Severe knee pain, no apparent solution

[The_Blood_Bay_Mare]

MRI came back. I have every symptom of an ACL tear except for the torn ACL. It looks totally normal. There’s fluid/swelling inside my knee, I’m still in pretty constant pain, and there doesn’t appear to be anything they can do.

So I got a cortisone injection about a week ago and was told to continue not riding for a month. I’m not sure what the point of the injection was, considering they will not do them regularly on someone my age (22) due to said cortisone causing cartilage deterioration over time.

I’m also tempted to start riding again and tell pain to kiss my ass.

Possible things I’ve considered that might help:

1. Weight loss. I’m about 180 right now and I used to hover around 125. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with self control and I’m wondering if any of you have tips for motivating myself to listen to my calorie counter.

2. Knee braces. I’ve had them before but never found one I was comfortable riding in.

3. Stirrups? I have the MDC Ultimates and they were temporarily miraculous but seem to have stopped helping.

[TheBrownHorse]

I’m sorry you’re going through so much with your knee

I have mixed feelings on the jointed stirrups. While theoretically something with give may help, I have also been told (and wondered) that the instability from the flexion of the stirrup will actually cause more damage/pain than not. I don’t know, for some people they work great, others they seem to cause more pain.

I would take a break from riding, ice/heat alternate, elevate, and reassess in a month.

I also haven’t had much luck with braces. Sometimes, the compression feels good, but they have been pretty useless for anything else. Unless you have one of those surgical braces that is super heavy duty, something you buy at the drug store is going to provide very minimal support and at best feel good because of the compression.

[Donkaloosa]

Lots of ice. Ice on a bad knee can do wonders.