Tonight at sparring a bigger guy jumped on my back and when I got down to throw him off, my right knee collapsed inward and I felt a horrible popping on the outside of my knee and then I went to the floor. Afterward my knee didn’t hurt really but there was a weird tingling down my leg and when I put weight on it a certain way (like not straight down), my knee wobbled from side to side. I obviously got off the mat, but I couldn’t figure out quite what had happened. It didn’t hurt and I could put weight on it, but if I tried to pivot in either direction even a little it would wobble like crazy and feel like it might collapse. After that happening twice I went into the dressing room to get changed.
I can still walk on it, but it’s starting to get pretty stiff when I try to bend it. It’s clearly injured but I can’t tell how badly yet. I am just trying really hard not to totally freak out, even though it seems like I will only be able to test in April in the best, best, best case scenario, which seems highly unlikely. I am so disappointed.
I’ve cried a lot. When I got home I was trying so hard to put on a calm face, that my husband thought I was doing fine and cracked a joke about it and I totally lost it. He immediately apologized and took over for the evening.
I have always known I would handle an injury poorly and now I am proving myself right.
I emailed my sports medicine doctor asking for her advice and requesting a test (MRI?) if one might help me determine what exactly I did to it. I flat out told her that without knowing what happened I would struggle to allow myself the time and rest required to heal. I wish this weren’t true, but it almost certainly is.
I’m already trying to figure out how I can strength train (upper body, core, maybe some lower body stuff with support) without hurting it further. The idea of just sitting around for even week is making me crazy.
Ugh, I’m so mad this happened. I’m pretty sure it’s because my legs were so sore for the past few days that only today have I been able to take stairs and squat down normally. I’ve been doing that kind of stutter step when I needed to use my quads or glutes much. So when I tried to get in my legs today, they just weren’t there for me and my knee took the pressure. So fucking dumb.
I’m icing my knee on and off for 20 minutes and I took one of my Rx strength NSAIDs. I’ll take another one in 24 hours and just keep taking them for a while (my doctor recommend I just trying taking them every day for a month to see how my back felt so I’m sure I can take them long term for this). I ordered a brace that a friend who just sprained her MCL recommended and it comes tomorrow. I have an ace bandage to use until then. I def want something around it just to be able to walk around without it wobbling so much.
I was so excited to run tomorrow. I was just starting to feel really confident in my training for my test, and accepting of my lower back pain and feeling confident that I’d found good exercises to strengthen it, and then this happened. I’m so mad at myself. This was avoidable and I didn’t avoid it because I always want to push.
I need to shut this shit down because I’m just getting angry. If you have any insight or tips for me please let me know. I’ve had very few acute injuries like this and never anything with my knees so I’m all ears with what to do and what to maybe expect. Truly, any info you may have would be greatly appreciated.
I 100% understand and am so, so sorry. Sending hugs. To me I am worried for you about a ligament or meniscal tear. I hope you get answers soon. Then as soon as you do you can find out what you can do safely and make a rehab/PT plan . THINKING YOU. If it helps, you remember i had to take a lot of time off in Oct/Nov after my freak car injuries and only came back stronger in the end. You will too. But it does not minimize how much it sucks. I GET IT.
I hope you can get an MRI quickly, because truly it’s hard to give advice without knowing what the problem is (other than REST IT, give your body time to heal). It’s obviously hard, but worse is if it’s only a partial tear that can heal itself now and you push it too far and do a full tear that requires surgery. Use that thought as your motivation to rest it, even when you don’t want to, at least until you have the MRI and make a plan with your doc.
If you google seated upper body workouts there are a gazillion of them out there! So in the meantime just alternate back/biceps and chest/triceps or something so that you’re still being active and getting that mental relief from working out!
Great advice above. I am totally not a doctor. My guesses will not help you. So instead I will applaud your immediate contacting your sports medicine doctor and not ‘waiting to see if a spontaneous miracle occurs’. I think you will be looking at abs and arms for exercise for a while and possibly no test in April. I HOPE SO MUCH TO BE WRONG! MUCH MUCH SYMPATHY!
I think it’s really very fair to tell your doc that you need an answer or else you won’t be able to take the time you need to heal – some of our brains just work that way.
I’m really really sorry that this happened. It might have been preventable in the sense that it was possible but really, you couldn’t have foreseen this the way you might say that glass is going to get knocked over if you leave it an inch from the edge of the table.
My fingers are crossed that you can get an MRI and a solid answer soon!
I am so sorry! Injuries are the worst, esp. for active people like us. I hope icing helps.