I have been dealing with knee subluxations for years and have tried a few different braces.

The only one that has worked somewhat for me is a lateral J pad brace. It keeps my knee in place but it is bulky and feels restrictive.

I feel like everything I have tried falls into one of two categories

either it actually supports your knee but is uncomfortable to wear
or it is comfortable but does not really do much

I am curious what other people have experienced

Questions for you all

Have you found a brace or sleeve that actually works for you?
What do you like or dislike about it?
If bracing falls short, what do you do to manage this issue?

Warning - if you are already scared of TTO surgery or are having one sometime soon, meaby you should skip this one

I had tto 7 weeks ago. All went well, i lissed to the doctors, didnt do anything i wasnt allowed to etc etc. Then 5 days after the surgery i made a slight move with my leg, not even noticable, while laying down in bed, with my leg stuck in a straight cast. but i felt a pop and a lot of pain. I went to the ER and they told me notting was wrong ( even though at this time there was already a huge crack in my bone and nobody fucking saw it)

so i went back home. The next day, i was laying in bed and slightly activated my quats. Felt the same pop but more extreme and felt like something shifted and lots of pain. So the day after i went to the hospital again, to find out, that the piece of my tibia that they moved. Broke in 2 pieces and got lose from the screws and was just floating around in my leg. So cauce my kneecap wasnt being held down by anything anymore since tendon wasnt conected to my tibia anymore, my kneecap also was just kinda floating around way to high and way to the side.

Nobody understands how this happend to me. I didnt do anything out of protocol and i was exualy extremely carefull. But yea this fucking sucked.

I had another surgery 2 weeks after the original one where they put the pieces of bone back in its spot and also put multple screwes/bridges in my tendon. I am now 5 weeks post of from that seccond surgery and still in a lot of pain tbh

Anyways i know this is a super rare case and ive never heard of this happening to anyone before so i am just wondering if there are stories like mine out there

Hey everyone! We've been getting great responses already! Lets keep it going 🔥

I’m trying to better understand how patellar tracking issues show up for different people.

For me, it’s not always a full dislocation. A lot of the time it’s more of a partial shift (knee subluxation)—where the kneecap moves out of place slightly, then returns.

Other times, it’s just a persistent feeling that something is “off,” especially under load or at certain angles.

I’ve noticed it tends to happen more during:

• cutting or changing direction
• getting up from low or awkward positions
• positions where the knee is under lateral pressure

From what I’ve seen, people experience this in a few different ways:

• repeated subluxations
• full dislocations
• or chronic instability without a clear “event”

How does it show up for you?
More subluxation episodes, full dislocations, or just ongoing instability?

I have played sports my whole life. Everything from football, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, swimming, wrestling and MMA. I always loved being active.

When I was 14, I had my first knee subluxation, when the knee slips out of place before returning back into position. At the time I was just confused and went back to playing sports a few days later like nothing really happened.

Over the years it kept happening and got worse.

I went to doctors and they basically told me there was not much I could do besides wear a brace and strengthen my quads. I thought that weighted squats would fix it but I later realized I was not actually targeting the part of the quad that helps with tracking, the VMO.

Since I was 14, I have had over 30 subluxations. At this point the hardest part is not even the pain it is not being able to fully trust your knee during normal movement.

I have tried a few braces. The one that has worked best for me is a lateral J pad brace. It keeps my knee in place pretty well but it is bulky and feels restrictive. So whenever I'm playing basketball or training MMA, I make sure to use the knee brace. Despite its drawbacks, whenever I put it on I know that my knee will stay in place.

Right now I am focusing more on strengthening my VMO and wearing a brace when I do anything intense.

This still does not fully solve the issue since I think part of it is genetic and it has gotten worse from all the subluxations. Because of that I am thinking about getting MPFL reconstruction surgery this summer.

I am curious to hear from other people dealing with this.

• How many subluxations have you had?
• What has actually helped you?
• Has anyone here gotten or considered MPFL surgery?

I am in excruciating, unbearable eruptive pain!!! Has anyone had all 4 of these procedures done at once? How was your recovery? What pain meds were you sent home with? I was only prescribed 5mg of hydrocodone!!! The Dr should have given me something a lot stronger! I’m literally dying of pain!!

This pain cuts deep thru my bone! It’s so painful, I wish I hadn’t done the surgery.
Monday morning I went in for a 4hour major knee surgery for patellar instability.

Derotational High Tibial Osteotomy (HTO)
Tibial Tubular Osteotomy (TTO)
Medial Patellar Femoral Ligament (MLFL)
Trochleoplasty
(Something else having to do with the cartilage underneath my patella)

I’ve had countless knee dislocations and the last one happend last October, and I never got better so opted for this “alignment” surgery. I came out feeling as anyone else does after surgery. Extremely sedated and read to stay the night in recovery as planned. 5 hours later I complained about a very strong metallic taste in my mouth. The nurses were instructed to turn off my 2 nerve blocks.

The pain started as a burning sensation 4 hours later..burning turned to drilling and I was screaming and crying like a baby from all the pain!!! They changed my pill from 5mg to 15mg and gave me an iv of dialudid which didn’t help.. and an hour later a shot of morphine. Dropped my pain level down to an 8.

To make a very long story short, the nurses ended up giving me 15mg of oxycodone every 4 hours and .4mg of dialudid for break thru pain.it took them 2 days to finalize the dosage.m so they didn’t have to request it every time. They turned the nerve block back on but at very low doses so I would get the metal taste. I ended up staying an additional 2 nights in the hospital because they couldn’t control my pain and I had too much blood loss.

Mind you, the whole stay I never once spoke to my dr. I spoke to the “residences” and all they would do is apologize for not making me fell comfortable. They sent me home with the 2 nerve blocks, tons of vitamin d and calcium pills and only one bottle of 5mg hydrocodone. They gave me Percocets in the hospital. Why would they lower the strength of my pain Medicine!? I thought that since it’s day 4 maybe the pain will lesson. 2 days later at home, I was told to remove the nerve block and then when all HELL BROKE LOOSE! Omggg like they say muscle has memory… bone has memory!! I suddenly felt the drilling, cutting, hammering and piercing of my bones. Every movement the surgeon made, my bones were reliving it!!! I felt I was going to get sick and never comeback!! The 5mg hydros does NOTHING! I took 4 of them (20mg) for me to begin to feel som confront.

I’m 44f and live at home with my husband, and 2 young teens. My oldest (bless her heart) 25yo daughter came from out of state to help take care of me.

Im going to call the surgeon today and have them send me the correct meds. Thank God I was able to get some OxyContin from my sister and I found some gaba pills. These are getting me thru it but barely!! These breakthru pains come out of nowhere and make you scream!!!!

So my question is.. is it just me that’s having severe pain? What prescriptions were you given after the surgeries?

I just don’t understand why my dr would leave me in so much pain?!!! Inside the hospital and at home??! Maybe something more is going on under the dressing? I’m not supposed to take my leg out of the brace or touch the wound vac dressing.

Please help with any advice!