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Hi can anyone please tell me about their experiences with cartilage damage?

The history on this knee -

• Fell off a horse 15 years ago and had knee pain but no swelling. Trip to doctor - referrred to phsio straight away who did utrasound on it which was aparently a kind of treatment for it? Think I may have been given some excercises to do at the time too.

• Knee was fine after that.

• Did London to Brighton bike ride last year. In the middle of my training schedule, my knee 'pinged' quit painfully once whilst at work (not doing anything strenuous) amnd was a bit sore for a few days, didn't think much of it and then it seemed to be ok.

The problem

I ran my first half marathon in October. I LOVED it and completed in 2hrs11. I rested for a week as I wanted to let my body recover etc, and then I went on holiday. As I was putting my suitcases down, with knees bent, something 'twinged' very sharply in the outside of my left knee, very painful but then went. Then as I took some steps forward, I found my knee felt sore and very uncomfortable. There was no swelling or heat at any time. I continued to hobble round on holiday but tried not to do too much.

Fast forward 2 weeks of doing nothing in the hope that it would heal, I'm still in pain, whilst walking, not at rest, but it is intermittant. I went to the doctor who just told me to rest and come back in 2 weeks. Great. I have an active job and normally run, cycle and horse ride every week. Stopped all of that and went bored out of my brain!

Went back to doc, they had no idea what it was and sent me a hospital referral.

Wait a few more weeks to get hospital appointment and see a physio who bends and twists my knee in all kinds of weird ways. When they compared it with my right knee, I could really see how kind of 'clunky', stiff and grindy my left knee was, like there was a lot of resistance

Conclusion: NHS Physio said it 'may' be cartilage damage or possibly damage/wear behind the knee cap. Treatment: rest. If not better in 6 months, come back, and they will do an MRI scan and see if it needs an op. At this moment in time, I sooo wish I had private medical insurance. They have not referred me for phsio or anything.

Fantastic. I have entered the Brighton marathon, wanted to raise loads of money for charity etc... very down.

Has anyone come back fighting from this kind of thing?

I just noticed that the person above has allergies too. It's amazing how common it is. I stll haven't found all of my allergens as I am still getting an excema reaction at the moment, I have not been tested for every allergen going as it's all money, but was tested for quite a few of the basic ones.

I have asthma and ran an half-marathon whils on the highest dose of Seretide. I have also had 2 lots of oral steroids this year. I don't know if you have found this but the brown (not sure of the name but it is a steroid inhaler) one seems to make me worse?!!

To be honest I think running helps to some degree as it seems to strengthen my lungs. It did get me down quitea lot when I was on the oral steroids, thinking my running was doomed etc. But guess what... David Beckham has asthma and he is a professional athlete, so if he can do it, we can.

Out of interest, have you been allergy tested? My asthma seems to be allergy related which does help me to manage it a bit better.

Brilliant - thanks