Back in February I landed awkwardly from approx 4mtrs whilst bouldering indoors. At the time it twinged but wasn’t too bad and I just thought it would get better on its own.
5 months later, a visit to my chiropractor and a physio it’s worse than ever. Both have agreed it’s cartilage damage from the bones crushing it.
Neither of them gave me any idea of possible recovery time or if it will get better.
I can still cycle, walk, climb etc, but certain twisting motions with the leg loaded will have me rolling on the floor in agony.
Do I just need to man up, is there any treatment or tips to recovery.
Cheers skippy

if it is cartilage damage, it wont unfortunately fix itself. I have had this 4 times in my knees (twice each). Each time the meniscus was trimmed back but in the last op they used staples to hold it together as it would then still do its job and removing it wouldnt help me in the long run..

what helped me was to build up my legs to take the strain off the knee..

i have a problem you dont have as yours seems to have been a result of a one time incident.. i had my leg straightened to realign things…massive difference.

stick to physio and workouts to build up muscle is what i’d do.

i’d perso avoid going down the route of arthroscopy if i could.

good luck

Based on my experience of the knee injury I had is that I won’t get better by itself.

Find a good physio and do the excercises and stretches they tell you to religiously. Don’t stop once the initial symptoms have gone as you’ll be back to square one before you know it. I’ve learnt this the hard way 🙂

If your not progressing as fast as you’d like seek a second opinion, it’s amazing what can be missed.

I also used my injury time to stengrhen and stretch my whole body to try and reduce the risk of further injury. As I don’t want to be load up for a year ever again!

Cheers

PCB

I would be booking myself some surgery for a tidy up.
In fact that’s what I’ve just had done.

I would be booking myself some surgery for a tidy up.
In fact that’s what I’ve just had done.

Indeed, if you’ve got a bit of cartilage in the wrong place, it ain’t going to heal itself….the wrong movement is agony. I had a problem with my left knee, in that if I jumped off a low wall (for example), it was like a knife being stuck in me…total agony. I had an op which solved that, but left the knee feeling weak and occasionally sore. However I was late 40’s and was developing osteo arthritis with bone on bone in the knee. 😥

The upshot ten years on, is that I avoid running, but do a lot of exercise, take glucosomine and codliver and its mostly okay. 🙂

Looks like keyhole needed, as others have said it sounds like cartilage damage.

Agreed with the above, it won’t fix itself. You need to see a specialist. Its best to avoid surgery if you can and meniscus surgergy doesn’t fix anything its just cuts stuff away so it doesn’t hurt. I suspect you are adapting your movements like walking without even realising. Some muscles will be lost/reducing others compensating. I say this as I have two duff knees (broken acl in both plus meniscus damage) and Mrs B picked up a ligament injury last year hiking in Chamonix which is fine day to day but flares up when walking downhill

Cheers chaps, looks like you’ve confirmed my fears. I’d better get myself booked in at the docs. I don’t suppose getting an xray or mri to confirm the damage is going to be easy.

Yeah don’t get fobbed off with an X-ray, insist on an mri scan…. It’s the only way to see the damage.

Even the mri isn’t foolproof. They only found the main causes of my issue once they went in.

i wouldnt bother with x-ray or mri. mri seems to be the only way to see the injuries, as mentioned… but i was told twice that nothing was wrong it was in my head and then they went in and trimmed it back.

the problem with trimming it is that they cannot do this without leaving a sharp edge which can then catch when you move the joint.. and then tear..

that is why i sugegsted the exercises to take the strain off the joint. Both my knees have slight tears in them now, but im strong enough for this to no longer be a bother.

Put your seat post as high as you can before your hips start to rock side to side to compensate for you bring too high.

As high as you can go- it definitely preserves dodgy knees.

Jus a started to get converned I have an issue. Started running in May, on one run the lower inside side of the joint got sore, next run a week later it got worse and I kept running! Fool. I haven’t really tested as I’ve been on the road bike loads. More recently it’s starting to hurt climbing both sitting and standing after an hour.

Can’t put my finger on exactly where the pain is but it fees like my ligament or meniscus. I’m hoping it’s just bad bruising from overdoing it. Time will tell but I’m not keen on more surgery. I’ve already had debridement on both 2 years back.

Wouldn’t a ligament hurt all the time or will it get worse during a ride? Also, would ridding really be an issue of it were a meniscus tear!?
Frustrating