anything wrong, either, and suggested it was just growing pains (I was beginning the growth spurt at this time that would land me at a final height of 5'11" by sixth grade). I wonder now if something about this neurologist result was involved in my childhood conception that everybody's legs hurt when exercising, and it was normal and everybody just shut up about it.

Put that together with the fact that I still can't run without pains in my shin (which I've assumed recently was shin splints, therefore I no longer run) and that I seem to have frequent knee pains/small injuries... well...

First off, has anyone heard of something similar? I hadn't put much thought into it until I learned about my early history. (Which is scary in and of itself; I have childhood memories that I can date back to age two and a half, so the fact that I had these early scares and didn't know about it is kind of freaky. Surely I should have remembered the neurologist. I'm racking my brain now.) Anyway, I wonder now if maybe there's not some underlying problem that's been there all along that would connect all these events.

Second, I wonder if I should be looking for a specific exercise program that avoids the legs. Mom mentioned water aerobics, but that's not feasible right now with me and my city mouse lifestyle (I can't afford a health club with a pool). Maybe when I'm older. I've noticed while doing my Pilates tapes that the upper body workout is fine, until I have to get on my knees, and then I start to have difficulty. I cannot do the lower body workout. I've skipped it altogether. My knees just can't take it.

I guess I should talk to my doctor about this, but I thought I'd start by seeing if this rang any bells with anyone.

Sorry I don't have any familiarity with what you're describing, but I do feel for you. Knee and leg problems have plagued me my entire life--all injury related, though--and I know they suck verily. I've recently incorporated a swiss ball into my at-home exercise routine (to get moving in the morning, essentially) and have found that it's nice and fairly non-taxing on my knees--I picked up a video called Zone, The Big Ball Workout for about six bucks at a used bookstore and the ball at Wal-Mart for about $13. The workout is based on Pilates principles, so you can probably imagine the types of movements it entails.

Like you, I somehow got the "put up, or shut up" mentality at a fairly young age. It was so ingrained in me that I once literally shattered some bones just below the ankle in my left foot and didn't even know it until almost eight years later. The bone fragments had fused together and I started having a lot of pain in the area. When I went to a doctor during my senior year of high school to find out what was going on, he started talking about how the bones had healed from the break. I, of course, told him that I had never broken a bone in my entire life...then he showed me the x-rays. The bone fragments had fused together, and there were still a few bone chips in the tissue surrounding it, and the combination was causing my pain. He wanted to perform surgery to remove the chips and shave down the lump the fused area had formed...and he wanted the surgery to coincide with some reconstructive surgery on my knees. This would have left me in a wheelchair for the entirety of my freshman year in college. I refused. So, here I sit with bad knees and an f'ed-up foot. (No, I'm not in the least bit stubborn. Why do you ask?)

Anyway, that's enough rambling for me. Do see a doctor, though. Legs are too important to not take care of...one day I'll take my own advice in that regard.

How bizarre. I'm still not clear what exactly hurts. Your knees? Your entire leg? Muscles, tendons, bones?

I have knee problems too. Basically I can't do anything that puts a lot of resistance on the knee when it is bent. I can cycle, but it has to be fairly low resistance (have you tried this?). I can do leg presses, but I can't allow my legs to go less than 90 degrees, or I'll get sharp pain in my knees. It was determined once (by x-ray) that I have too much tilt in knees.

As for non-leg exercise...there aren't many. My gym has an arm ergometer (basically a bike for your arms). And there's swimming, of course.

but feel better and better the more weight I lose and the more walking I do too. You should check into an aquasize class as it's an excellent workout without any jarring to your legs, especially your knees. HTH!

Nicole