Scar tissue

Although I'm grateful to finally be running again, my right leg/knee is still not perfect. It's not the injury for which I had surgery that's not perfect; it's the two scars from the incisions where the surgeon performed an arthroscopy to excise the medial plica and the one scar (the largest of the three) where the surgeon opened up my leg to debride part of the semimembranosus tendon. I realize that surgeons are in the business of making scar, but my scars are super annoying--much more annoying than the four scars on my left foot. In fact, those four scars never really bothered me at all.

The two arthroscopy scars click and pop from the scar tissue build-up, and sometimes they even cause pain--not while running but when squatting or doing other leg strengthening exercises. These two scars are just minor annoyances compared to the annoyance of the debridement scar on the medial aspect of my knee. That scar, which measures about an inch and half long, is still adhered to the subcutaneous tissue. In other words, the outer most layer of skin is literally stuck to whatever's underneath. That skin is supposed to move freely over that underlying layer. This presents a host of problems.

1. There's a rather important nerve that runs through that area that is being blocked or squeezed by the tissue/inflammation, which has resulted in a lack of full sensation in parts of my leg and foot. It's super annoying, but I know that once the scar tissue is broken up and that adhesion is released, full sensation will return.

2. Because the outer most layer of skin is not able to move independently of the underlying tissue, it pulls on the tissue and causes weird pain and soreness in other areas of my knee--nothing at all serious but very annoying.

3. When I flex my hip through its full range of motion--that is, bring my knee to my chest in a standing position--the outer most layer of skin is pulled on so much by the underlying tissue that it causes a huge indentation in my leg and very funny feeling.

So, what I've begun to do, which I probably should have done as soon as possible following the surgery, is manipulate the tissue. It's super painful, but these layers of tissue must be separated. I refuse to see a therapist, so I've scoured the Internet for techniques to do this. I've found a few and have gotten to work on it. I hope that I'll be able to resolve this on my own.