Dodgy knee - advice needed

mcj78

Hi all,

Righty, bear with me (no Yogi jokes) - I recently got myself a road bike & currently doing ~20 miles per day commuting (when the sky isn't falling) - i've had dodgy knees & ankles for years through playing footy although up until recently they've been fine.

At the end of last year I was doing a bit of running (nothing mental, 8-10k a couple of times per week) and since then one of my knees has been playing up - if I bend my & rotate my knee at the same time, something weird & rather painful ofter happens which feels like some tendon/ligament down the outside of my knee popping out of place & locks my knee in the bent position (!) If I stop crying & straighten it slowly it seems to all ping back into place (literally, a few people have seen it happen & expressed some concern), after which it remains a bit swollen & tender for a couple of days, then it's fine. It happened again on Sat. playing footy when I slid in for a tackle, but it's eased up enough that I cycled into work today with no real problems.

I have an imminent doctor's appointment, but does anyone know what it could possibly be & if I may be making things worse by carrying on exercising on it? I'm slowly accepting my amateur football career is nearing an end, (this is just after a bad calf tear & a nice Indiana Jones chin scar where my bottom lip recieved some unwanted ventillation) but should I stop running/swimming/playing badminton altogether if it's only going to get worse??

Any thoughts welcome!
John

Bronzie

If you are waiting to see your GP, my experience is they'll tell you to rest it and take Ibuprofen. I'd book to see a sports physio if I were you.

huuregeil

That sounds pretty nasty - locking knees generally indicates a cartiledge/meniscus tear, thus surgery. I'd completely stop everything pending a trip to the doctors. Don't let them palm you off with a "why don't you take some ibuprofen and rest a couple of days" - get them to refer you on to a scan/physio/ortho pronto.

ut_och_cykla

Physio and dont provoke things ie dont bend & twist at teh ssame time....but normal life 8(including painfree cycling) should be ok - but get it checked......SOON!

mcj78

Ta for the resonse guys - i'd actually torn my lateral meniscus in the same knee nearly 10 years ago now incidentally (yep, playing footy) - sounds like it might be related then? By the time I had that MRId the offending cartillage had ground itself down nice and smooth again - cheers NHS. I'll take it easy until I get it properly checked out anyway!

Cheers,
John

huuregeil

Definitely another MRI scan required! Have you got all your ligaments intact (from previous injury)? It would be quite unusual to suffer a meniscus tear without at least a bad sprain, if not a complete tear of one of your cruciate ligaments.

Also, make a note to yourself, once you've recovered from this, being active with damanged menisci requires you to be strong in the legs, and you should (should have?) been doing quite a lot of strength training (e.g. weights, plyos), particularly as a footballer (speaking as a footballer too!).

keef66

Sounds like a significant meniscal tear to me. Ruptured ligaments wouldn't settle down on their own, but a piece of meniscus floating around in the joint can lock it painfully then come free again. Your GP should do some manipulation involving bending / twisting the knee to check for various conditions. You should then be referred to an orthopod who will do more of the same then arrange x-rays, possibly ultrasound, and an mri scan. Then surgery most likely.

I'd stop the running, badminton and football, but cycling and swimming should be OK (that's all I do these days after 3 lots of knee surgery)

huuregeil

Another (possibly unethical!) thought. If you present at A&E with a locked knee, you might (legitimately) get seen by an ortho and get an MRI far quicker than going via your doctor....

mcj78

huuregeil wrote:

Another (possibly unethical!) thought. If you present at A&E with a locked knee, you might (legitimately) get seen by an ortho and get an MRI far quicker than going via your doctor....

Ha - if I could stand it long enough i'd give it a go, I work next to the hospital!
Especially since I just phoned for an appointment there & mentioned i'd moved house (not far) - apparently i'm now outwith the catchment area of that gp and need to move surgeries. Phoned new surgery & can't make an appointment until i'm a registered patient, i'll pop in tomorrow morning & register then - is it unethical to slightly exaggerate my pain level so they actually do something about it instead of putting me on a year long waiting list? Best not cycle to the docs...

keef66 - i'll take your advice & keep it low impact for now!

Cheers,
J