Morgan's Patella Femoral Syndrome

I'm 14 and have been playing soccer almost all my life. At an indoor game one day we were warming up and all a sudden my knee snapped out of place then back in. I didn't really think anything of it and decided to play the game anyway, even though my knee was killing me.

After that i took about a month off until track started. It happened again when i was competing in the 4x1 relay, both times in the right knee. This time my coach made me go to the doctors or else he would not let me complete the season and would contact my soccer coach.

Three MRI's later and a lot of missed school I was diagnosed with patella femoral syndrome in my right knee. I was given a brace and did physical therapy and was told that I could play soccer as long as I wore the brace and my knee cap stayed in place.

I was up again playing soccer for almost the whole summer. I was at a team camp doing a drill when my left knee went out on me. The doctor had told me that my left knee was fine before. I went back to the doctors, had more MRI's done and was then told that I had the most severe case of patella femoral syndrome in both knees that he had ever seen.

Now with two knee braces and about an hour and a half of physical therapy a night, I still tried to play soccer. My first game with two bad knees didn't go well. I couldn't keep my knees in place and I could feel them swelling.

My one goal in high school was to make the varsity soccer team as a freshman and get a full ride scholarship knowing that I couldn't pay for college myself. School came around and I thought that I would give tryouts a try... I didn't last ten minutes.

Disappointed, I went on with school playing no sports for the first time in my life it seemed. Two months into school the cross county team was willing to help me out and recruited me, telling me that they didn't care if i walked the race if my knees were to bad, they knew that i was a runner at heart.

I've now been running with them the whole year. I've earned the nickname of "knees" because of my huge braces. As much as i love the cross country team and running I want to go back to soccer.

I've asked about surgery or any other way they can get me better, but all they have to give is physical therapy to strengthen the insides of my legs. Running ten miles a day does the exact opposite of my physical therapy.

Should I get surgery on them?