torn medial ligament

[monkeyfoot]

Just a quick history -

I wiped out doing a headspin 4 years ago, took the full force on my knee, and was in turn left with a partially torn medial ligament (self diagnosis). I went to the docs and was basically told to wear a leg brace for 6 weeks. I didnt want to do that, so I just rested up and figured it would sort itself out if I took life easy for a bit.

Since then, I have had pretty much zero problems. The occasional hit in the right place would send me through the ceiling, but other than that I had no problems.

Recently its a whole other ball game. Even the slightest touch to the inner part of the knee gives a burning sharp pain and things like side stepping can sometimes cause pain too. Ive put LKWs wisest oil on 2wice a day to help the healing process and have just brought a good quality knee support which I wear all the time. If this doesnt work, it looks like Ive got a nice 6-8 week period of leg brace and crutches :(

I posted this because I want to know if anyone else has had a similar injury, what you did, what helped, what to do/not to do, does the knee have to be totally immobolised to heal properly, and any general info that you feel might help.

kind regards

Craig Drummond

[TaichiMantis]

I had an MCL injury a few years ago. Healing depends on the degree of tear and if the meniscus is involved. The only way to know these things for sure is through an MRI. I was religious about wearing my full leg immobiliser for four weeks. I ditched the crutches after 1 day. It's fine now but in testing for the injury, the doc found I have VERY loose ACL's in both knees, probably due to tears I had but didn't take care of. So...hope everything works out for you, good luck!

[monkeyfoot]

thanks for sharing your experience

I have decided to go for it and have 6 weeks of religiously wearing the immobilizer. I have also topped up on my wisest/tigerbalm stocks, and found some capsules in a chemist that supposedly speed up the healing of cartilage/ligaments.

I figured what the hell, I can still work the upper body, jump rope on one leg, so might aswell get this over and done with.

Ill update with progress.

regards

craig

[Li Kao]

Good luck with the recovery -- cartilage and tendon tears are tough -- they take quite a long time to heal (tendons have a poor blood supply and cartilage is avascular -- no blood supply). For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing by taking it a little easy.

From my own experience, I sprained my MCL in a twisting type injury a few years ago -- basically, a friend of mine decided to try to tackle me unannounced at a party -- I got caught with my feet planted solid so he wouldn't take me down and my left knee twisted. Needless to say, I was out of kung fu for roughly a month -- I wore a brace off and on and tried to do as much weight-bearing as I could safely get away with. I think what helped me to eventually recover was seeing a freind of mine who was a physical therapist -- she kept me on a strict stretching and exercise regimen to keep my stabilizing muscles strong and eventually my tendons healed and I could return to full practice.

[monkeyfoot]

Thanks Li Kao.

I was thinking of going to see a physio therapist; anything i can do to speed up the healing.

I am surprised that you only sprained your MCL, a sharp twisting force is almost always an ACL injury as-well.

anyways again, thanks for the feedback

craig

[monkeyfoot]

so thought I would drop an update.

I went to the docs a couple of weeks ago and had an examination of my knee. I told him that I thought it 'could' be possible damage to the medial ligament, but he ruled this out as the pain wasn't in the right place for that type of injury (pain is inside of leg, right next to the patella). Though he did say that from the blow I took, its was very possible that I may have chipped cartilage/bone, which would explain the sharp pains.

So I had a couple of X-rays a week ago but nothing came up as 'wrong'. I went back for another examination/consultation 2 days ago and then had another X-ray yesterday (tunnel x-ray). I should be getting the results in a few days, hopefully they will be able to tell me something.

Oh and as a bonus, my knee has started to randomly 'click'

craig