Tore my MCL windsurfing on Australia Day. Never had any prior knee conditions. They thought I'd done my ACL as well at first, but MRI showed all bits okay except for grade 2 MCL tear - so not torn all the way through.

A week later got a blood clot (DVT) the full length of my calf and above my knee as a complication (which I had no idea a knee injury puts you at risk of - but I know now!). I've tried to do my absolute best for knee recovery - regular physio, prescribed exercises, hydrotherapy and specialist etc although the DVT did hold me back a bit in those early weeks.

I was originally told it would take 3 months to be back in action, but to expect pain for 6 months and for it not to feel 100% for 2 years.

Like another recent thread in here, I've found it REALLY hard to get good medical advice (including clot being misdiagnosed initially putting me at risk of pulmonary embolism, heart attack, stroke etc). With my knee, Drs seem to base their advice on getting you back to pain free walking again, and if you get that far, job done. Unfortunately pain free walking is a far cry from windsurfing and other fun stuff.

The 3 month mark has just passed, and unfortunately it still feels pretty crappy. It cracks a lot, catches and sometimes feels like it comes off its rails and is then like pushing through painful gravel. I can't walk more than a couple of hundred metres without this occurring. Working it feels like I am damaging it. The Drs have not offered any explanation for this other than maybe it's just because of muscle weakness. But nothing I've read says a MCL injury should cause these symptoms.

Like most of the SB family, my knees are SO PRECIOUS to me. I'm happy to work it harder and push through pain if it's just muscle weakness. But equally I SO do not want to do any long term damage or delay recovery. I am so desperate to get back to the stuff that I love. Right now windsurfing feels so far away. I have a Maui holiday booked for August that is starting to not look good

I would be so grateful to hear from anyone who knows anything about knee injuries and recovery. Recovery time, pain experienced in recovery and how long it took to get back on the water. I guess my biggest question is, when is it okay to push through pain and when should you stop and listen to it?

Sorry to write you a novel. Any hot tips greatly appreciated!

You need to forget about dr's except for the referall.
bypass any specialist that maybe suggested & go straight to a
proffessor.
I had a grade 5 shoulder injury, half assly fixed by a so called expert specialist, it re dislocated 3 days after prothesis was removed.
seen a proff is sydney & after talking with him i dont bother with any1 else.
the way he would have fixed my injury was so different, like black & white but was to late to do anything, 9 months after.
The difference, specialist used a arthrescope & small cuts, couldnt see in there.
proff, cut shoulder open & fix every thing in there thats wrong & close it up again, they can to do this, specialist can not.
I google searched ortho proffessor & started emailing them, found mine at syndey uni.

I did mine snow skiing years ago and didnt have much movement after 3 months, physio suggested bike riding but I didn't have enough movement to do a complete turn of pedals so I put a set of cranks off a kids bike (much shorter)on and went from there. Got a few funny looks but it worked for me.
Like A P said lots of patience required.

juicerider said...
Hi mate, I tore my ACL a few years ago, best advice is to go to a specialist that gets to practice on football players. Their are lots of footy players with knee injures and the specialist that treat them will know exactly how best to recover to get back to doing sports again.
The best of luck, but with your knees, you will just have to sod the expense and get a good specialist.

I agree totally.

I have no experience with knees at all, but for a recent problem, I chased up a specialist that performs surgery for rugby league, soccer, and AFL athletes. I figured if anyone has the experience to know these details, its someone who gets paid to deliver results for an athlete that needs to perform. For these people, they need to get back into their sport as soon as they can, and they don't like to cut corners either.

Had 2 hyper extensions in recent years, resulting in torn lateral and medial meniscii (cartilages) as well as high grade partial tear of ACL, torn medial collateral ligament, and a hole torn in the medial chondyle surface cartilage, through to the bone.

Had 4 repairs. None of them made it better. The first took 5 years to become able to resume my exercise, sporting regimes, which included running, surfing martial arts, swimming and cycling.

The second has now been 4 years, and I am just starting to increase my exercise without aggravating it, to the point of making gains in condition, and losing the weigh I've put on.

After getting the ****s with the situation I saw the top ortho in Sydney. He was the most arrogant prick I've met, but he gave advice that I now agree with. "You should have allowed nature to take its course, and the knee would have healed itself.

One thing that has been obvious is that the (orthos) like to work on top athletes, but really don't give a **** about the average bloke.

The deciding factor for surgery for me was the belief that I was unable to perform my duties at work, which would have meant medical retirement.

An interesting aside. After using orthotics for 30 years I looked at barefoot running. Although I cant run for exercise, I have focused on walking on the forefoot. This has taken the impact off the knee when walking, absorbed in part by the foot instead of being transmitted more directly to the knee. The reduction in pain has been dramatic, and has resulted in getting over the hump of recovery. It has also resulted in no longer using orthotics, and 99% reduction in foot pain. (I have Dupytrons Contractures on my feet which have cause extraordinary pain in the past)

Mobydisc said...
Bypass the local doctor and get down to Sydney. You need to see someone who deals with knees all the time. Do some research on the net and see who is the top of the field. You won't see them on the mid north coast of NSW with a population of 100K or so. With a population of 3 million or so there are specialists in Sydney who have seen everything relating to your condition.

I have learned this from painful experience which resulted in permanent disability. A country quack f**ked my ear up, basically he was a fraud, and it took a top notch specialist in Sydney to stabilise it.

There are a few reasons why country people have worse health outcomes than city people and the quality of country medical care is one of them.

my mother-in-law never went to doctors but she loved specialists!

Pinchewski is the guru.

Sorry I don't know any specialists in nsw but I've had plenty of knee trauma in the past 5 years.

Hydro therapy or just walking lots in the shallows is really good for building strength.

Find a good Physio but it will take time.
Be patient and work hard on building up the strength of your quads and things will settle down.

Tore mcl grade 2/3, snapped pcl and had fractures top and bottom of my knee from kitesurfing.

No op just lots of physio. Mcl heals itself my pcl is gone for good. Had to wear the dvt stockings for quite a while. Very fetching.

Had popping and instability for about a year.

Best thing I did was start cycling. The stronger you make the muscles around the knee the better. Waste of time seeing a surgeon unless there is cartilage damage. They will just charge you heaps to say we don't operate on mcl or pcl unless the knee is seriously unstable.

Hang in there eat well exercise as much as possible. My surgeons advice was stay as light as possible to put less stress on my knee. I am 110kg and relatively fit.

Knee is pretty good now about 80% of what it was. No straps for me now.