Hi all. I'm a 43-year-old female with a knee injury from Tae Kwon Do.
July 16, 2007 - While doing a double roundhouse kick I landed wrong on my right foot and immediately fell to the floor. A shooting pain went down the right side of my leg from knee to ankle when I landed. After sitting on the floor for a minute I was able to get up and walk with a limp. Went home and did RICE. The swelling and pain wasn't bad. The following week my knee gave out twice. Once I just reached down to pick something up and the other time I stepped sideways. I dropped to the ground when it gave out and again it only hurt badly for a minute. The pain was across the back of my knee and down the left side of the knee.
July 20 - I went to see ortho doc and he did an MRI. The MRI report showed a bone bruise and 60-90% partial tear of the ACL. The ortho doc examined my knee (lachman and pivot shift tests) and said it felt pretty stable and wasn’t sure it was torn. He recommended PT. I went for a second opinion at the same place with a guy that's supposed to be the ACL expert. The second opinion doc says he doesn't think it's torn but that it's just a really bad bone bruise. He gave me a hinged knee brace and told me to use it while I’m out and about.
August 26 - While talking to a neighbor I turned to take a step and felt my knee giving out again. Didn't fall to the floor this time but it hurt a lot just for that one minute.
September 7 – Had a follow up visit with ortho doc. He told me to just keep exercising and/or doing PT. He said a bone bruise can take up to 3 months to heal. When I asked him why the knee is giving out he seemed very doubtful that it is shifting. He said the knee joint was just weak from the injury. Recommended that if I’m still having the same problem in another month I should come back and he’ll go in and “take a look at it”.
September 8 - I've been exercising like mad with PT and on my own. I'm able to bike, walk, jog, hike and do all the exercises fine but the knee is still stiff, achy, and weak. The pain across the back of my knee is pretty much gone and I have about 90% range of motion back again but I’m still getting the pain down the left side of my knee. I'm not convinced that it's just the bone bruise that's causing all this. I just want to get back to TKD.
September 20 – I’m exercising at Golds gym doing stretching, leg lifts, leg presses, lunges, squats, quads, hamstrings, etc. Haven’t had any more episodes of the knee giving out but it feels very weak, achey, and tight. I still have pain when I try to bend the knee all the way back or all the way forward. Pain is across the back of the knee and down left side. I have an appointment 10/3 for a 3rd opinion from another sports medicine ortho doc. If he concurs that it’s just a bone bruise I guess I’ll just keep exercising and hope the pain, tightness, and weakness eventually goes away.
October 3 – Went to see ortho doc #3. Gave up on the first two guys. He confirmed that my knee had a complete ACL tear and suggested I do some more physical therapy. At this time he didn’t look at the MRI.
October 5 – After reviewing my MRI Dr. #3 called to tell me that my knee has several injuries and needs complex knee surgery. If I don’t have surgery the knee will eventually give out completely.
October 24 – Follow up appointment to discuss surgery. Surgery will be for ACL reconstruction with allograft and posterolateral corner repair. Scheduled surgery for November 20.
November 20 – Surgery was 3 hrs. long. The surgery replaced my torn ACL with a cadaver graft (allograft), repaired the sac area around the meniscus and repaired the popliteus ligament in the posterolateral corner. The ACL and meniscus was done through 3 little arthroscopic holes and the posterolateral corner repair was opened up in about a 2 ½ inch incision. The 18 hr. nerve block they gave me completely numbed the whole leg. Couldn’t feel a thing. The nurse told me I’d be on crutches and in the immobilizer brace for 8 weeks. I was so stunned at that length of time I don’t think I heard anything after that.
November 21 – The nerve block wore off about half way through the day and I started taking a hydrocodone every 4 hrs. It was fine until the last one of the day. Took it on an empty stomach and felt really sick. Had to go to first physical therapy appointment feeling like throwing up. Not fun. Came home and barfed. No more hydrocodone for me. The PT appointment with Nancy was taking measurements to see how far I could bend and teaching me exercises. I’m pretty limited in what I can do at this point. It appears that the ACL rehab is usually putting pressure on the leg and moving fairly quickly and the posterolateral corner repair is putting no pressure on the leg and moving very slowly.
November 23 – Went to visit the neighbors and I fell going up their steps. Hope I didn’t damage anything. I stepped on my bad side and fell down immediately. Didn't feel any pain or tearing.
November 29 – Surgery follow up appointment with Dr. He said everything looks and feels great. He seemed very pleased. Wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me if anything was damaged when I fell. Told me I’d be on crutches and in the immobizer brace for another 4 weeks. That isn’t so bad. He scheduled me for a January 2 visit. He asked me how PT was going and said he didn’t want them straightening my leg all the way out. Guess it’s not ready for that.
Dec 1 – Noticed that my foot is not getting good circulation. It’s often grayish/purple and cold. Hopefully it’s just the swelling that’s causing this.
Dec 10 – E-mailed the Dr’s assistant to ask about purple foot.
Dec 11 – Home exercises felt really good. I was able to bend leg almost all the way straight and back to 90 degrees fairly easily. After I was loosened up I could swing leg back and forth without having it shake. Felt like great progress.
Dec 12 – Dr’s assistant called to schedule me for 12/19 for checkup on purple foot.
Dec 13 – The knee didn’t bend so well this morning. I wasn’t in the mood to push it so I’ll have to work hard on it tonight. Having a hard time staying motivated. It’s so hard to take off this brace and look at the weird shaped crooked knee. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever walk right again much less do TKD again. Scary!
Dec 19 – GREAT visit with the Dr. He was totally unconcerned with the purple foot/lack of circulation. Said if I had a blood clot I’d know it. I think as I get moving around more the foot will have plenty of circulation. He checked the stability of my knee and after finding everything very solid he said “It’s time to let the horse out of the barn”. Very funny. He gave me permission to start putting weight on my leg. 3-5 days with 2 crutches then 3-5 days with 1 crutch then I can start walking on my own. Yahoo! That’s exactly what I’ve been waiting to hear. If all goes well I should be walking crutchless by New Year’s. He also locked my brace at zero for extension and wants me to sleep with it that way for 2 weeks. That will stretch it out some and get the crook back out of it. Feels a little uncomfortable and makes it hard to sleep again but I’ll keep up with it because I want it to work right.
Dec 20 – I’ve been walking around a lot today and the knee feels fine. Doesn’t hurt but feels very weak. I’m putting about 50% of my weight on it but don’t dare put any more yet. I don’t think it will hold me up if I put any more yet. It’s just nice to be on two feet and have some balance again. I took a shower this morning instead of a bath. AHHHH! What a nice treat! Still a little hard to move around but at least now I can use the bad side for a little balance.
Dec 26 – Got the best Christmas present ever…the ability to walk again. What a nice freedom. I’m walking pretty well with not that much pain. I walked down to the school and back yesterday. It felt so good to be outside and doing something physical finally. Can’t wait to get home and walk again.
