UKC

Seem to be cursed with bad knees. Yesterday was doing a sit start on a problem, I had to get my right leg tucked in tight and as I was doing this, something went snap around the outside of my knee. I think it may have been the lateral collateral ligament. Right after it felt stiff and sore, but now it seems OK. I've had this before on a few occasions, but this time I heard the actual "pop" or "snap" noise. Anyone else had this? Any advice?

Thanks!

In reply to Mazza:

too bad fella. If it becomes sore again go and have it checked by a dr or physio. might be meniscal or who knows what. mine went over a year ago and took a long time to recover. was offered surgery but it slowly got better so i declined. you have to work on strengthening the area around. good luck...

In reply to stonewall:

I think it may just be a strain actually. Or I'm hoping.. I've already dislocated a knee and it felt horrific compared to this. Will get it checked out though.

PS: Am a lass not a fella,but I can see the name is misleading.

In reply to Mazza:

Sounds more like a sprain/twist if it came on so suddenly and then seemed to get better so quickly. Need to do regular weight bearing exercise to build up muscle strength and thus hopefully prevent recurrences. Perhaps wearing a tubigrip bandage or arthropad knee support may offer some help.

In reply to Mazza: Sounds like your cartilage is about to go

In reply to Mazza: The majority of knee problems are caused by weak/ poorly balanced quads. Do some work on these bad boys and you should be able to avoid/ mitigate most problems.

A pop or snap noise isn't too good, though. If your LCL, or any other ligament or tendon had snapped (or in any other way were injured), I'd be surprised if it came right quickly. They don't fix particularly fast.

My advice would be RICE (esp the 'I') as first aid, and do yourself body weight exercises- one legged squats, front and rear lunges and plie lunges. Google these exercises if you don't know what they are.

Also, examine your quads for any sore points- if you've hurt your quads the pain may be referred to the knees. Indeed, the 'tightening' caused by an injured quad can cause the knee to hurt.

In reply to Ander:

Squat Squat Squat! Got rid of my knee problems. I had unbalanced quads from running

In reply to Mazza:

Be warned: if it is a serious cartilage or tendon problem, it will take many months to recover. If that's the case, please, please, don't be like a long lineage of climbers who refuse to take any advice and turn a short-term problem into a long-term problem by their stupidity.

In reply to Mazza:

Thanks for the advice!It seems all good today though, just a bit sore, I remember having had this before too, just like a tiny snap, big pain, then the next few days it goes away. I'll go see my GP soon though..

In reply to Mazza: How loud was the snap? I caused my knee to snap loudly doing a similar movement and it turned out the snap was the top of the fibula popping out of joint. It went back in but all the ligaments were stretched around it. It hurt most if I did a low crouch but using the knee in a straight line other wise was fine.

You can test this by lying on your back with your knees bent to about 90deg, feet on the bed and trying to push the top of the fibula forwards, if it moves more than the other leg then the ligaments have been stretched. Recovery is pretty fast.

Kane

In reply to Mazza:

I have very great respect for GPs but I suspect that any GP who wasn't knowledgeable in sports medicine would say, "Go and see a physio as soon as possible". That would certainly be my advice. The sooner you get some treatment and some exercises, the less likely you are to incur long-term injury (as Gordon warns) and the sooner you are likely to be fully functioning on the hills. Yes, it'll cost a bit of money, but it will be more than worth it. I'd check your university's sport's centre first.

Meanwhile, RICE can't be recommended too strongly.

In reply to Solaris:

Solaris is right, the only use of a GP is to prescribe some half decent pain/inflammation relief, or possibly to get some NHS physio- that's worth a try.

In reply to Ander:

Though usually one will have a long wait for an NHS physio; what one needs in this situation is attention asap after the injury.

In reply to Mazza: This happened to my partner a couple of times before audibly popping again and locking. Her GP told her all kinds of baloney prior to this happening, before reffering her to a specialist.

It transpired that she had a meniscul tear of the cartlidge on her knee cap which was flapping about, which was the cause of the popping noise when the flap was catching.

She eventaully had to have an op to remove the tear, and still has physio 3 years later. Best to get it checked out by a specialist, rather than wait like she did.

I hope your knee gets better soon whatever the outcome.

Cheers

Andy

In reply to Mazza: I did exactly this locking a foot in a break while reaching round and overhang, people 100ft away below crag thought I'd snapped a hold off, it was very loud!.Finished the route in some pain and hobbled the 3 miles to the car. By the next weekend it all seemed fine, walking climbing and rocking over on it were no problem. Ice it, and gentle non twisting exercise might be the way to go until it hopefully settles.