I was going to post in Off Topic, but realized I might get more responses here.
On January 2nd we decided that since we had snow, we would go sliding. Great fun - until we hit a ditch at the bottom of the hill, went airborne, and when we landed the sled, the lower part of my left leg flew over the side of the sled, my toe grabbed on the ground, as the sled kept going, and it essentially torqued my lower leg backwards, as my thigh was still in the sled and moving forward. Result: soft tissue that was very unhappy.
So - the results of my MRI are as follow:
My MCL is severely strained because it essentially got stretched out. This resulted in the MCL also being torn from the joint capsule. The MCL itself is not torn, so that’s good. There is some bone bruising where it separated.
My ACL got strained and has a VERY MINOR tear.
My medial meniscus also was strained and has a very minor tear. It felt like a chunk of rubber was wedged under my kneecap. The ortho manipulated my leg in a way that it felt like it popped, but the rubber pinching feeling is now gone. I’m probably not explaining this in correct medical terminology, but she explained it as the torn flap was outside the capsule and her manipulation helped to pop in back in where it belonged. I don’t care what she did, it helped, so forgive me if this explanation isn’t exactly correct; hopefully you get my drift :lol:
She said to carry on like normal, but be very careful, as a similar incident could result in further injury that would require surgery or at the very least, extend the healing time. Said not to do any deep squats to help keep the meniscus behaving itself.
he things she saw on the MRI at this point do not warrant surgery. She said everything should heal just fine. She is the best of the best around here so I feel comfortable with her diagnosis.
I, of course, have already ridden a few times since the injury, and riding did NOT cause pain. I rode western so longer stirrups, but it was fine. I was a little sore the next day where the MCL separation/bone bruising was, so I think that’s expected since its like pushing on a black and blue.
My question is: has anybody has similar injuries, what did you do to keep up the strength in that leg while not exacerbating the injury so that you didn’t lose your riding muscles? I don’t want this to set me back as far as my riding goes. Anything in particular to avoid? Words of advice?
