Suffered a knee injury today - any advice?

[skategoat]

I wish I could say I did it on the board but we have no snow here. No, it was playing hockey. I got hit on the outside of the right knee causing my knee to buckle inward. I went down in a heap but I did not feel anything pop. I think I just stretched the hell out of my MCL.

I can walk on it with a limp and the pain is a 2 out of 10, unless I twist or pressure the outside of the knee, then it goes up to a 5 and it feels very unstable. I've been icing it non-stop and resting.

I will seek medical advice but right now, it's going to be tough to see someone. My only real choice is the emergency ward.

Just want to ask anyone with similar minor knee injuries. Is this something that needs active care or will time and rest heal it? I have a Park City trip coming up in mid-Jan and the way I feel right now, there is no way I would go riding.

[trikerdad]

You're going to need a good brace. Whether you see a doctor, or not, it will take a long time to heal without one. The thing is a good one is spendy so, if you have any kind of medical coverage, you'll want a Dr's prescription to help with the cost. There was a thread a couple of days ago about various braces you might want to check out.

[Justin A.]

I twisted the **** out of my knee a week and a half ago, and I aggravated it by riding too hard on tuesday and thursday (not to mention trying to see who could jump down the most stairs at the condo complex ). I fell and smacked it on wendsday while riding, then later that day it swelled up and got...rubbery I guess would be the best way to describe it. Today, it's feeling much better than it was for the last week, so my non-doctor advice would be to take it easy for a few days, maybe smack it on the ice once or twice :lol: and wait for it to feel better before running on it or anything. That's what I did and I can almost run again. Just time and patience should fix it all. Good luck. Too bad you didn't at least get hurt riding, I hate getting hurt other ways myself.

[BobD]

I streched my mcl in a inline skate fall a few years ago. It is quite alarming when the ortho doc wiggles your lower leg side to side to see how much slack there is. He said provided I didn't fall on it the same way, it was fine to carry on with sports. It was in good shape in about six weeks.

I always ice injuries several times a day and always apply some heat befor exercising. Like many knee injuries it seems good quads are key to an easy recovery, holding everything together tightly.

BobD

[Jim]

I wish I could say I did it on the board but we have no snow here. No, it was playing hockey. I got hit on the outside of the right knee causing my knee to buckle inward. I went down in a heap but I did not feel anything pop. I think I just stretched the hell out of my MCL.

I can walk on it with a limp and the pain is a 2 out of 10, unless I twist or pressure the outside of the knee, then it goes up to a 5 and it feels very unstable. I've been icing it non-stop and resting.

I will seek medical advice but right now, it's going to be tough to see someone. My only real choice is the emergency ward.

Just want to ask anyone with similar minor knee injuries. Is this something that needs active care or will time and rest heal it? I have a Park City trip coming up in mid-Jan and the way I feel right now, there is no way I would go riding.

I have a MCL tear that I worked through rather than have scoped under my insurance coverage. It never healed, but it doesn't bother me if I keep my knee tight with exercise. It did hurt as a 6 on a ten scale for about 8 months when I twisted it. My skiing days are over. That was about 8 years ago and no regrets. good luck

[mr_roboteye]

I did a twisting fall on skis on a very steep slope, when I was about 29 years old.(this was four years ago) I badly twisted my right knee, with a sickening crack/pop sound. My MCL was strained badly and my ACL was mildly strained. When I walked up stairs I could feel the looseness / slack in my knee joint. I could not squat down on my haunches without intense pain for about six months after. A couple of days after I injured it, I went to the local pharmasave and bought a neoprene knee brace with the plastic support strips that go up both sides. This unobtrusive $17 brace was a tremendous help in keeping the knee stable while doing day to day stuff. The doctor said when she examined me that because my quadriceps were tremendously strong (partly from skiing, but mostly from hardbooting) it would aid in my recovery. You will notice that if you flex your quads it holds the knee joint together, but when you relax it gets loose. The brace keeps tension on the joint and helps the ligaments do their job. I would advise that if you do use a neoprene brace, don't keep it on for too long of a stretch, because you don't want to restrict the blood flow to the joint for too long, or your recovery will take longer than it should. Science has shown as well that you don't want to "baby" the injury either. If you cease weight bearing on the knee, the body will not devote as much of it's resources to repairing the damage.

I fully recovered in about a year. Now, I can't tell which of my knees was injured just by feel. I had to look at a picture to remember which one it was. This is an injury that you will most likely recover fully from, as long as the MCL is just strained, not torn, but it's not going to be speedy.

Hope this is of help,

Dave R.

[Mallard_with_a_Gun]

I was a catcher for 14 years, minor knee strains are something of a specialty of mine.

Provided its not torn it should heal fine PROVIDED you don't further injure it. Initially your doing good with the ice, take ibuprofen if your stomach can handle it. I DID NOT tell you this, but you can take upto 2400 mg's per day for upto a week, WITH a doc's order, use your discretion. Keep it elevated as much as possible it will help with fluid buildup. If your pain lvl is still 2/10 tomorrow its highly unlikely you seriously injured it, but its still prudent to take all possible precautions and use it as little as possible for the first few days after the injury. These first few days are the critical ones in minor injuries, as many try to iron man it and just cause further damage.

Don't forget to heat it with whatever you have if your going to be on it, I full on love the clay wraps that are availible now, they have an almost perfect theraputic heat exchange.

Of course...if the pain persists or gets worse seek definitive medical care.

Best wishes

[Bobby Buggs]

All good stuff so far. I did some Mcl damage when my back foot came out during a toe side carve on a steep.I got off balance my foot hit in front and my body went past my foot as I kept moving and I heard the POP. I was able to ride 5 or so more runs. It really didnt hurt unless I tried to make it straight, keeping a 15 degree bend had no pain so I continued to ride. It started to swell and by the end of the 5th run it was to hard to get around in the lift line.

I had it looked at and it was a sprain or partial tear of MCL. Best thing was to get on the bike as soon as you could get around once without pain. Keep the seat low, that is what I did. 4 to 6 weeks and I was back out on my board, checking the heal bail every run. No that was before Intec.

Rest Ice Compression Elevation.

[skategoat]

8 hours since I hurt it and the knee is doing okay. No swelling and the pain level is the same. Maybe just a mild strain. But man, when I felt that knee go the wrong way, it scared the bejesus out of me. Thoughts of Napoleon McCallum went running through my head. I've never had knee trouble but have so many friends with bum knees. I do not want to join that club.

Thanks for all the advice guys. All the reading I'm doing on the Internet tells me I'm not doing any further damage if I just take it easy. I'll see a doctor after Xmas.

Bobby, I've amended R.I.C.E by adding a B (for beer) to the end of it. Helps a ton.

[monodude]

Be carefull with icing an injury. No more than 20 min. on ice at a time. Some say 1 hour betwen ice periods. Too long on the ice can cause damage.

Those neoprene braces are nice but are also prone to cause a false sense of security. They will NOT stop ANY adverse movement of your knee. The support is minor at best. Beside being easier than an Ace wrap those braces retain body heat/blood flow to that area which helps circulation thus healing. They also help you to remember to be careful of that knee.

After an ACL tear, (not repaired), in my younger days I used one for several years. I felt MUCH better with it on than not. Now that I'm older I realise surgury SUCKS so rather than let a minor injury turn UGLY take some time off and enjoy life. The season's early.

Don

Feed the addiction...

[Joe D]

Do not rush it. My torn MCL kept me off snow for 4 seasons.

I would not recommend 2400mg ibu to anybody. There is not a linear dose / pain relief scale. 2400mg daily does not give 2x as much relief as 1200mg, but you will get a higher incidence of side effects.

read this: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=33052

Exerpt: " However, our study shows that healthy, young people and older people are at great risk of internal bleeding and should speak with their doctor to determine the risks of taking large amounts of ibuprofen." ...

"Bleeding was found to begin as early as three days after the start of the treatment and generally lasted the entire duration of the study in most subjects. According to study authors and previous studies, although the ibuprofen dose was higher than the recommended over-the-counter amount, blood loss, anemia and other adverse events can be observed at any dose of ibuprofen."

Best of luck and speed in healing.

[Mike T]

I personally find that arnica works better than ibuprofen for strains and sprains. A cream like Traumeel is my first choice and pellets taken internally is my 2nd choice. Stores like Wild Oats, Whole Foods etc carry the stuff in abundance. All without the side effects of ibuprofen.

About the only time I take ibuprofen these days is if I am hung over - once in a blue moon.

[skategoat]

I'm doing 400mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours. I know about the risks of too much of that stuff. I'll have to look into arnica.

[Allee]

Arnica's great. My mum used it in recovery from a hip replacement with excellent results, and I used it on my dog when she had her cruciate reconstructed - and the vet was very impressed with the outcome. It works best in the early stages to bring out the bruising and encourage circulation. It's not cheap (I paid about $13 for a small tube of cream) but it seems to work really well. Any local health foods store should have it.

[BlueB]

Heal fast, Henry!

[David Glynn]

I wish I could say I did it on the board but we have no snow here. No, it was playing hockey. I got hit on the outside of the right knee causing my knee to buckle inward. I went down in a heap but I did not feel anything pop. I think I just stretched the hell out of my MCL.

I can walk on it with a limp and the pain is a 2 out of 10, unless I twist or pressure the outside of the knee, then it goes up to a 5 and it feels very unstable. I've been icing it non-stop and resting.

I will seek medical advice but right now, it's going to be tough to see someone. My only real choice is the emergency ward.

Just want to ask anyone with similar minor knee injuries. Is this something that needs active care or will time and rest heal it? I have a Park City trip coming up in mid-Jan and the way I feel right now, there is no way I would go riding.

I'm going to go against the grain of alot of the advice that you have been given. Don't ice! Don't take any anti inflamatories! Don't elevate! Do only the activities that your body tells you are ok.

Inflamation is the key to healing. It creates a natural splinting and immobilization of the injured area. It also increases blood flow to the injured area and triggers the body's healing responses that bring in the cellular material to clean up the damaged tissue and start laying in new callogen to repair the area! Icing reduces this process significantly and retards healing and can even stop the healing process short of complete recovery. Ibuprofin and similar anti inflamatories inter fear with the healing process as well, as does elevation. You want as much blood flow to the area as possible. All that ice, ibuprofin, and elevation acomplish are relife from swelling and discomfort getting you back up and around before you should be, opening the door to further damage. Suck it up and give your body the chance to do what it does best ......Suppling nourishing blood flow to your damaged tissue. Mcls tend to heal well given time. If it doesn't heal on it's own see a prolotherapist!! before you consider surgery.

Hope my advice doesn't confuse you but I stand by it from personal experience. GOOD LUCK!!