Recent Injury - Help me - I need some peace of mind

[feeny]

Hi, Im sorry to hear about your diagnosis - the MCL will usually heal itself though, unless you ripped it off the bone or something like that - in which case it might need to be surgically reattached.
With good rehab some MCL injury patients can return to doing most things within 6 or so weeks - at least that is what I understood? Maybe not all tears - but certainly when my original diagnosis was suspected MCL tear only I was told a return to sport within 6 or so weeks was possible.

OF course I never got to test that theory because in my case it was ACL, MCL, LCL and medial meniscus

A quite common injury is what is known as the 'unhappy triad' - where the ACL, MCL and medial meniscus all get injured in the same mechanism. I guess what happens is as the ACL fails and the knee pops out to one side or another , in the process of doing that it also grinds its way through a meniscus... Hopefully all you have is MCL damage.

I had the unhappy triad - Im back to doing all the things I love - so you will get back to doing what you want to do!
My advice - get the leg working again, get rid of the swelling, nice extension and flexion, and start building up the strength and muscle control in it - you will need it no mater what comes next!

[fergy]

Not that an MCL tear is anything to sneeze at - but if that's the extent of the damage - it's not the worst in the world (trying to look at bright side)

Like Feeny, I had the terrible triad, so I can't tell you if you'll be back sooner... but 4 months does seem like a long time. I was misdiagnosed with an MCL tear at first. I was told no matter what grade MCL tear I had, I could be back doing sports in 2-3 months tops. But I don't know if I trust them - that OS DID misdiagnose me!

From what I understand, a popping sensation could be a lot of different things. The locking issues don't sound good to me. My suggestion is to get the MRI for sure when the swelling goes down. No matter what your brother says, I don't think ligaments popping in and out of place is a sign of a healthy knee - but I'm a knee knewbie so what do I know?

Take it easy and keep us posting. And RICE!!!