i dont play football and even though it happen at work, i dont like workers comp doc's. it looks like there is a good chance i poped the ACL in my right knee, W.C. Xrayed and say no fracturs (i could handle that) but might have torn the ACL or cartlige. have to wait till swelling go down. Meanwhile here is a brace, cane, and neproxin come back in one week for re-evaluation and we might send you for an MRI. return to work now on light duty. working for INFO booth in airport terminals ( IM A MAINTENCE WORKER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD)
i can walk on it but it pops and clunks. just sitting on the GS makes it feel like its binding. i dont even want to think about getting it cut on as ive not heard one GOOD thing about it. i cant afford to take 3-5 weeks out of work if not more. of all my injuries, this one has me pannicked.
well hopefully it woun't come to that. Just take it easy and I am sure all of us here will hope for the best for you.
I had my right knee scoped 2 years ago due to a similiar injury. had constant swelling, popping and craking, almost constant pain and stiffness. after 2 mri's they found that I had torn the cartlidge and a piece had flipped over and was sitting ontop of the rest of the cartlidge. the surgery took about 20minutes I was very sore and on crutches for 2 days (got aggravated with the crutches and pitched them) forced myself to walk as much as possible. after the surgery, it took about a week to get back to the presurgery state (sore, swelling, pain and cruching) thought I had made a mistake with the surgery. I returned to work after a week. after about a month the swelling was completely gone, followed shortly there after by the crunching, but I still had psome pain. after a few more weeks the pain was gone. now I feel like I did when I was 15 yrs old. my knee no longer hurts, I can ride the gs without pain. I can run again (hadn't been able to do that for years). best thing I ever did.
Blueknyt,
Hey sorry to hear the news...I work at a PT clinic and the patients we have had with ACL fully torn are in for quite a rehab. Of course it all depends a variety of things....your age, your doctor, the therapist, and of course your genetic predisposition. I do know of a few people who chose not to repair their ACL's and just live with it. I believe it's not sumting you really need unless you have some aspirations to run a 40 in 4.6 secs, plan to long jump 27ft, or plan to break some ankles on the court. :thumb: I am no Physical Therapist, but if you plan to get it repaired...could be as long as 4-6 months in rehab. Good luck and may the force be with you. :cheers:
clunking and binding make it sound like a meniscus tear, with maybe ACl invovlement as well. I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV. Actually I'm an anatomist. If you're not familiar with the menisci (plural) they are two cup shaped disks of cartilage that sit on top of your lower leg bone (the tibia) They are bound to the top of the tibia and oftentimes the medial one (toward the inside of your thigh) tears along with the ACL. The most common way to tear these is with a twisting injury in which the lower leg is planted and you straighten your knee and twist the upper leg. There are several surgical repairs depending on the type and severity of the tear. One common fix (you'll appreciate this Blueknyt) is that they pretty much just go in and pop rivet the cartilage back in place. IF anyone's interested I can provide some links to a couple good surgical repair sites. One final note is that rehab takes a long time for ligament or cartilage tears because there is very little blood supply that is able to get into that region, partially because of the mobility of the joint and also because the tendons and cartilage is very dense and blood vessels can't penetrate.
sorry for the long winded post, it's almost time for school to start back up and I'm getting back into lecture mode.
Jake
this may help in the short term but it's not cheep to tape every day.
http://www.leukosports.com.au/injury_management/taping_techniques.asp#knee
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/medial_ligament/taping.php
I hope for your sake that it is not your ACL. I've torn both of mine and have had both repaired. If you have torn it and chose to have it repaired you are looking at 4-6 months at the least before you have full mobility, a year before you are totally back to normal. The first month you are on crutches with a leg immobilizer. You will start to lose the crutches, but will still have the leg immobilizer for probably another month.
It is hard for them to know if you've torn your ACL due to the swelling, but the MRI should let them know for sure. You may have just torn your MCL, LCL or meniscus (sp?). Does your knee give out on you? How much swelling do you have?
If it is just your meniscus then you can have it scoped and won't lose to much time. They basically just go in and clean up all the loose stuff. If it is your ACL there is several different ways they go about repairing it. The most popular way right now (and the way mine was done) is to take a piece of your patella tendon and screw it in to the bones where your ACL used to be. Once your ACL is fully torn it will disintegrate. Another method they may use is to take a piece of your hamstring or use a cadaver.
Keep us informed of what the diagnosis is. Feel free to PM me if you want more details of just what the ACL reconstructive surgery involves.
Good luck.
I tore my ACL, MCL, and meniscus. 5 hour operation to repair the ACL and cartilege. 5 days in the hospital. They used a graft from my petalar tendon. I was off crutches in 6 days. Doing some running in 6 weeks. Full 6 months to a year before it is 100%. Now my knee is much stronger than before.
I'd stick with work comp, if I were you. Get as many benefits from it as you can. Plus you should get a nice permanent partial disability settlement at the end of it all($$$).
That sucks dude, but I'd take the surgery and get it over with. I went 3 weeks without my ACL and it would just buckle without warning and I'd fall on my ass.
They had to remove about 2/3 of my meniscus, so I'm looking at a replacement here in 10 years or so. Good luck brother. The scars will look cool and chicks will dig them.
I don't know how you were running at 6 weeks. Did you go to therapy? My quad and hamstring atrophied after surgery, I couldn't even lift my leg to do leg lifts without serious concentration. I did have to bend my knee to 90 degrees the first day after surgery, but it was months before I had full range of motion.
Why did you spend 5 days in the hospital? Mine was in the day for surgery one night and then out the next.
On another note I definitely agree to have the surgery. Espeically if you athletic at all. The ACL will never mend itself, so if you don't have the surgery there is always the chance that you could hyperextend or mess your knee up even more.
Quote from: Vball24I don't know how you were running at 6 weeks. Did you go to therapy? My quad and hamstring atrophied after surgery, I couldn't even lift my leg to do leg lifts without serious concentration. I did have to bend my knee to 90 degrees the first day after surgery, but it was months before I had full range of motion.
Why did you spend 5 days in the hospital? Mine was in the day for surgery one night and then out the next.
I did three weeks of PT before the operation, which included electro muscular therapy, etc. When the bandages came off, I could wrap my hands around my thigh, so yeah, a lot of atrophy. My right butt cheak was flat too. I went to PT at the hosptial twice and then did the rest of it with my trainer. I was trying to get healthy for the summer because I got invited to play my sport again after college. The running was straight line, no cuts, etc. Mostly just jogging. Then I was able to justify getting drunk and playing sand vollyball.
5 days is a long time in the hospital. I needed to be able to go down the stairs on my crutches before I left. The didn't let me try until the 5th day. :dunno:
My first ACL injury was in the middle of my senior year of college volleyball. I elected to rehab and play the rest of the season with a brace and then have my surgery after the season was over. To me it just doesn't seem to matter how much rehab I did before surgery, but that is probably not true of everyone.
My only bonus my first time was that evidently I got put on the mat to do my leg raises next to some football player that is evidently pretty famous because he had people coming up to him to get his autograph. WOW. :o
Interesting on the crutches thing. They let me walk up and down them the first day out of surgery. The only thing we HAD to do before we left was bend to 90. Which on my first one was fine, my leg was still numb after the surgery. :thumb: The second not so much. :( I just hate it when the trainers push on your leg trying to get more bend. I swear they've never been through it or they wouldn't do it.
well, im 33, while i have always healed quickly and well, im abit heavy which doesnt lend itself healing joints. i can handle pain, i cant handle not getting better. once better pain goes away, if it doesnt then im not healing. i wanted to get into abit of trail riding on my XL250 dual sport (kickstarter no electric) for abit more exorcise without killing myself peddling (im not a cyclist) wanted to get abit better shape as my son wants to start learning to play soccer and football. these were never my intrests but i should still be able to help him and spend time teaching him. lets face it, who hasnt had a bike start to fall over and have to toss a leg out to catch it? that thought scares me now. i will have to wait and see. thanks for the support though.
just one of the few times in my life im really scared for myself. most the time its for others.
I would try not to get too worried until you find out exactly what is wrong. If it is just your meniscus then you should be good to go pretty quick. Even if it is you ACL you'll be able to do the things you want to do if you have reconstructive surgery and if you rehab correctly.
Theoretically the stronger your quad, hamstring and other muscles around your knee are the less chance you have of tearing your ACL or of needing surgery. Personally I don't totally believe that as I was probably in the best shape of my life and Jake was also playing college sports so he was in good shape also. Crap happens is my way of looking at it. :dunno:
Don't give up the dirt bike idea, but I would wait closer to the full year of recovery if it is you ACL before I would go hard core. There are other ways to get in shape that are less stressful on your knee.
When do you go to the doctor?
well had my follow up and im breathing alittle better, Doc no longer is thinking ACL but torn up meniscus. being workers comp he has to try conservitive treatment first , hinged brace, theropy, continue the naproxin and light duty for another 2 weeks to see if the clicking and poping go away (so not happy about that) then re evaluate and see if an MRI is warrented (really wish they quit guessing already) he claims its the typical red tape and hoops workers comp makes him use. hey, if it is meniscus then its alot easyer to fix then ACL and alot faster recovery. but still snap the picture of the knee already. just thought i would update everyone
Well that is better news that it is your meniscus. Even after doing the MRI they and they determine that is what it is, all they have to do is scope the torn stuff anyway and after a couple weeks of therapy you'll be good to go. The clicking shouldn't go away it hasn't with mine. ( I somehow messed it up again last year). I can still here it click and I don't think it will go away until I get it scoped. I'm not looking forward to it, but at least it is not near as bad as the ACL. Thank you for keeping us up to date.
Glad to hear it may not be as bad as initially thought. That is always good news but it is a little messed up that they have to do all that for workers comp to pay for it. They, Employer, would lose less if they went for a speedy diagnosement and treatment as opposed to sticking people on light duty for an eturnity.
i dont mind a click here and there, but 3 out of 5 steps results in a pop, and sitting on a motorcycle when i go to press the rear break things are shifting and poping in my knee. this is what i want them to fix, i can haul weights no problem, up and down stairs nervous but no real problem. squating is a no no and Kneeling on the knee is so far out the hubble would show a fuzzy picture.
Has anyone seen forward controls for a GS? :dunno:
All joking aside I hope you get feeling better.