I am a 44-year-old father of two young boys and a regular fell-runner, but at the beginning of 2023 I fell off my bike when cycling over an icy canal bridge near home.
Over the next few days, my knee felt very uncomfortable even when walking and lying in bed so I decided to see a local physio. They diagnosed bruising to the fat pad and recommended rest and some manipulation of the kneecap.
However, my pain didn’t settle so I decided to see a local musculoskeletal specialist. They also diagnosed bruising to the fat pad but treated the injury with a cortisone injection. This made my pain worse.
Nobody could explain to me why an impact injury was proving so painful and so difficult to treat, particularly as there didn’t seem to be any obvious change to the knee. So, I decided to go online to look for a fat pad specialist and found Claire Robertson, based in Wimbledon.
I live in West Yorkshire so my initial consultation with Claire was via Zoom. Claire agreed that I had a fat pad injury and recommended a course of treatment involving icing and taping.
My symptoms improved gradually over the course of a few weeks but then plateaued. In a follow-up appointment, Claire explained that my symptoms were consistent with neuropathic pain so she referred me to a colleague, Dr Oliver Seyfried, consultant pain specialist who prescribed a cream specific for neuropathic pain.
Over the next few weeks, my symptoms once again improved slightly. At this point, Claire decided to introduce some very limited cycling and a little more walking. The improvement in my neuropathic pain felt slow and inconsistent but, for the first time since the injury occurred, I felt like I could actually recover.
With monthly consultations over a 6-month period, Claire painstakingly guided me from cycling and walking to running. The running programme took 3 months and I progressed from running on the spot to Couch-to-5k then on to uphill running and finally downhill running.
The online consultations with Claire were so important because her advice gave me the confidence to change the neuropathic pain and persist with the recovery plan. I am now running regularly again, often with my eldest son which is a great pleasure.