I probably stretched my ACL (Anterior cruciate ligament) - or at least I think I did. My coworker has some experience (military) in recognizing such things, and told me that I probably did.
I was playing volleyball and and must’ve twisted my knee up - I didn’t feel anything whatsoever yesterday, but today my knee feels weak, oddly tingly, and my kneecap pops whenever I move my knee through it’s range of motion.
There was swelling to the sides of the knee cap, and I can feel a definite pain and weakness when I twist my leg in either direction, and some when I put weight on the knee and bend it.
In any case, medical treatment probably isn’t necesary and isn’t really an option - but I’d like to know if there is something I can do about it. Should I avoid putting weight on it? Are there any excercises I can do to help heal it? Anything to that extent?
Even if you mean you can’t afford medical treatment, SenorBeef, I reckon you ought to get to a medic on this anyway. If your friend is right, this looks like a nasty injury that could disable you in years to come.
First of all, go see a doctor- preferably an orthopedic surgeon. They can diagnose those injuries awfully quick. I hurt mine in high school, and the doctor figured out what I’d done inside of 5 minutes.
My orthopedic surgeon described my ACL as being like underwear elastic- when you tear it (stretch it out) but don’t tear it completely, it’s just sort of loose and stretched out and doesn’t provide the same support that it used to.
In my case, it wasn’t a major tear, so he thought that surgery would be worse than not fooling with it. He ended up having me get a brace and go through a series of strengthening exercises- sort of like physical therapy lite.
He did forbid me from skiing because with the partial tear I’m more susceptible to injury in the future. (this was 14 years ago, BTW). No problems since, except that it’s sensitive to barometric pressure changes (i.e. I have a weather knee).
Pops are typically a symptom of torn cartilage- so is locking joints.
All the websites I’ve seen mention that it can be treated with rehab and excercises, but nothing specific. What sort of excercises can I do to help it heal?
nothing until the swelling/inflamation is gone. If you go to your doctor, you’ll get a prescription for one of the newer anti-inflamatory drugs that block the chemical in the body that causes inflamation…such as vioxx and celebrex. To treat the inflamation you have now, I’d go with naproxen sodium (aleve).
Rehab, you could ask 10 rehab specailists and get 10 differrent answers…generally they will all hit:
flexability, ie stretching…most quad stretches also stretch the knee including the ACL. Range of Motion (ROM)…stationary bike. Strength, leg extensions.
I strongly advise getting someone who knows what they’re doing to look at it, if you have any kind of medical insurance or coverage at all.
I spent six months wondering why my knee wasn’t getting better after the first (general practicitioner type) doctor told me I just ‘tweaked’ it. I finally saw an orthepedist, and it took him ten seconds to diagnose my torn ACL (choice: surgery, or stop doing any kind of activity that requires running. Easy call, as an active 30 year old). Now I’m rehabbing the other knee after its ACL surgery, but it’s better than never having run around at all.
If real medical treatment isn’t an option, then the best thing is to rest it for a couple of weeks, then do general strengthening exercises – look for “ACL rehab” or something on the web and you should find a good set.
there is an NFL player named Jimmy Hitchcock (actually, I don’t think he is with a team right now). He played for the vikings and panthers. Anyways, when he was a kid he tore the ACL in both knees and his family couldn’t affored to get them repaired…and he never got them repaired. His knees just got stronger and compensated for the ACL all by themselves.
I stretched my ACL skiing many years ago. Immediatly after the accident, the docs told me to do a type of isometric exercise of tensing the leg, then releasing the tension. You can do it anywhere, anytime.
After the swelling goes down, bicycling is good. Hamstring excercises are good. Quadracep exercises are good with the exeption of the leg extension(Sitting & raising up foot-too much stress on ACL). My orthopedist specifically forbid me from doing leg extension ever again. Its potentially harmful for even a good knee. Be careful doing squats. Theres a good machine for this, but be careful doing free weights, until the injury is behind you.
Like I said, this was years ago. Finally, I couldn’t compensate for the ACL. I got an ACL reconstruction using a graft from my patella tendon. It’s an excellent proceedure. I’m very active now.
BTW, you might not have stretched your ACL. Check it out with an orthopedic doc.
