vladnedelea: Meniscus/Cartilage

[snow85]

Snow , since you are already reading this post I have a question for you. Recently I had torn my acl/mcl ligaments in my left knee but the doctor said there was no meniscus tear (he said all this based on the MRI scan). I went to physical therapy and managed to get full range of motion or my limb in a very short time and then i went back to the doctor..He checked my knee out and then he told me i'm free to go and i'm allowed to do pretty much whatever i want so i listened to his advice and i started squatting , playing racquetball , and messing around in the water. After the first time i started pushing it , my knee became a little puffy and sore so i just iced it but my biggest concern is the pop i hear sometimes. Usually if i flex my leg and then try it to extend it it pops (sometimes it doesn't , sometimes it barely pops and sometimes it pops really hard). My dilemma is : Can this be from the meniscus ? Do i have a small piece of broken meniscus floating around in my knee or is it just the side effects of my injury and will not harm me at all ?
PS. It doesn't hurt , hope you'll notice this post and reply back to it..thanks

[vladnedelea]

and the answer .. .?

[snow85]

i'm sorry-- how did you hurt it again? how did the injury happen? it IS odd that you tore both your ACL and MCL and did no meniscus damage, but it happens.

you did or did not have full/complete tears, and if you didn't do you know how badly-- grade 1 or 2?

tell me about your PT.

your initial swelling is normal. when your knee pops, can you feel where it's coming from? if you sit indian style for a long time, or with the leg bent underneath you, does it ever lock up? click?

you said it doesn't hurt-- ever? no, i don't think you have a small piece of cartilage floating around in your knee. hard to say at this point, but no, i don't think you do. that would probably hurt a lot.

you gave me some good info, i just need a litte more.

S

[vladnedelea]

I hurt it wrestling while a got extreme pressure of the exterior to my knee(could be considered a blow to the outside) , naturally the knee bent inwards and it made a loud pop, LOUD enough for people sitting on the bleachers across the room to hear it. I went down and I was in enough pain when the physical trainer of the school came and asked if i'm ok and if i am going to be able to continue the match and i told her :"if i can get up and stand , sure!". Then i got up and realized i could stand so I stood up and continued the match but i was eventually pinned (it really hurt) , i had another match after that one but i was undecided if i should wrestle or not. Between the matches i iced my knee and realized that it looked swollen and i could only walk with it bent and step only on my toes (when i did that it didn't hurt) and i decided to wrestle the second match ( i didnt want to not wrestle cause i thought of it as lack of "manhood" and the kid i was wrestling i had pinned before and felt like he deserved a rematch). I had only one chance which was for me to pin him as fast as possible without much effort and the best try would be a headlock which didnt work so all of a sudden everyone was laughing when from under the mat a voice with a funny accent cursed with a sad voice "Oh Sh*T" , it really hurt. So this is the story of how i hurt it.
That night i went to the er because the joint was really swollen and after a couple of days i went to the doctor who ordered an MRI and based on the picture told me I have an ACL/MCL partial tear (i dont know what grade) and then i asked him about the meniscus and he said there is none so he gave me this different brace and sent me to PT.
PT was made up of bike and later on elyptical, stretching the calve ( i walked so much on my toes it hurt really bad) , stretching the hamstring and the quad with this string i used to tied on my shoe and pull on it squats on a semi-ball ,balancing (one leg)with my leg straight then bent on the ground and then some wiggely foam , leg presses and explosive lex presses on thy gym machine chuck norris advertises , some squats on one leg with some stairs , then some explosive lounges (when u jump and lounge and keep going really fast) , and then this exercise when you squat with you hands on your hips and you jump keeping your hands on your hips and straightening your legs completely in the air *these were towards the advanced stage of PT*. At the end they used to hook me up on the russian machine and shock the hell out of my quad while it was being iced.
I'm not sure where its coming from but I think i feel the patella moving out of place a bit too.I tried sitting like that and it lock up nor it clicked.
Sometimes my knee hurts but not to the point where its disturbing be , its pain that i consider normal ...I have that kind of pain sometimes in my other knee too so i dont really take is at pain. Id say it';s more like soreness
Thanks for the reply

[snow85]

okay, good info. i will get back to you later on this weekend. very good info.

[vladnedelea]

thank you

[snow85]

it's been a looooooooong weekend. haven't forgotten. will write to you tonight.

[vladnedelea]

whenever you find the time ..

[vladnedelea]

yeah i guess i wont get any answer anytime soon..anyway..

[snow85]

hm.

the pop you're hearing could be your meniscus, but that most likely would have shown up on the MRI, unless you tore it after. the other thing is that it could be fluid in your knee. OR, if your knee is still unstable, either because your muscles aren't balanced properly or because your ligaments haven't healed, the pop could be your knee subluxing, or partially dislocating.

in fact, a knee dislocation WILL feel like the patella moving out of place, as you put it. go back to the doctor. that's not normal.

[vladnedelea]

oh since i posted here a lot of things changed. I decided to completely ignore the popping and the slight pain and i went back to wrestling (2-3 times a week). The first few practices were pretty painful and my knee looked really banged up but i kept going and i felt it got better. Now it still pops but not as much and i can only feel it pop when i move it with the intention of pooping it .
In wrestling , with a little big of icy-hot and a knee pad over i don't feel anything and i dont hear any popping but that would be the li guess im so fired up and into it that my whole body gets pretty numb .
I think it was a muscle imbalance because since I went back to wrestling it got better and i guess it got better (by always using it). My lead leg is my left leg (the ex-hurt one) so its always bent and on it's toes keeping the muscles around the knee tense and in a sort of normal dynamic movement unlike squats or other static leg workouts. I guess i'll just keep on going and if any strange stuff happens ill have the doctor check it out
Thanks for the response ! Take Care!

[snow85]

ah, i see, so you're using band-aids to stop a 2" deep gash from bleeding. smart call.

icy-hot does nothing but heat up, then cool your skin. it does absolutlely NOTHING to your muscles or your joints. when i was working on athletes, we ONLY used it in concert with deep tissue massage, for the purpose of speeding up heat transfer and blood flow through the tissue. putting it on your knee does absolutely nothing.

furthermore, you shouldn't have to put a knee PAD on it, in a non-pad sport, to keep it from hurting. that you have to do that is a key indicator that something is wrong.

you do what you want, but if your knee is dislocating now, and you keep this up, you'll definitely pay for it later. personally, i wouldn't wish knee problems on my worst enemy, but if you bring them on yourself, that's your business.

[vladnedelea]

well the knee pad i've been using it since before i dislocated my knee because u can consider wrestling as a "pad sport".
I put icy hot on my knee cause i thought it numbs it a little but i guess it was only psychological .. thanks for the advice and now ill surley go ask a doctor about it . thanks again

[Troutman]

i had also had arthroscopic knee surgury on my left knee on the 24th of april. i was walking on it a week and half later, but didn't take it easy like i should have. everything is fine in it and i get cleared to go in a week. the popping noise in your knee is a piece of dead cartilage that is floating around. it could be your meniscus or it could be your mcl/acl. i had also had that problem, but my doctor cleaned it all up. my meniscus tear was very minor, so it wasn't a big deal and it feels really good right now, i just dont have all of my strength back yet, i havent been cleared to squat yet though, he doesn't want me squating becuase of the weakness. i have to ride a stationary bike for about 10 minutes a day. hopefully my ship date for boot camp wont be delayed. i really cant wait to get to cornado and show somebody what i am made of.

vladnedelea!... i had also hurt it wreslting in the regional finals in michigan for Holly High School!


sincerly Troutman

[Troutman]

from experience... you should really take it easy and do everything your doc tells you to. you definitly shouldnt wrestle till about a month or two after surgury! dont worry about trying to be a man about it because this could mess up your whole career in the future! do what you wish, but just take it easy!

troutman

[snow85]

there's a difference in using a knee pad b/c it's part of your equipment, and using one because it hurts when you fall on your knee. you see?

your doc will probably tell you that you need to work on strengthening your VMO to keep the patella tracking properly.

definitely report back and let me know. if you need exercises, lemme know that too.

[vladnedelea]

He said its gonna recover in time and i need to work on strengthening the muscles around it . I have no more pain in it but i can still feel the popping sometimes .. I'd be grateful if you would let me know a couple of exercises i could do to get my VMO or whatever that is back .

PS. my quad and my hamstring have recovered really well and they look nice big an defined now ...would that help ?

[crod2487]

why are you aqsking for advice from Snow when you can just get it from your doctor. i dont understand why people ask half assed experts on this site about injuries when you can go ask someone who does this for a living.

[snow85]

just to make you ask questions, crod. i did do this for a living. take your snow-hating ignorance elsewhere. if you don't have something productive to add to a medical thread, why else would you be here?

[crod2487]

snows what im saying is that your not a licensed orthopedic doctor. so i dont see where you get off giving treatment. if not a diagnoses. did you go to med school? and graduate then do a residency. then become a board certified physician....if not then i dont see how you trump his doctors advice.

[crod2487]

snow your a jack of trades. i mean super athlete, orthopedic expert, special operations expert, special operations wives expert, central intelligence agency expert, sociology expert....the list goes on.

[snow85]

snow your a jack of trades. i mean super athlete, orthopedic expert, special operations expert, special operations wives expert, central intelligence agency expert, sociology expert....the list goes on.

especially spelling.

[snow85]

snows what im saying is that your not a licensed orthopedic doctor. so i dont see where you get off giving treatment. if not a diagnoses. did you go to med school? and graduate then do a residency. then become a board certified physician....if not then i dont see how you trump his doctors advice.

1. READ. I TOLD HIM TO GO TO THE DOCTOR.

2. guess what? i told him exactly what the doctor said.

nice try, crod, but quit being an obnoxious little kid.

[crod2487]

you didnt answer my quesitons. are you a doctor?

[snow85]

crod-- this question has been answered over and over. USE THE SEARCH FEATURE.

if you continue to be obnoxious, you'll be talking to yourself.

[crod2487]

and no it doesnt. you never saw his case. or his MRI or his x-rays and quite frankly i dont think you know how to read an MRI...i have no clue either thats why im not a doctor. my older brother is. internal medicine resident from Tufts University. He spells just about as carelessly as i do and he has a medical degree from a top 25 university. go figure. is your only retort going to be about my spelling? like i said where is your expertise in treating people online without even meeting them? your a coward....screw the search engine. be woman anough to answer the questions. ....are you a doctor? its yes or no.

[snow85]

crod-- again, i've done this for a living. have you? i know that you LOVE to mouth off to me, but it's childish, and i don't have the time to deal with you right now.

[crod2487]

Snow you are BS'ing me about you having a serious medical background beyond physical therapy and a bachelors. My older brother and his wife who is also a resident tell me that any doctor would totally upfront about their medical background donw to where they did their residency. including where they attended school and at what capacity they studied their subject of now practice. so my quesiton is where did you do you residency, medical schooling? this is of course before you did spook work for the CIA.

"crod-- again, i've done this for a living. have you?"

no and i never will but i have someone in my family who is doing it right now at a respectable medical circle and im goig to ask him about your claims to see what he thinks.

[crod2487]

Snow you are not a doctor and never have been. stop BS'ing everyone. if you were you would be a new doctor right. My brother was a little old for a new doctor at 32. your most likey not older than him. and you pass off as if you use dot be a doctor. i dont care what you did in the medical feild as "professional" unless you a board certifide orthpedist shut up.

[snow85]

ps. jennings asked me for medical advice-- and he's a PA. that's "physician's assistant."

many kids on this site have contacted me elsewhere, because of the tripe that people like you feel you need to bring to the medical threads. the community loses out because you don't know when to stop. no one was talking to you. no one was talking about you, yet you traipse over here and spill trash onto a perfectly nice thread. good job.

http://navyseals.com/forums/showthread.php?p=157490#post157490


what do you have to say about that?

[snow85]

i have been totally upfront about that, many times. USE THE SEARCH FEATURE.

[snow85]

the best part, crod-- is that you're ONLY here to try to discredit me.

i've told the kids to go to the doc more than once on this thread.

you're so busy raging that you missed that, didn'tcha?

too cute. grow up.

[crod2487]

im not going to search for your ****. just be honest. are you a doctor? its "yes" or "no". just type one word in repsonse. but you cant even do that becuase your a bull**** artist.

[snow85]

no crod, but i'm not interested in immature little kids, who, at age 10, can't seem to cut the cord.

[Englishlass]

no crod, but i'm not interested in immature little kids, who, at age 10, can't seem to cut the cord.

I agree totally with Snow.

I'm sure you are aware you have an anterior and posterior meniscus, and that meniscal damage means your knee willl give way under you. but a simple meniscioectomy will sort it out - if need be you can have it removed during keyhole but you wil be looking at later-life (my speciality) arthritis and joint mobility issues

[crod2487]

I agree totally with Snow.

I'm sure you are aware you have an anterior and posterior meniscus, and that meniscal damage means your knee willl give way under you. but a simple meniscioectomy will sort it out - if need be you can have it removed during keyhole but you wil be looking at later-life (my speciality) arthritis and joint mobility issues

i know of a kid who got his meniscus removed and completed the program....he used to post on here actually. is it automatic for most that they will develop bone to bone arthritis later in life. like this guy is 23 so he would have it down the road at say in his 30's?

[snow85]

I agree totally with Snow.

I'm sure you are aware you have an anterior and posterior meniscus, and that meniscal damage means your knee willl give way under you. but a simple meniscioectomy will sort it out - if need be you can have it removed during keyhole but you wil be looking at later-life (my speciality) arthritis and joint mobility issues

no dear, menisci are medial and lateral, each with anterior and posterior horns.

crod-- your "kid" probably had part of the meniscus removed, which would be a tiny snippet. removing the whole thing, without a transplant or artifical one put in, especially in a young person, is highly unlikely.

are you asking a question about arthritis, or are you making a statement?

[crod2487]

no dear, menisci are medial and lateral, each with anterior and posterior horns.

crod-- your "kid" probably had part of the meniscus removed, which would be a tiny snippet. removing the whole thing, without a transplant or artifical one put in, especially in a young person, is highly unlikely.

are you asking a question about arthritis, or are you making a statement?
making a statement? how do you make a statement about arthritis?

[snow85]

not sure-- since you're the king of grammar and spelling, as you've repeatedly pointed out, this sentence is neither a question nor is it a statement. hence, my question to you.

is it automatic for most that they will develop bone to bone arthritis later in life.

[crod2487]

not sure-- since you're the king of grammar and spelling, as you've repeatedly pointed out, this sentence is neither a question nor is it a statement. hence, my question to you.

is it automatic for most that they will develop bone to bone arthritis later in life.

yeah automatic for people with meniscus surgeries?

[snow85]

no. very few things are absolutes in medicine.

i, for one, had a partial menisectomy in '98, and i don't have arthritis. by all means, i probably shouldn't be able to walk right now, but it depends on what you do to take care of yourself. play as hard as you want, but take care of yourself, too.

[vladnedelea]

I posted this thread such a long time ago and i still dont understand why you guys still keep fighting. For anyone interested , my knee is doing awesome and i successfully went through a whole soccer season without it bothering me. I had a load of other injuries, minor ones i could push through but my knee is doing amazing except for the fact that one of my thighs is visibly bigger than the other one but that's ok i guess. So stop fighting and be productive !

[snow85]

what i don't understand is why you're posting a comment about something that ended over three weeks ago.

if this thread was not productive for you, and you didn't get anything out of it, let me know and i'll be more than happy to delete all of my posts to you re: your knee.