Update

Good morning all!! I guess it won't necessarily be morning when everyone reads this but anyhow...have a few minutes while I'm waiting for my experion components to come to room temperate ;) so I know I said I would post an update on the knee situation so:
I went to Dr. Morganstein in Walnut Creek who is a chiropractor that specializes in muscle work. He told me pretty much what I already knew though, that it's most likely the IT band that has not been properly stretched out and thus is a really tight muscle that is pulling on the patella or knee cap. Even though I already figured that, I needed him to tell me what to do about it!! So my "treatment" is to a) buy a foam roller like the ones you see at the gym and try to roll out the muscle to release the tension and any cartlidge that has built up in the knee cap now and then b) I've gone to his office on both Tuesday and Thursday of this past week for sessions where he pretty much just uses a lot of pressure and different techniques to release that tension in the muscle. It's pretty funny though because I went in yesterday after work and I had changed into my gym shorts and I wore my sweatshirt in because it's freezing in there - but you have to warm up the muscles before you start stretching and pulling at them so he put these little electrical impulse things on the right side of my leg then covered them with a towel, then this big heavy heating pad thing, then another blanket to get the muscle warmed up - all of this while I'm laying on a table with my head propped up slightly, my neck wrapped in one of those neck pillows and my knees propped up with these two big white pillows and you have to lay there for 10-15 minutes so yeah...what I'm saying is...I fell asleep!! Hahaha. I was so comfortable! Then he came back over and I opened my eyes and I had to confess, I was like wow - I'm falling asleep over here - he was like yeah that happens a lot, I put my patients that snore in the back room-haha. At least I didn't start snoring I guess ;) After that he just kind of massages specific muscles which are SO SORE. You think 'oh sweet, a massage' but not so much here, it's really really painful because there is so much tension in those muscles. Anyways as to whether it helped or not...I think so, so far. For the last few weeks it's been hurting me both when I run and the days following just while I walk at work or whatever but it's not really doing that anymore. I ran yesterday with some other girls and we were doing about 4 miles total and I probably ran 3 out of 4 which is better than it has been for me. Still some pain but I can't expect it to go away in two days, although that would be nice. After last nights run I rolled it out on the foam roller thing, then iced it. It got pretty stiff when I went to sleep so it kind of hurt to bend but the pain has dulled. Now it's just feels kind of stiff, not as much like my knee cap is out of place so I guess that's good?? Anyways I'll be doing about 4-5 treatments with Dr. Morganstein over the next couple of weeks so we'll see how that goes. Thanks for everyone's concern again! You can help dull the pain by going to my fundraising site and making a donation if you haven't already - haha! http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honolulu08/sverbeke
I only have $200 raised and I need $3700 more!!! oh my...