Minor(?) knee injury

Picked up a bit of a knee injury whilst in Whistler back in Jan. What happened was it was a white out day and headed into one of the bowls not really being able to see where we were going, of course :mrgreen:. Going hesitantly as I recalled some ditches in the area and of course promptly fell down one of the ditches.

Only a small ditch, but I was going slow, and stupidly skiing like a muppet, leaning back, and legs going in opposite directions. Result was the bindings didn't release and my legs twisted, of course at the knees.

Wasn't really painful and no popping or cracking sounds. Was okay to continue skiing. Mostly fine for the rest of the trip, but after coming back it flared up a bit. Basically have a pain kind of on the surface of one knee on the inside edge when I would rotate my leg (e.g. walking around a corner), and when stretched out, especially lying down.

It's been getting gradually better and actually is far better when I'm active. It's worst when I've been inactive for a bit and then get up to walk.

Anyway, the question is, is it worth looking into or just ignore it and assume it will get better?

Still have the pain nearly a month and a half later, but it's not a major pain. Just that when I read stuff on the net about knee injuries it looks like they're more serious but I don't really have the symptoms they talk about. I'm guessing it's just a minor strain of some sort.

I tend to just ignore these things. Last year I think took a high speed tumble and was in quite a lot of pain after and ignored it, but I think I'd actually cracked some ribs. Took well over 6 months before that went away :mrgreen:

Go to your GP; he will find that nothing is wrong and ask you to come back if it doesn't get better with some ibruprofen, offer you some steroid injections which you should refuse and then go down the MRI scan route and they will check it out to make sure everything is still in one piece.

If you have private health insurance you will probably be sent for a scan straight away.

Better to get it checked out that look for an internet diagnosis. It could really be a number of different buts and pieces.

Keep in mind your (NHS) GP will act like a gate keeper of NHS services (Monty Python-YOU SHALL NOT PASS) and you just have to get through to him that you want it checked out, eventually he will concede.

The one thing you don't want to ignore in skiing is a knee injury. Stop reading stuff on the net otherwise you will just scare yourself, I know, I have been there :lol:

I'm obviously no doctor but the pains that you have described (do you have to sleep on your back with your knee facing outwards?) are exactly what I had when I damaged my mcl.

My problem was more severe in that I could hardly walk post incident let alone ski so I'd hazard a guess that you have minor damage as you say. I wouldn't ignore it though, my recommendation would be to go and see a physio and get yourself back up to 100%.

good luck :thumbup:

Cheers. I may go for an appointment then. Only thing is it does seem to be getting better and often it's not hurting at all, and when it does it's more of a minor ache now. I know if I go it'll be feeling fine.

My main concern is if it's "not quite right" and I do some exercise at some point that makes it worse. I do a fair bit of mountain biking now in particular, though it's been fine so far doing that.

caron-a - yeah, I had to sleep on my back for a few weeks. It's not so bad now but will get a little initial pain if I lie on my front.

Mountain biking doesn't put a huge strain on certain ligaments, I had some ligament damage and could cycle without any pain at all.

I see no reason to NOT go for an MRI to make sure it (your knee) is completely clear of injury.

deadkenny wrote:Cheers. I may go for an appointment then. Only thing is it does seem to be getting better and often it's not hurting at all, and when it does it's more of a minor ache now. I know if I go it'll be feeling fine.

My main concern is if it's "not quite right" and I do some exercise at some point that makes it worse. I do a fair bit of mountain biking now in particular, though it's been fine so far doing that.

If you cycle a lot it tends to build muscle groups that can mask some knee problems, if the cycling is not giving pain then continue. But if you've pain from a fall 6 weeks previously then you really need to see a doctor, you're beyond the time simple bruising will last. It may well be that it's on the mend now but it's worth getting it looked at. I'd have been in within a week or 10 days personally.

Definitely, it was about a month before I knew I'd torn my acl.