Help with my knee pain - possible patella femoral syndrome?

Alright, here's the situation... I had severe pain in my knee a couple of weeks ago, including a clicking sensation when I extended my leg, so I went to the doctor. he told me I had patella femoral syndrome and gave me some exercises to do to strengthen my (inner) vastus medialus quadricep muscle, which seemed to help at the time. The pain went away after a few weeks and all was good. The other week I started squatting heavily again, but the pan has returned this week!! I think there may also be some bruising at the top of my knee, but I'm not really sure.

It really hurts my right knee when I squat, so I was wondering how often I would need to squat to maintain the size in my legs. Would five sets of squats every fortnight and four sets of deadlifts once a week be enough?

Or should I just stop squatting for a month to sort out the problem and then try to regain the size in my legs once the pain subsides?

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

I had knee pains years back and a clicking sound on every step I took. I took to wearing an elastic knee support and doing light leg extensions and leg press. I can't remember how long I went without squatting, though.

Anthrax had a thread on knee pain and wide-stance box squatting came up as a solution to being able to squat without undue stress on the knees. I think he tried them, though, without success.

Ah, yes... You mean this thread: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=396662

Some very good advice in that thread.

I'll try wide stance box squats with shins vertical and see how that goes for a while.

Just a question on box squats though: The box should be low enough to allow your thighs to be parallel to the ground and the idea is to sit on the box when you go down so as to relieve stress on the knee joint, right? Then you drive up off the box with your heels as usual?

Also, will I generally find that I cannot use as much weight with my shins vertical?

I'm only 19 so an exacerbating a joint injury is the last thing I need.

It's up to you just how deep down a 'box' you want to use. I'm currently going down to about parallel, just a shade above, but I've only done them two sessions and might switch out for one a bit lower next gym visit. In this post b_fold suggests starting high.
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4844159&postcount=14

The reason a box squat is harder with regard to how much weight you can use is not the position as much as the fact that you completely hand your weight over to the seat. You thus lose any possible stretch reflex for getting back up. Keep your back tight as always but let the box take all the weight away from your legs and then come back up, driving through your heels and leading with your head as usual. Some suggest making an effort to keep your knees pushed outwards but the important thing is to maintain a comfort zone with them and I think keeping your feet wide helps with that. Last session I did them as wide as the squat rack would allow and felt no particular tension on my knees but I'm not currently suffering with bad knees, anyway.

Start light and see how you go. I just took a look at the squat sticky in the PL forum but there's no real info on box-squatting in it. Maybe it'd be worth putting up a thread asking for info on best practice.

What kind of stance are you using to squat? Narrow? Wide?

I had the same type of pain for months; I stop squatting for a couple weeks, go back in once or twice then have to stop again. I went to the chiropractor and it turned out to be the retinaculum. They did some work on it and it felt back to normal the same evening (after the pain from the treatment wore off). I did some squats for them on the second visit and they showed me the point where my back curve and posture fell apart on the way down. The (at-home) treatment program they worked up is to flex the patella by hand, stretch the ITB, hip flexor stretch, leg abductor strengthening, and core strengthening especially the multifidus muscles in the back.
Once the core muscles are stronger and my legs are less tight they say my squat weight will go up because my legs&back muscles will stop the extra firing needed to correct my balance, and instead focus on moving the weight. Flat feet don't help either
All this just started happening a couple weeks ago, but I'll post the progress after a month. I have a ton of respect for chiropractors now.

I've got flat feet as well and was squatting with my feet at about shoulder width.

Something I am worried about though is that the pain now is much different to what it used to be - it hurts whenever I place any weight on it or lean forward over my knee. It never used to be this bad. I'm thinking there may be some bruising or tendon damage - though I'm no expert on this matter.

I'm seeing the sports doctor today and will see what he has to say.

Sounds like you no longer have any choice about whether to rest it. I was in a similar position about six weeks back after twisting my knee, when I got bumped by a horse, with pain when doing what you describe. It went away in about two weeks but maybe mine was a different type of pain. Good luck with the doc.

Turns out I paid $40 just for the doc to tell me to rest.

Thinking of seeing a chiropractor. Is it worth it or would I be wasting my money?

First, I would get a knee brace that will not allow your kneecap to drift out of the proper groove. I would try light squats with a wider stance, toes pointed 45 degree outwards. It will be harder for your knees to drift over your toes this way, and it will put more emphasis on your vastus medalis.