Bad news, Injury Options

[NOVAKx17]

In a basketball tournament two weeks ago i messed up my knee pretty bad, but i didn't think much of it.

after a painful night of not being able to move or sleep i decided to go to the er..

the doctor said i should be able to walk on it with a brace and no crutches and prescribed me 800mg motrin... i was like wow. WTF.

so the next day i went to a specialist. got MRI'd and found out i tore my ACL and ripped my Meniscus and i'm going to need
a month of physical therapy to get all my motion back then i can have the surgery to fix it...

going to be 6-8 months before i can play any sports again,
and this makes it so i can't join the army.


so there goes all my future plans.

i just felt the need to vent, because there is no one i can really tell about it here.
but i appreciate the listening and advice.

good news is , i'm thinking of attending PITT in the fall for a 2 year dental program since the military is out of the question now.

[yarik83]

As a person with 2 bad knees I can shed some light to this.

#1 did you completely tear your ACL or did you put a tear in it? Those are completely different things.

There are many types of knee injuries. One of most common is a damage to muniscus. Most people recover really fast from that one often with little post op issues such as range of motion, strength, durability etc. Tears are also common but they vary in severity. Complete tear is extremely nasty. Partial tear is less nasty but that would explain why doctor told you that you can wait until you have surgery.

In my case I completely tore off all 3 ligaments in my knee and a large chunk of my bone was torn off and wrapped around the back of my knee. 2 surgeries later, screws and plates, 2 years of rehab and my physical activity is quite limited as to what I can and can not do. (ie cant run or coutch or stand on my knees or sit in lotus position etc). My other knee was fixed with surgical glue when my knee cap shattered.

[NOVAKx17]

ouch... that brought so much pain to my knee when i read it, (as often happens when i read or see knee injuries)

and its a complete Tear to the ACL.

as i can still not straighten it or bend my leg hardly at all. its been almost 3 weeks so its healing slightly and the swelling is down,
but there is still no support to my leg/knee and i can only limp on it for now.


doctor told me without the surgery i can never play sports again or do any high impact activity or fast movements.

and he also chimed in that if i don't have the meniscus repaired it will lead to early arthitis?

[yarik83]

Trust me... arthritis is the least bit of your concern at this point. Scar tissue on the other hand is more of immediate concern. Think of it this way. For every day you do not bend your knee.. a little more scar tissue is growing as body is trying to heal itself. In the end it forms a bone-like barrier that can permanently lock your knee preventing it from bending (pending where injury is of course).

As for sports... if acl was the only thing damaged (aside from muniscus) I figure you will be 90% back to normal after surgery+rehab. Rehab might take anywhere between 1 month and couple of years based on success of the surgery and damage done.

[NOVAKx17]

holy sh!t.. so every day i can't bend it is just causing more and more damage in the long run?