Are quad exercises all I really need to get better?

Hi. I'm a nineteen-year-old female, and I've recently (approx. one month ago) been diagnosed with chondromalacia patella, though I have been experiencing pain for about a year and six months.

The first time I went to see my doctor about it was in February last year, though I had been experiencing pain months before this. When he checked out my knees, he told me that he didn't think that my problem was very serious because both knees were injured and I didn't seem to have lost too much mobility. He told me to strengthen my quadriceps and to take over-the-counter pain relievers for pain. Afterwards, I immediately began doing quad strengthening exercises (found on this website) and riding and exercise bike regularly (though I had to start off very slowly at first), and my symptoms went away in a few months.

I thought I was fine until my symptoms reappeared in November (after a bit of over-exercising). They were tolerable at first, but they increasingly got worse until they began to greatly interfere with my day-to-day life. At times I could barely walk. Standing or sitting with my knees bent for long periods of time became painful. I took over-the- counter relievers frequently, but it seemed ineffective. Strangely, though, I did not experience significant pain going up and down stairs, and a great deal of the pain seemed to be in the backs of the knees not the front.

I went to see my doctor again, explaining my problem, and he gave me exactly the same advice, which made me very frustrated because I had already been doing the exercises consistently though they no longer seemed to be helping. I eventually got him to set me up an MRI. I had to wait six months in advance for this.

While I waited, I completely stopped using the exercise bike because it seemed to hurt my knees more than help them, but I continued doing all other strengthening exercises. This caused me no relief. The pain soon became so terrible that I could no longer sleep at night, concentrate on my work at school, or enjoy the things I used to like doing.

I had to wait another week for the results after getting the MRI. My doctor gave me very little information about what was actually wrong. He told me that I do have that there is minor damage to my cartilage without telling me where the damage actually was. Then he told me that cartilage damage can't be fixed, and then, of course, he told me to strengthen my quads.

I continued trying to do this, but the pain only continued to get worse. Soon, I had to wear shorts instead of pants because I found it painful when the fabric rubbed against my knees. There was a great deal of pain at the back of my knees as well as the front, which seemed to be aggravated by sitting for long periods of time.

Finally, I became very frustrated and went to see a physiotherapist. He told me that he thinks my damage is minor because the knees haven't lost too much mobility, but he mentioned that my quads were very weak. He hooked me up to a machine to help strengthen them, and put me on an exercise program to help strengthen the muscles around my legs.

So far, I have been doing the exercises consistently, three times a day, like he advised. I'm also trying to walk a bit more frequently than before, and I'm trying to ride the exercise bike again (though I only go on for about five minutes per day with very low tension because I'm afraid of further damaging my knees). I will not be able to see my physiotherapist again due to financial issues.

Right now, I'm trying very hard to be optimistic that this will help relieve the pain, but things don't look good so far. I keep hearing that, 'chondromalacia isn't a big deal, just strengthen your quads and you'll get better quickly', but judging from many of the posts that I've read here, this doesn't always seem to be the case.

Anyway, I was wondering how others in similar situations have fared with this kind of treatment. At times, I find it very difficult to believe that this is all I will need to get better.