Mysterious Knee Injury... Help?

[powerplant42]

So a few weeks ago I was practicing in the sand pit. I fell straight down from 10'+ and landed on rather hard ground. My ankle bent inward because the patch that I landed on was uneven. The ankle hurt right away, and it hurt pretty badly. I took a few steps and then I began noticing that my knee hurt even worse than my ankle when I bent down at all. I tried to jog it off but that just put me in agony. I walked up a hill to my trainer's office (didn't hurt at all). By this time the ankle didn't hurt any more. He looked at it and did McMurray's test which hurt minimally. There was moderate swelling around my knee. He said it was likely a torn meniscus.

One or two days later, the pain was gone. I could walk fine and even squat down completely with no pain at all. I rested for a little while longer and then I realized that my knee was pointed way inward and my toes way outward... I tried running after a while, but I couldn't run on my toes without some serious pain. (This is probably still true, but I haven't run for a while.) I also realized that I had some popping and clicking going on in my knee, as well as weakness moving my foot side to side (rotating transversely). I talked with my trainer some more, but he didn't know. He no longer thought it was a meniscus related issue.

I saw an orthopaedic surgeon and he ruled out a knee injury immediately. He hypothesized that it was a hairline tibial fracture, and that seemed to make sense... but the x-rays said "no".

When I last ran the pain was right around the top of the tibial tuberosity. It was dull, but strong. The knee pointed all over the place at foot strike (it moves unpredictably/in random directions), and some of the pain seeped a little bit down into my ankle. My leg felt weak on the outside edge. Running on my heels was fine.

There is still some misalignment, but it is slowly somehow turning itself around. There is occasionally some sharp (but brief) pain just below the patella. I am doing body-weight leg extensions and no running.

Nobody seems to know what this is.

HELP?

[vault3rb0y]

Most likely an overuse injury. Stretch, stretch, stretch.

Hard to pinpoint it, but what other lifts are you doing? Do you get into squats or other leg lifts pretty intensely? Could be any number of ligaments just being too tight around your knee. Make sure you do lots of I.T. band stretching and get a good warm up and cool down. The fact that it went away after a couple days tells me it was probably not anything torn or strained, and likely something rolling over the bones of your knee the wrong way. Luckily, the prescription for most all overuse injuries is to slow down your use (go figure) and make sure you are stretching properly. Get a good progressive warm up and cool down, and use ice even if its not swelling visibly. After a workout, there is always at least minor swelling of the ligaments you cant even see. If it keeps coming back, consider lightening or reducing some of your leg lifts for a couple weeks as well.

[VaultPurple]

Invest in a cheep ace bandage knee brace. The constant pressure can surprisingly make it feel a lot better. Ive had a nagging knee pain in my right knee for over a year now that just won't go away, but if I wear a knee brace all day and sometimes even sleep in it, it feels a lot better. Sometimes I also just wear it during the day and during a warm up, and then take it off to pole vault because the knee feels better when warm. But just a tight compression sleeve can add a lot of support for a wobbly knee.

[KirkB]

... if I wear a knee brace all day and sometimes even sleep in it, it feels a lot better. ...

VP, I'm surprised you sleep with an ace bandage! Usually, even if you've been wearing it all day, that's the time to let off the pressure, and maximize the circulation (blood) to the bandaged area. Unless it's so painful when you roll over in your sleep that you feel the need?

Kirk

[VaultPurple]

Ok let me rephrase... I wear it at night if I don't wear it during the day. Haven't done that in a while, but sometimes I found if i just slept in it it would feel fine in the morning. Now it has pretty much gotten better so I just wear it during warm ups and take it off, or if it feels sore for some reason I might throw it on.

[tsorenson]

Sorry to hear about your injury. I don't do sand vaulting anymore due to the stress on my bum knee. I know it's a useful training method but sometimes the risks outweigh the benefits...I still do all the drills, just into the pit. If you don't have a choice, only sand vault into VERY soft, raked sand.

If an orthopedic surgeon can't diagnose your injury, I doubt that anyone on this website will be much help. Luckily, you said it is getting better, so maybe just take it easy on the pounding workouts for a while (as mentioned by vault3rboy above). Ice is essential after workouts. Strengthening your surrounding muscle groups (especially hamstring) will help take stress off the knee joint. A good poor-man's hammy workout is to pull yourself around the house with one leg while sitting on a chair with wheels...

Good luck with your recovery, hope you can find a way to stop getting hurt while training, and start vaulting! Sometimes "less is more"

Tom

[Tumbleweed]

Maybe you should think of a 2nd opinion from another orthopedic doctor. My son had a simualr fall and tried to strattle the box and his knee buckled. The Urgent care and Physical therapist both said he had a LCL strain and with mobility exercises would be fine. Well after a week of that the pain kept coming every time he ran on it. He went to see another ortho docotr and with an MR & X-ray it confirmed he shredded his meniscus.
Sometimes these doctors use range of motion and just feeling trying to determine a knee injury. With out the proper X-ray and MRI you can't be 100% sure.
So any advise I have is, see an another Ortho doctor and explain your sysmptoms. What can it hurt, but its better than living in pain!