FOFC Doctors and/or those who have suffered knee injuries

[cartman]

Looks like all the years of playing sports have finally caught up with me. I've had tons of ankle injuries, but it appears I've finally messed up a knee.

Back on Easter weekend, I played a couple of hours of pickup basketball with my cousins. Didn't notice anything wrong after playing. Woke up the next morning, and the knee still felt fine. It wasn't until I drove my car and got out that the trouble started. When I got out of the car, it felt like I got a bad cramp on the back side of my knee. Not behind the knee cap, but the back of the knee. It stuck around most of the day. When I woke up the next morning, it was still sore, but didn't feel like a cramp. Later that evening, my knee locked up and I couldn't bend my leg without pain. When I woke up the next morning, the locking had gone away, but the whole knee still felt stiff, and my knee would make cracking and popping sounds.

Over the past week, the knee has felt progressively better, until tonight when I had to work on my lawn mower. That involved a lot of squatting and sitting on the ground. Since then there has been pain again, and stiffness in the knee. Looks like I have a doctor's visit in the near future. Just curious if anyone else has had an experience like this, and tips on what I might be in for.

[Shkspr]

Why can't you just search the forum for the word "knee" in posts by TK like everyone else?

I kid, I kid.

[stevew]

Sounds like you need micro fracture surgery. Hope you get your explosiveness back.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Looks like all the years of playing sports have finally caught up with me. I've had tons of ankle injuries, but it appears I've finally messed up a knee.

Back on Easter weekend, I played a couple of hours of pickup basketball with my cousins. Didn't notice anything wrong after playing. Woke up the next morning, and the knee still felt fine. It wasn't until I drove my car and got out that the trouble started. When I got out of the car, it felt like I got a bad cramp on the back side of my knee. Not behind the knee cap, but the back of the knee. It stuck around most of the day. When I woke up the next morning, it was still sore, but didn't feel like a cramp. Later that evening, my knee locked up and I couldn't bend my leg without pain. When I woke up the next morning, the locking had gone away, but the whole knee still felt stiff, and my knee would make cracking and popping sounds.

Over the past week, the knee has felt progressively better, until tonight when I had to work on my lawn mower. That involved a lot of squatting and sitting on the ground. Since then there has been pain again, and stiffness in the knee. Looks like I have a doctor's visit in the near future. Just curious if anyone else has had an experience like this, and tips on what I might be in for.

I am sitting home right now after surgery for a torn meniscus. I had similar symptoms. Definitely suggest visiting the doctors.

[HerRealName]

Definitely sounds like a torn meniscus. Bad news is that it takes a scope to repair, good news is that recovery is much easier than other knee related injuries.

[bryce]

I've torn an ACL and didn't have those kinds of symptoms. Mine were more of a feeling of stepping in a hole in the ground when there was none; just losing support all of a sudden.

Edit to add I've also dislocated both kneecaps, and again had different symptoms.

So you might be in the clear on those two issues at least!

[saldana]

i have had lots of issues with my knees, including a torn meniscus...i echo that it doesnt sound ligament related.

if you have had alot of wear and tear on the knee itself, you may have arthritis in there that a piece of chipped off and is now floating around in the joint....that would explain why it comes and goes so much

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by HerRealName

Definitely sounds like a torn meniscus. Bad news is that it takes a scope to repair, good news is that recovery is much easier than other knee related injuries.

This is my guess. You have probably had some damage for years and only now just really got it good. It'll probably get better off an on until you have surgery. You may be able to manage it without surgery. I'd check with a local physical therapy office. If they are like the one I've been to here they will do free, walk in, injury screens, and can probably give you a much better idea of what is going on then wasting your time in a doctors office. They may even be able to give you some exercises to do at home to help the knee out.

[CU Tiger]

Definitely cartilage related.
Meniscus or similar.

I dont accept co pays but Ive had 11 knee surgeries...

[cartman]

Thanks for the replies. I am pretty sure based on my internet diagnosis that it is a torn meniscus. Or possibly MERS. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to get it checked out.

[terpkristin]

well? Everybody answered before I got here AND you should have had your appointment already...

/tk

[cartman]

Initial diagnosis was a slightly torn meniscus. He gave me some exercises to try out to strengthen the area around the knee. If it still hasn't improved in a couple of weeks, then he said he'd schedule a MRI.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by cartman

Initial diagnosis was a slightly torn meniscus. He gave me some exercises to try out to strengthen the area around the knee. If it still hasn't improved in a couple of weeks, then he said he'd schedule a MRI.

You might ask if/when you go back to get a scrip for PT, even if you're feeling better. As others here have said, as you get older, this kind of crap happens, and having someone guide you in some simple strengthening exercises cannot be undervalued, even if you go to PT a couple of times a week for just a few weeks/a month.

/tk

[cartman]

Well, after the knee slowly getting better, it gave out again on me during our trip to Big Bend National Park last week. We had done tons of hiking and even quite a bit of bouldering with no issues. But on Friday, I knelt down to get something out of the tent, and BAM. Sounded like a bunch of bubble wrap getting popped. The knee swelled up, and my calf went numb. Saw the doc yesterday, and I have an MRI scheduled for this afternoon.

[RainMaker]

If you heard a pop it is probably an ACL. That's what mine felt like. Knee was probably weak from your other injury and just snapped.

Hope I'm wrong since that is a bitch of a surgery and recovery.

[Kodos]

Ugh. Sorry to hear about this, cartman.

[sterlingice]

Oh suck

SI

[terpkristin]

Well that's no good. Sounds like it could be a ligament. No fun. But ACL's are typically easy, they're done so often and have come SOOOOO far over the last 15 years or so.

You can actually thank the former UMD president Dr. Clayton Mote for that, he changed the most common ski injury to the ACL tear, from a torsional tibia fracture.

/tk

[cartman]

No MRI today. When I got there, they hadn't gotten insurance approval yet. So I have to wait until at least tomorrow.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Well that's no good. Sounds like it could be a ligament. No fun. But ACL's are typically easy, they're done so often and have come SOOOOO far over the last 15 years or so.

You can actually thank the former UMD president Dr. Clayton Mote for that, he changed the most common ski injury to the ACL tear, from a torsional tibia fracture.

/tk

The bolded x 1,000,000,000

All 3 of my ACL surgeries were "old school" (1 pig, 2 cadaver) and it was 16-18 weeks of intense rehab and PT. Now Im seeing guys walking 6 weeks out.


TK, got me curious, can you explain the last sentence above? How did he change said injury?

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

TK, got me curious, can you explain the last sentence above? How did he change said injury?

He was on the team at the university (Stanford, I think) that got asked by the ski industry to change the bindings to help skiers avoid torsional tibia fractures (basically, a spiral fracture up the tibia which is both complicated to treat and difficult to heal). The way the bindings release now (and the ways that they don't), combined with the boot structure, end up placing far more stress on the ACL than the tibia. Dr. Mote was president at UMD when I was taking my biomechanical engineering classes and came and lectured one of my classes on his design changes. It was really neat.

In the grand scheme, even with my tissue disorder making it virtually no guarantee that an ACL repair would ever work for me (and high likelihood it would fail multiple times, as happened with my ankle), I'd rather tear my ACL than have a spiral tibia fracture.

/tk

[kcchief19]

Popping is never good, I'd be with everyone else and lean toward a ligament. If it is a torn meniscus, the repetitive nature is going to make the need for surgery more likely. I had a torn meniscus about six years ago, and it responded to rest and rehab nicely with no repeat issues.

I'm with you on the improvements in knee surgeries. When I ruptured my left patella tendon 10 years ago, I had the surgery with a wire holding it together that five months later they had to go back in and take out. I was a full 12 months before I was back to relative normal.

I ruptured my right patella tendon in December and a different procedure was used with no wire and no additional surgery. I was back playing golf by the beginning of April. I still have trouble with stairs and going down hill, but I'm still months ahead in my recovery than I was last time.

[Marc Vaughan]

I had a torn meniscus around 18 months ago, I rested it for a month (hated it, I love playing soccer) and then did physio for six weeks before starting playing again ... it took a good year before it started feeling 'right' again, but now its pretty much back up to speed.

PS - I'm in my forties now and still running around like an idiot playing soccer with people far younger than me, my legs hold up ok but feel stiff as boards some days until they're warmed up which takes a few minutes of jogging around.

[cartman]

Just heard back on the results. No ligament or cartilage tears. Apparently it is something called chondromalacia. The cartilage isn't torn, just really worn down from years of use. So it is PT for now to build up muscles to help compensate for the loss of cartilage.

[PilotMan]

All things considered that's pretty good news. PT sucks, but it sure beats recovering from surgery.

[cartman]

The doc discussed yesterday that I'm a candidate for an experimental cartilage replacement procedure. He said I'm right in the sweet spot of someone too young for a full knee replacement, and still leads a fairly active lifestyle with soccer, hiking, bicycling, etc. We talked for quite a bit about it, and he gave me a bunch of reference material to look over. Pros are that the procedure and rehab would be free, and so far they have gotten really good results for the success stories. Bad news is that for the bulk of the ones that weren't success stories, they ended up being worse off and quite of few of them went the replacement knee route.

I'd like to get back to 100%, but that just isn't possible if I stick with PT and keeping the area strengthened. I'm just missing too much cartilage to properly cushion my knee. This procedure offers the best chance to get to 100%. But if it doesn't, and I do end up having to get a replacement knee, since I'm still only 42, he was saying they only have a 20-25 year lifespan (even less if you are active), so I'd likely have to have another surgery then to replace the replacement knee, or whatever other advancements might occur.

A lot to think about.