JennyB afoot

[JennyB]

I haven't  been on the bike since last Friday week. All my own fault; I hadn't  secured the back wheel properly and it pulled over, causing a skid and twisting my leg. No bones broken, evidently  I can't bend my right knee by much more than about thirty degrees. When that didn't improve I brought it into Casualty the following Thursday. They suspected a torn medial ligament, and I have an appointment with the fracture clinic next Wednesday week. In the meantime, I'm stuck with a legbrace and crutches (I can walk reasonably well by now, but no more than about a quarter of a mile without taking a rest).

Apart from practising my patience,  what else should I be doing?

[ElyDave]

My recent pelvis fracture left me in a similar position.  I walked, building up slowly, taking more weight on the leg as I could - perhaps every other day.

I also swam, arms only to start with - could you do that?  Once or twice a week starting out nearly drowing at 400m in the first week of Nov, now up to 1600m in a session.

[DuncanM]

When you say that you can't bend it more than 30 degrees (I assume from straight), is that because of pain, swelling, or some sort of restriction within the knee? I've torn my medial ligament a couple of times, and it's not restricted bending it, aside from the pain caused by swelling. The times where it's felt like it's been restricted from within the knee have been caused by the medial meniscus (attached to the medial ligament, so often damaged together) moving and giving a catching sensation.

If it's an option, and your fracture clinic is 10 days away, it might be worth seeing a physio - they may be able to give you mobilisation and rehab exercises you can do to help keep your leg strong until you are healed (or at least until you have a formal diagnosis and treatment plan from the fracture clinic..

[JennyB]

When you say that you can't bend it more than 30 degrees (I assume from straight), is that because of pain, swelling, or some sort of restriction within the knee? I've torn my medial ligament a couple of times, and it's not restricted bending it, aside from the pain caused by swelling. The times where it's felt like it's been restricted from within the knee have been caused by the medial meniscus (attached to the medial ligament, so often damaged together) moving and giving a catching sensation.

The swelling (which wasn't much) has gone and there's not a lot of pain unless I stress it laterally. It took a few days to get the leg completely straight, but I can bear weight on it, and even balance on it alone without pain. I did think at first from YouTube diagnosis that it might be meniscus damage, but the restriction doesn’t feel like an internal catching, more like an exernal tightness rather than pain above the kneecap. I'm not going to force it; I just try to relax it as much as possible whenever I take the brace off.  It hasn't improved since the injury, as I might have expected if it were swelling-related  I can bend it, while lying down, just enough to get my sole flat on the floor and no more.

If it's an option, and your fracture clinic is 10 days away, it might be worth seeing a physio - they may be able to give you mobilisation and rehab exercises you can do to help keep your leg strong until you are healed (or at least until you have a formal diagnosis and treatment plan from the fracture clinic..

That's probably not an option, but it's only 8 days now. I think I'll try to give it more rest till then, because I was doing quite a bit of walking and going up and down steps and it was tiring me out.