Collateral Ligaments and other non-cruciate tendons & ligaments around the knee :

MCL grade 1 - - Posted by inpain (inpain), 11 May 2004

my husband accidently tripped over my left knee last week and the doctor said that the pain caused by it could be a MCL grade 1 strain.
the pain is still bothering me and i seem to have pain on the lateral side too (the last 3 days).
the OS didnt talk about braces and i didnt know enough to ask about one.i'm leaving town tomorrow so am wondering what i should be doing before i get to see an OS again.
is it okay not to brace my leg?will the lateral side hurt for a MCL?are there some things i should avoid?
thanks is advance
Posted by Zocolo (Zocolo), 25 May 2004

I've got my first cortisone treatment for my MCL injury on Wednesday.  Nobody's mentioned braces to me either, so I'll ask my PT when I get there in the morning.  I'll post what he says here, just for an idea.  

I think a brace might be good to help stabilize it for me, but everyone's knees are different.  Can you ask your ortho about it?  Let him know what happened and ask if a brace is a good idea to help stabilize and support the knee while it heals.  I've been walking around on mine for six months with no brace, mostly because the ortho thought it was a different type of injury.  A brace will depend on how you and your ortho feel.  I don't have any lateral pain on my knee, but I do have pain under the kneecap and on the medial side (where the injury is).

You can go with heat or ice too.  My ortho told me that Advil can help to reduce swelling or inflammation, but to take it with food because if you take it regularly it can irritate your stomach.  There's a couple posts on the support board about long term Tylenol/Advil uses.

For mine, I find that icing it at work after I've been active helps, along with elevating it.  It's the old RICE formula, rest, ice, compression (that's where a brace might come in, I think, but I don't use one yet), and elevation.  Then when I get home, I have my heating pad that I turn on.  That helps in general.  Just be gentle with it, until you get answers from the Ortho, don't push yourself too much.

I believe high impact exercise like running and even stairs are things to avoid.  For me, I cannot do them even if I want to, because of pain.  I'm seriously looking forward to cortisone and therapy and am hoping they work.

When you talk to your ortho, tell him/her the same things you posted here, that you're not sure how to ask, but are wondering if a brace is appropriate for your injury.   Good luck, and keep us updated.  

Posted by inpain (inpain), 25 May 2004

thanks for the reply zocolo.what grade is your strain? i am shocked that it hasnt gotten better in 6 months!the doc told me that it should subside in 4 weeks max.

i'm actually quite confused.the doc here has given me a hinged brace and asked me to use it when i walk.the therapist has asked me not walk much at all for atleast 3 more weeks and has asked me to reduce my quad building exercises which is frustrating me cos i have almost no quads on this leg and i really want to work at building it.
i am planning to go back to my ortho and ask him about an mri.i've had so many misdiagnosis that i am weary about anything anyone says anymore!
right now i'm given ultrasound and shortwave therapy, its been 3 days and i havent found any relief so far.i'm hoping it will help.
what is your PT program?are you told not to walk much too?oh and i can forget about running or stairs for a while cos i struggle  just to walk!
Posted by Zocolo (Zocolo), 26 May 2004

I'm actually not sure what grade.  The ortho said he couldn't see much of a tear, so perhaps that would make it Grade 1.  The actual injury (as far as I can tell) occured 3 years ago.  We thought it was a torn meniscus, but the MRI didn't show anything wrong with the cartilage.

I'd definitely go for the MRI, just because it's a good tool in finding problems.  Maybe even go for a second opinion?  That's a question I've been asking myself, because it has been a long time, unless I've kept reinjuring it.  I don't know

Tomorrow I go in for cortisone and ultrasound therapy.  I'm not sure how much exercise the PT guys will want me to do, but I'm up for anything.  Right now they have me limiting most activity, i.e. nothing that hurts.  Also no running, avoid stairs, and I've been told to generally take it easy.  I'll post what they have me do.  I've already done PT for a month, back in Feb. and it didn't help.  If anything, it irritated the knee further.  It did wonders for the right knee though, now if I can get the left one with the program...  I hope I'll have better luck this time around because they didn't do cortisone and ultrasound therapy the last time.

Hope your knee is feeling better today- it's a one day at a time thing for me and the good days make the bad ones more bearable.  Although if my dog has anything to say about it, I'll be on crutches- he bolted last night after my neighbor's cat, and down I went.  Major ouch.  I'm going to hose the cat if it comes around the house again  
Posted by inpain (inpain), 26 May 2004

hey, i went to the doc today.felt silly about asking him a million questions but i did come out feeling a little more satisfied.
i told him that i wanted an mri to just check out the knee considering all the wrong diagnosis i've had in the past.i took one, and showed him the results the same evening.everything looked fine(thank god! ).he said since the strain happened a couple of weeks back it didnt show.
he told me not to just sit still tho unlike the PT.he said i could walk as much as my knee would allow me to.right now that would make it 15 mins max but thats cos of my wasted muscles and recent surgery too.
he asked me to stop the ultrasound since it actually made the pain  worse cos of the metal touching my knee so i will be continuing just the shortwave for a week more.
havent u had an mri done yet for this knee?and did u have the same thing on the other knee too?3 years hun!wow.its been 9 months since my problems started and i am sooo sick of it already!i hope your knees are doing good today too.

Posted by Zocolo (Zocolo), 28 May 2004

We did an MRI on the left knee just to check.  It didn't show anything, which is good, I guess.  My right knee was just weak ligaments in general, and there wasn't any damage.  I know where that's from, I yanked the kneecap out of the socket playing goalie for hockey.  That one's better.

First PT session was yesterday:  I had cortisone, they did a cream with the ultrasound.  It did help a bit, but this morning the knee was stiff and painful.  I found out that I have almost no range of motion on my left knee.  It hurts too much for me to bend it.  The PT said he wasn't expecting it to be that bad, so we started from square one.  Nothing but stretching and walking for exercise.  No weights and absolutely no running.  I'm allowed to walk and I have to concentrate on bending my knee when going up and down stairs.  That's to get the ligament to become more flexible.

He said I didn't need a brace and icing it is a good idea.  I'm doing as much as I can take, but today was one of those bad days.  The cortisone did let me get more flexibility after it was on, so the PT said that's a good sign.  He's optimistic, and has a few other treatment options if the cortisone/ultrasound doesn't work.  No mention of surgery, so that's a positive.

I know not every day will be bad.  I am a bit stubborn and have a tendency to push things more than I should.  Part of it is learning to take things slowly when I need to and not to push too hard (my PT's words)  I go back next week, so I'm hoping for some improvement.  Having to start from the beginning feels like a bit of a setback, but I know why, and maybe in a few weeks it'll have some noticible improvement.  So I get to start counting down till next week.  Hope you're having a good day.  Keep me updated on your knee.  Did they give you stretching exercises?
Posted by inpain (inpain), 28 May 2004

i know that feeling!i push hard too when i shouldnt and if the pain kills me after that i feel terrible .i tried going to a store after a realllly long time yesterday, just couldnt take it.felt real down but i sppse that  isnt the way i ought to handle it, i should take things one day at a time and work at getting stronger!anyway i just sat down somwhere watching all the other good  "knees" around me!
no i wasnt given any stretching exercises.infact they dont make me do anything there, just ultrasound and shortwave.sometimes i need someone to push me, one would think all this pain would be incentive enuff!!
what happened with your left knee?
sometimes i wonder if i would ever get bakc to walking again but i sppse i should never really lose hope.people on this board have bounced back after much more serious cases!
i hope you are having a really good (knee) day today.

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