MCL ( knee ) injury

So, getting back into the season, and just moving back to LA, I'm curious to know if anyone else has experienced the type of injury.. ( self diagnosed after poking around a bit on the skynets ) The injury is from a few months ago... snowboarding at Crystal Mtn in WA. I landed a little sideways jump wrong, nose dived my board and it stayed put while my body rolled. ( thats my best explanation... Simply put, i twisted my knee. It made a pop and was kinda sore, but went away and I rode fine a few more days over the next weeks. THEN, i stupidly fell down like a goon getting off the Northway lift ( its kinda fast ) and I really bound it up good with the one foot strapped in. That hurt enough to send me home and ive stayed off it since ( about a month ) But im sure whatever i did exacerbated it. To describe the area, i would say that its the inner left knee area.... And after seeing diagrams of a MCL sprain I was like "oh! Yup... that thing"

Currently, it doesn't normally "bother" me... But I do become aware of it when I load up that knee in a certain angle, or when i lay on my side to sleep and my knees are parallel but ankles an the same plane.. Again hard to explain. Or like if im on a long road trip.. like right now... and my leg rests for too long in just the right way.

I can imagine that this coud be a huge bain to me on approach and climbing, foot jamming in cracks, smearing for long periods... ect.

Anyways, just looking for opinions, experience or perhaps im wrong about the diagnosis.

...ug.

- Grae

I strained my MCL in a skiing wipeout my first season. It required some stretching exercise to keep limber, but other than that it healed on its own fine. I continued to rock climb and hike and didn't have many problems. But I didn't ski anymore that season.

You should really go to a Doc and they'll be able to tell you if your joint is unstable at all. You should absolutely go if you feel like your knee is unstable when bearing weight, there was significant swelling, there was bruising around the knee joint. If it is serious enough to require surgery and you don't get it, you could end up having knee problems your entire life, you could develop degenerative joint disease, and your other ligaments will be taking more stress and you risk injuring them on top of the MCL.

With that said, if you haven't already gone to the doc I'm assuming you probably won't so here's some more advice. Ligaments heal insanely slowly so even if you feel fine walking around you should still go easy on it and hold off on doing anything excessively stressful for several weeks/months. Seriously, ligaments take a long time. Dont underestimate the time you need to heal. Ligaments don't have a very good blood supply or nerve structure (why they don't heal very fast) compared to other tissues. You can try to increase blood supply by using a heating pad a couple times a day and try to get a little bit more blood pumping to the area of the injury. More blood brings more nutrients. Make sure you stay hydrated really well. EDIT: only use a heating pad if you feel like the swelling has gone down (if there even was swelling in the first place)

You can try to do knee exercises about 30 min/ 3x a wk. You can find lots of MCL specific exercises online. Don't over do them. A really good one to do initially is to just stand on one leg. Obviously, stand on the affected leg. Do it as much as you can without feeling pain. Do it while you wait in line at the grocery store or anytime you are just standing. You can do it very subtly So you don't look like a dumb ass standing on one leg. I jacked up my LCL a few years back and used to do climbing specific workouts (grip training and what not) standing on one leg watching TV. Drove my wife crazy. You can do finger board and core workouts while you wait for your knee to heal to stay in climbing shape. Just don't return too soon because you can just keep injuring it. Each time will heal slower and cause huge problems further down the line.

Hope this helps.

The previous post has lots of good info, so I'll just try to supplement with my experience. I had a complete tear of my mcl back in college. It was made worse bc my kneecap (patella) shot half way up my thigh. So, the good news is you didn't tear it bc it would be swinging like a barn door. Also, somewhat good news is that the mcl gets good blood flow as far as knee ligaments are concerned. Mine was a complete tear and healed without surgery. You should still see a doc though. There might be other damage in there you haven't noticed yet. Like the previous post says, lots of exercises to help, but let it heal first. Balance exercises, if you can get some rubber tubing, there are good resistance exercises to do.

I have frequent patella dislocations in both my knees look into pt. I ride a bike, lunges, squats stuff like that. The docs say I only strain and sprain my mcl. It puts me on the couch for a few days once the swelling is down i start pt..

Thanks for all the helpful info! Exactly what im needing to hear.

To answer a few questions, there was zero swelling, unless it was so minor i just didn't notice it. No bruising either. I dont have a problem going to the doctor, im just so busy in life and my move that ive got zero time, but i should. I did use a heating pad for a few nights a week initially, but havent in a while. Definitely a water hog, always drinking plenty pf water and tea.

Based on what im saying/ hearing... i feel like this is minor... but ill keep paying attention to it. Thanks for the info.. any more would be great!

- Grae

might check this link out:

http://exercisesforinjuries.com/