Ever get a bruised knee bone from doing a long hike?

I did fine on my 2012 3rd full-thru JMT hike for the first 16 days of
hiking but on the 17th and 26th day of hiking the ordinary schedule is to
do about 4-5 miles uphill then 10-11 miles downhill (with the downhill
being about 3800 and 6000 feet of descent (respectively descending from
Muir Pass and Mt Whitney (the tallest mountain in the 48 contiguous
states)).  Each of these two days, my left knee became inflamed and I ended
up favoring the right knee to the point it became sore too.  After the Muir
Pass descent, the knee quickly recovered in about 5-6 days (I was hiking
with a limp though), but after Whitney (which was the final exit day of the
full JMT trail), my knees were so sore, that 12 days later (today), I'm
still sore (not as much when not using the knee) and slowly handle stairs
and walk a little slowly.

I should have taken two days apiece to do each long descent and I'd
have been in much better shape now (perhaps not have the problem at all).
I did not have this problem prior to the torn knee meniscus issue (which
I've reported on
earlier<http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=54921>and
which happened July 2, 2011), so I know that the prolotherapy sessions
have not healed my knee 100% fully.  I need to continue the treatments and
will. I hope I did not worsen my knees because of those two days
(particularly the last day).  I feel like I am only about 2% better each
day so I know it will be probably 1-2 months before I know the full
impact.  I was told that prolotherapy treatment for older people can be up
to 6-9 sessions.  I have had 3 stem cell prolotherapy treatments and 3
standard prolotherapy treatments.  I am going to continue my treatments but
have switched clinics to one locally in Avon, CT.  A Dr. Paul at
http://jockdoctors.com -- I think he is as good as the provider who did the
stem cell treatment from Chicago.

I feel like daily I am getting about 2-3% better so I think in 1-2 months,
I'll be back to normal.  I wondered what had happened to me and after some
Google Research feel I suffered a non-surface visible knee bone bruise.  I
found some interesting links on this:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-symptoms-of-a-bone-bruise.htm
"Sometimes the bruise is visible on the skin when other soft tissues are
bruised, but the only definitive way to determine if swelling is the result
of a bone bruise is with an X-ray."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/24790-bruised-bone/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/84542-treat-deep-bone-bruise-knee/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/423506-physical-therapy-for-a-bruised-knee-bone/

http://tinyurl.com/9gqtw4l <http://www.healio.com/.>
"Magnetic resonance imaging of 1546 patients revealed bone bruises in 19%
of patients without an associated meniscal or ligamentous injury. For those
patients presenting with at least one meniscoligamentous injury, the
frequency of bruising was 60% at 0 to 4 weeks, 42% at 4 to 10 weeks, and
31% at 10 to 26 weeks postinjury."

http://www.ajronline.org/content/189/3/556.full
"RESULTS. In 80 patients, 157 bone bruises were found. The estimated median
healing time was 42.1 weeks. Healing was prolonged in patients having a
higher number of bone bruises and in the presence of osteoarthritis.
Resolution of individual bone bruises was prolonged in the presence of
osteoarthritis and greater age. Reticular lesions were less likely to be
present after 6 months than other bone bruise types."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/538956-how-to-recover-from-a-knee-bone-bruise-after-running/

I'm going to be contacting Dr. Tortland shortly.

I'll update this posting after seeing him.

I am wondering if others have had a similar problem.  I plan on doing a JMT
in 2013 again (my 6th but 4th planned full thru-hike of the JMT) but am
currently planning on doing the distance I did in one day apiece for the
Muir Pass and Trail Crest Pass descents into two days apiece so that I do
not have such long continuous downhill descents in one day.

Thanks in advance!
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