Week 1 Post Dislocated Knee Injury – Update!
It’s been 11 days since my knee was dislocated during a Zumba class. Did you miss my first post about what happened? Check that out here.
This week has been full of emotions, pain, tears and so much frustration. I spent the first 7 days not putting any weight on my left leg, under doctor’s orders, and my leg has been splinted in an immobilizer. I’ve experienced a lot of swelling, though much of it has gone down, bruising that is extremely tender to the touch and pain pills have been by my side, around the clock.
Walking (hopping) on crutches has been my mode of transportation and my arms, body, hip and every part of my being has been squeezed with exhaustion.
I’ve spent most of the week Googling experiences with a dislocated knee and tried to compare my situation to everyone else. Google is the devil when it comes to medical problems… I should know this by now. But it’s hard to not reach out to the internet to find any glimpse of hope and information about recovery, specially when you experience an injury like this.
Thursday, (8 days post injury) I had a follow up examination with my orthopedic doctor and received wonderful news. We did more X-rays of my foot, as we suspected a break, and was told that the break in my foot was from an older injury that happened 10 years ago. With this news I was given permission to walk with my crutches, putting weight on both legs.
My injured leg has not been walked on in a week and it now feels like a “wet noodle”. I can feel my knee shaking and there isn’t a lot of stability at this point.
For now, I’m still in the immobilizer and have physical therapy starting tomorrow. The therapist will work with me to help strengthen my muscles with the goal of removing the immobilizer when my knee is strong enough. We are anticipating 6 weeks of physical therapy, but we will know more tomorrow after my evaluation.
I have no clue how long my leg will be stuck in a straight position, but I’m longing for the moment when my legs can curl up on the couch, when I can snuggle into bed, climb into the car with knees bent, and can take a warm shower without having an audience next to me.
That sounds horrible!! Luckily, when I dislocated my patella nothing was torn in the process. I had to do an intense 4 months of PT before my full ROM came back, it was very painful and frustrating. I developed a lot of scar tissue in my knee, which makes itself known loud and clear every time I squat. Recovery took almost 8 months to completely get back to where I was, before injury. I wish you the best and send you well wishes during recovery! Hope you can find the information you are looking for on that injury.
I injured myself pretty bad this January. completely dislocated my knee, ruptured my popliteal artery, and now have about 6 feet of scars and a laundry list of surgeries. I tore at least 3 ligaments (still not sure which ones)….needed a bypass for my shredded vein and artery, developed compartment syndrome, so they had to cut my leg open. got a stylish external fixator on my leg, and needed a skin graft. ended up spending about a month in the hospital.
I’m now about 3 and half months out from the injury. still working on ROM and strength before I go under the knife for reconstruction. the external fixator was on for about 8 or 9 weeks. I’m currently in a CPM machine (constant passive motion) to try to get my flexion back. after the fixator came off ive had 2 knee manipulaions becuase my flexion was so limited. lots of scar tissue build up after 2 months of being completely immobile. I’m now flexing up to about 120 degrees, but its taken a lot of pain and effort. now basically its more PT for strengthening rather than ROM… my hamstrings are so weak that i could probably pull harder with my pinky than my leg.
any way, i was wondering if anyone out there has gone through a knee injury similar to this and what their outcome was. If they returned to their previous level of skiing? any recomended books, vids (Kreitler’s flick?), websites. Just tryin to find out anything about anyone who has done something like this.
-thanks alot
I can relate to you 150%! The popping sound replays in my head over and over again. I tell my friends the same thing about my C Sections, after having two of them.. I would have a million more C Sections over experiencing this again. I’m yearning for a little bit of normalcy, so badly, and hope that physical therapy goes well today. Thank you for commenting!
When I was 16 years old, I was skiing when my ski caught an edge and I flew forward in opposite direction. My left knee dislocated, I heard it pop and could not stand. I was taken to the ER right away to find out that I tore my ACL, MCL, LCL, and both medial and lateral meniscus. It’s the worse pain ever. I was hysterical, I was sweating badly, and my face was red like a stop sign. I would have a million C-sections over again than to experience a knee dislocation.