Knee & Shoulder Questions

**Travtex** · Posted On: 4/01/2009 10:51pm

So, while I'm out for broken toe time, I've decided to start planning out my million dollar man rebuild over the summer. My work with respiratory is seasonal, and summer is the 'down time'... Be easier to get time off from the hospital. Thought I'd throw some questions at you guys, as I'm pretty sure whatever injuries I have someone else knows more about (I know jack squat about sports medicine).

Left Shoulder and Left Knee both eventually need to be addressed. I'm wondering about likely recovery times, which is safer to ignore longer, if it's better to just get all the crap done at once and get it over with, and so on.

Shoulder: Not entirely sure where and when I damaged this one, it's one of those longstanding issues that popped up one day and I've just been compensating ever since. It's not too painful, though it does like to lock up and hurt when I move it the wrong way. I have difficulty lifting the arm straight to my side. I've gotten into the habit of elevating the arm straight -forward-, then rotating it laterally to, say, rest my elbow on armrests. Same way lowering it, it'll go fine from the front or back, but from the side it snaps, locks, and hurts like hell.

Knee: Re-injured on three seperate occasions. First time was impact from the outside. Second time was simply kneeling down... it went 'Pop', and I had an instant baker's cyst on the back of my knee joint. Three months of PT, then the worker's comp doctor said it was 'Fine'. Third time was falling backward... caught myself with a hand and felt the knee do it's 'Pop' thing again -- Back in the brace for another month. Doesn't hurt much, but feels completely unstable. Foot tries to turn outward, knee seems to want to bend inward at an angle. Broken toe made me discover that I can't use that leg to stand up, knee just will NOT do the job.

So -- Sound familiar? Fix both? Fix one first? Which? I'm mainly concerned about missing a great deal of work time -- I work 12 hour shifts on my feet, so obviously the knee would be a bigger problem professionally.

**darkborne** · Posted On: 4/04/2009 12:26pm

Fix your knee first.

The pop that results from an outside impact could be a MCL tear/partial tear. That would explain instability. Get a referral from your doc to go get an MRI and find a good sports doc/ortho.

Don't ignore it though. I just had knee surgery 2 weeks ago that would have gone a ton easier if I hadn't ignored the first injury for 3 years and continued to reinjure it. As a result I've been told I'll probably be getting a total knee replacement by the time I'm 40.

**BaronVonDingDong** · Posted On: 4/04/2009 2:16pm

Originally Posted by darkborne

Don't ignore it though. I just had knee surgery 2 weeks ago that would have gone a ton easier if I hadn't ignored the first injury for 3 years and continued to reinjure it. As a result I've been told I'll probably be getting a total knee replacement by the time I'm 40.

How old are you now? I tore my ACL when I was 22, but had it misdiagnosed by a negligent and uninterested health service for almost ten years. I didn't actually have surgery on it until I was 33, by which time it I had sheared away most of the cartilage to leave a veritable Wookey Hole of arthritis and calcification. I was told I'd never run, ski or play tennis again.

Now I'd like to claim that I'm a downhill ski champion and multiple Wimbledon winner, but I'm afraid I'm not. However, I am 40, and by keeping a regular, full range of motion in the joint, keeping my weight down (by which I mean really down - no big muscles for me, just a sleek, dolphin-like physique) and a little bit of pain-management and common sense, I find that I can do everything I want to in Martial Arts, and can actually run over a mile before I have any swelling.

Doctors are great, but they have a tendency to look on the bleak side. I hope your recovery goes well, and that you have a good rehab experience, but don't order your robot knee just yet.

**darkborne** · Posted On: 4/04/2009 3:21pm

Eh, my fingers are still crossed medical science gets somewhere in the next 14 years that they will be able to have a substance together to lubricate the joint. But to be realistic, its probably still gonna happen. I have 15% of my lateral meniscus left, a nice chunch of my medial still there, but most of the surface area is gone. Also lost most of the synovial tissue in my knee as well.

My rehab has gone awesome though (its very important to remember knee surgery isn't nearly as bad anymoreas bad as everyone makes it out to be). I'm up to 20 minutes on the bike, hoping to start running again Wednesday and be back on the mats in 2 or 3 weeks.