You Cant Put Weight On It
If its immensely painful to stand or put any weight on your injured knee, theres definitely something serious going on.
Inability to bear weight after a knee injury could be caused by a fracture, bone contusion, cartilage injury or ligament tear, explains Dr. Brown. Initial treatment includes using crutches or a steerable scooter to take pressure off the injured limb and minimize additional damage to the knee.
If this sounds like you, listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Dr. Brown warns that the old adage of no pain, no gain doesnt apply in this situation.
He advises seeking orthopedic evaluation as soon as possibleeven that same day if you can.
After a minor injury like a twist or fall, you might not be able to put weight on your leg immediately. Thats not necessarily a cause for alarm, but if you dont feel like youve recovered within a few minutes, this could indicate something more serious.
Its similar to when you injure a wrist or ankle. If you fall on your wrist or twist your ankle, you may experience searing pain for a moment or two. When the injury isnt severe, youre able to shake it off and resume your life after a few minutes at the most. However, if youve experienced a sprain, the pain doesnt subside. Instead, it gets worse.
You Experience Greater Than Normal Movement
If you feel like your range of motion in the knee is higher than usual, something might be out of place or injured. This is known as joint instability.
You may feel like your knee will buckle or fold with walking, twisting, or weight-bearing.
The sensation of the knee giving away may occur with simple daily activities or upon return to sport following what was thought to be a minor injury, explains Dr. Brown.
Additional episodes of joint instability may worsen the condition of a knee after an injury. Tears of the ACL or MCL and patellar dislocations could also create joint instability, he says.
Hundreds of thousands of exercise injuries occur each year. Among these, knee injuries are the most common.
The best plan of action is to make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon.
Wear a compression-sleeve-type brace or a knee brace with hinges in the interim, says Dr. Brown.
This may provide some comfort or level of support. Use crutches if you feel like you could fall and suffer additional injury because of knee joint instability.
Another type of hypermobility can occur when the kneecap moves out of place. This condition is called a patella dislocation. Its usually painful when it happens, and it might be sore the next day. If it pops back in by itself, the injury might not be serious. The true test is whether you feel confident that you can resume regular activity later that day or the next day.
You Dont Eat Enough Protein
When you are injured your body requires a consistently high protein intake. If you arent eating enough, your muscle recovery will stall, and you wont see as fast of results as you could see.
For a quick reference, Dr. John Berardi of Precision Nutrition;recommends at minimum one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day in order to best tackle your injury.
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What Is A Torn Meniscus
A meniscus is a disk-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber inside a joint. Each knee has one lateral meniscus under the outer knob of the thighbone and one medial meniscus under the inner knob of the thighbone. Each meniscus acts as a natural cushion between the thighbone and shinbone . The two cushions prevent excess wear and tear inside the knee joint by keeping the ends of the two bones from rubbing together. Each meniscus also absorbs much of the shock of jumps and landings and helps to distribute joint fluid evenly to lubricate and nourish the knee.
In the United States, a torn meniscus is the most common reason for knee surgery.
Exercise And Injury Recovery Time
It is often assumed that you should put your feet up if you’re injured, but exercise is a vital part of your rehabilitation. Keeping active comes with a number of proven benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, better response from the immune system and reduced pain sensitivity.
Don’t be afraid to get your heart beating; you can do whatever activity or exercise you find comfortable from swimming to running. Alternatively gentle yoga or stretching can make you feel good. As long as movement is comfortable and pain-free, you are pretty much good to go.
The level of exercise will be relevant to the injury, so get some help from a rehabilitation specialist if you need some further guidance. Fitter people recover faster!
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How You Should Heal A Knee Injury
If you do find yourself with a hurt knee, heres what you should do:
- Look for signs of severe injury. If theres swelling;or you cant walk on the leg, see a sports medicine or orthopedic doctor for treatment.
- Practice RICE. Rest, ice, compression,;and elevation are usually recommended to help promote healing and flexibility in a knee injury.
- Take an OTC pain reliever. A low-dose anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen or naproxen can help treat pain and swelling in a patient that has no allergy or contraindication to its use, Bayes says. Schulz says he commonly tells patients to take vitamin D to help promote healing. Ask your doctor if OTC meds and supplements are right for you.
- Consider physical therapy. A professional PT can help you get on the mend using stretches, exercises, and other methods.
What if youve tried and tried but still feel like your knee injury isnt healing?
Injuries that fail to recover with rest, ice, compression, and elevation and time may be more serious, Schulz says. Seek a medical evaluation if an injury persists.
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You Have A Poor Attitude
This may seem like a minor detail, but attitude really is everything. You have to be more than just willing to get better. You have to want to get better. Be eager to get better.
Be prepared to do whatever your physical therapist or coach asks you to do. Be committed to your rehab exercises, take part in your therapy, and ensure you are eating well, sleeping, and doing lots of recovery work.
You need to accept the fact you are injured and commit yourself to doing something about it.
This may seem simple enough, but surprisingly, it isnt. Ive seen it happen before. A client who doesnt want to play an active role in his or her own rehab.
He or she wants to simply be fixed and doesnt want to put in the work.
And sure, if he or she sees a physical therapist regularly, the;injury likely will get better, but it will take much longer. And chances are, since the client is not strengthening and putting in the time to recover properly, he or she will get injured again.
So, make sure to have a positive outlook. Like I said at the beginning, injuries suck. But feeling sorry for yourself isnt going to help you get better. A positive attitude really does go a long way for your recovery.
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Mistake #2 Will Make Your Patellar Tendon Weaker
The second mistake seems safe, especially since doctors recommend it all the time, but it will actually make your tendon weak and fragile.
Lets get straight to the point: resting too much also weakens the tendon. Much like lying in bed when youre sick will make you weaker.
Everyone with chronic patellar tendonitis knows that resting doesnt get you back to 100%. To strengthen your tendon and recover from patellar tendonitis, you need to apply just the right amount of training at just the right intervals.
Resting will not get you back to 100%.
In my book Beating Patellar Tendonitis, I recommend people use a training journal to track their pain levels. Once youre tracking your pain scores you can start doing tendon-strengthening exercises such as very slow eccentric squats or isometric wall-sits two or three times per week.
Next, you use your pain scores to adjust your training so that pain goes down over time. This ensures progress and I highly recommend you do it too. Without this systematic approach, you can only guess which training intensity is safe for your patellar tendon and as soon as you do too much, youll reinjure your tendon, which will cost you additional weeks of recovery time.
Assess Hip Weakness Causing Piriformis Pain
Using one leg or hip more and compensating for the weaker hip will create muscular imbalances.
I have a simple exercise you can right now to test for hip weakness. This will help you get some clarity on why the heck youre not getting long-term relief. Youll be able to fix the weakness and the root cause.
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You Misjudged Its Severity
When you first hurt your;knee, maybe you didnt think it was so bad and kept on keeping on.
Failing to rest from;exercise;when there is severe pain often causes an;injury;to progress from mild to severe, Bayes says. Simple;rest alone will heal many knee injuries.
Listen to your body, and never push through knee pain, Schulz adds.
Other Treatment Options For Knee Sprain
RICE Therapy: If you have suffered a sprained knee, it is important to allow a period of rest to allow the knee to heal. For mild to moderate sprains, doctors recommend RICE therapy. This includes R , I , C , and E .
Pain Medications: You can use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen. They provide short-term relief of pain and swelling. These drugs can help reduce symptoms and allow you to begin a rehabilitation exercise program. This is important to strengthen and stabilize the knee and prevent you from injuring it again.2
Bracing: Sometimes doctors recommend wearing a knee brace for a short period. This takes the load off the ligaments and supports the knee while it heals.2
Surgery: A torn ligament sometimes needs surgical repair. This can usually be done with a minimally-invasive approach called arthroscopy. A tiny camera is inserted into the joint to guide the surgeon in repairing the ligament.2
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How Long Does A Knee Injury Take To Heal
Knee injuries arent uncommon for athletes and runners. While getting injured is all part of the game, your journey to recovery shouldnt be a difficult one.If youve suffered a knock to your knee before, youll be familiar with how it disrupts your everyday life. This may have made you more cautious, but its impossible to completely avoid getting injured again. The best way to safeguard against knee injury is to better understand its causes and risk factors. This explainer aims to arm you with this knowledge and outline sport injury recovery times and both conventional and alternative treatments.
Rest Ice Heat Compression And Elevation
Doctors recommend a combination of rest, ice, compression, and elevationcalled the RICE regimenfor one or two weeks after diagnosis. The time frame for RICE treatment varies depending on the severity of the knee injury and is determined by your doctor.
Resting the affected ligaments, tendons, muscles, and cartilage gives the knee time to heal. Your doctor may provide a cane or crutches to help you keep weight off the affected knee for about a week. After the swelling starts to subside, most people can walk while wearing a knee brace.
During the first 3 days after the injury, your doctor may recommend applying ice to your knee 3 times a day for 15 minutes at a time to reduce swelling. After this, applying a heating pad or another heat source, such as a heat wrap, can increase blood flow to the injured area and speed healing. Elevating the knee 3 times a day for 15 minutes at a time may also help reduce swelling.
Until the inflammation fully subsides, doctors recommend avoiding the activity that caused the injury, as well as other activities that put stress on the knee. Returning to work or sports too soon greatly increases the risk that a knee injury may heal slowly or worsen or that another injury may occur.
Your doctor determines when your knee has healed based on relief of your symptoms.
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Knee Braces And Other Supports
If your noisy knee is the result of osteoarthritis, your doctor might suggest using a knee brace or knee sleeve to support your knee joint, as research from 2014 suggests that it might help.
Orthotic inserts in your shoes might help too. It might not eliminate the noise, but a cane might help you get around a little easier, too.
Chronic Wounds Struggle To Heal
Wound healing is a normal process that involves four tightly controlled stages. The second stage, the inflammatory phase, is thought to be the engine that drives the process. During this stage, white blood cells gather at the wound. These cells fight off infection and recruit other immune cells that promote tissue repair.
Chronic wounds heal very slowly because they do not advance through all the phases. Instead, chronic wounds seem to get stuck. They are unable to get past the inflammatory stage. This can lead to additional complications, such as wound infections, or even limb amputations.
Scientists dont fully understand why chronic wounds halt at this stage, so it has been difficult to design effective treatments. As evidence, current treatment options for diabetic foot ulcers are very limited and no new therapies have been developed in the past 20 years.
The researchers started their investigation of chronic wounds in a body part where wounds heal very quicklythe mouth. Think about the last time you bit your cheek while eating. You probably experienced sharp pain as your teeth pierced the tissue, but the wound healed within a few days.
Previous research from the Morasso group uncovered factors that allow mouth wounds to heal rapidly. This knowledge of rapid wound healing has markedly advanced the understanding of delayed chronic wound healing.
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Knee Ligament Sprains Or Tears
These are common among athletes. There are two types of ligaments: collateral and cruciate. You have four main ligaments in your knee: the lateral collateral ligament, medial collateral ligament , posterior cruciate ligament, and anterior cruciate ligament .
Ligaments help keep the bones in your knee stable, but they are prone to injuries, particularly through contact or from changing direction suddenly when youâre running. Sports fans know that ACL and MCL injuries can sideline an athlete for months.
But for most people who donât make their living running full speed or getting hit, it usually takes several weeks to recover.
It can take roughly 8 weeks to recover from surgery to repair a ligament tear. But if you need a major reconstruction of a torn ligament, it can take 6 months or so to get you back to full strength, Bush-Joseph says.
What Is A Meniscus Tear
A meniscus tear is a common knee injury. The meniscus is a rubbery, C-shaped disc that cushions your knee. Each knee has two menisci one at the outer edge of the knee and one at the inner edge. They keep your knee steady by balancing your weight across the knee. A torn meniscus can prevent your knee from working right.
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Posterior Cruciate Ligament Tears
The PCL crosses over the ACL and prevents forward shifting of the shin bone. The PCL is typically injured by falling and landing directly on the front of the knee joint.
PCL tears can often be treated with nonsurgical treatment when sustained as an isolated injury, but are more commonly treated surgically when combined with other injuries.
Why Does It Feel Like A Knot In Your Calf Muscle
The feeling of a knot in the middle of your calf muscle is a common complaint.
It feels like the muscle is twisted into a ball, or knot which just wont go away.
The feeling of a knot in your calf muscle that just wont go away often comes from a small area of muscle that is damaged or reactive.
That small area doesnt move and stretch like the surrounding muscle bundles, so it feels like a knot in the muscle when you use the muscle.
It can cause calf pain as it pulls on the surrounding areas of the muscle or, if its torn, as the damaged area tightens up.
But the knot or calf pain might also be coming from other structures bone and blood vessels can also cause pain.
Nerve can cause a section of the muscle to fire continuously, creating a knot in the calf muscle with a localised reaction and calf pain.
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Medial Collateral Ligament Tears
The MCL is on the inner side of the knee joint and prevents the knee from opening up too much on the inside. MCL tears most often occur when the knee is struck from the outside, pushing the inner side of the knee open. Most MCL tears heal with nonsurgical treatment.
Mistakes Runners Make That Can Cause Knee Injuries
For runners, avoiding knee injury is an important consideration while training.
The most common reason for knee injuries in runners is increasing the distance too quickly, warns Brian Schulz, M.D., orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. Generally, it is recommended to increase distance 10 percent or less per week.
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