Did I mess up my knee?

maybe go see a doctor for a MRI … just a thought. 

Sometimes men minimize a situation because we're dealing with it/getting by and it's not literally killing us, but dude... you need to go see a doctor immediately. This is your mobility you're talking about. 

Simple ligament test: sit on a seat with your thighs on the seat and your knee and lower leg dangling... Have some one grab your upper calf area with both hands and pull it towards them and push it back towards you. If it is tight, your knee is good. If it is sloppy your ligaments are jacked. An MRI is the only way to get concrete results.

Yes, you need a trip to Ortho for MRI and evaluation. I have had both of my knees reconstructed from torn ACL”s racing MX… generally if you heard a pop, that is a torn ligament. Some guys can deal without ACL”s some guys need to get them fixed. Often when you tear a ligament the meniscus gets damaged also… in my experience the torn meniscus causes more pain than the torn ACL. 

The Lever sign test is a good home test also… look it up on Utube 

For those who don't know, your meniscus is your shock spring between your upper and lower leg. If you destroy the squishy, like sandman said, pain!

I would get an MRI too. I tore mine and had a decent amount of swelling , but kept riding. I think I got it started in a crash in my first race, and then I remember hearing a loud pop when I was out practicing and funny off a jump into whoops.  I got it checked but did not get an MRI and kept riding. My Dr. thought it was just sprained. Painwise it wasn't bad , it hurt. but was manageable . I was in my early 20's and in love with racing at time. 

Fast forward a few years and my leg started to lock up. I was wearing a knee brace on that leg. But every so often my leg would lock up and I had to lay on my stomach andwiggle my leg , by grabbing my calf with both hands and wiggle until it unlocked. I went to see a specialist after it did not go away and started to happen more often.  By the time I got the MRI ACL had been torn at both ends and then the fluid in the joint turned it into a solid bone like thing ,that when they removed it , it was only the size of an  M&M.  They cleaned out the joint while they were in there and a few weeks later I was free. and laying tile on my knees 6 weeks after. Other than my leg falling apart while laying in bed so I'm doing well without an ACL. 

But I really wish I had gotten an MRI much much sooner, so I too would say goget one.  

If it was an ACL rupture would think you would know, very short but very intense pain is what I experienced, sheared mine with a “stiff leg” hyper extension, Dr. said that’s typically how they rip

Guessing an MCL or other ligaments strain/partial tear and possibly meniscus tear from what you described how it happened… if your knee is ballooning with fluid just from being on your feet that’s a bad sign, if not you might get lucky with this

Keep us posted after MRI, only only way to get a proper diagnosis coming from someone who was misdiagnosed 

Speaking of injured knees. I have had ACL, MCL, damage for 40+ years. Now cartilage is gone, and bone on bone. However, my Doctor prescription for custom orthotic inserts, has made, walking a big improvement. Knee doesn’t swell after, walking, cycling. Not sure if others have had custom orthotics, with similiar results. So far excellent. 👍👍

Plus one on the meniscus hurting more than the ACL. When I tore mine, I tore my meniscus a few days later and it was waaaay worse pain.

Doctor ASAP. The longer you wait, the more damage you're doing to the surrounding area. Good luck and happy recovery.

And why didn’t you go see a doctor after all of that?? Clearly your knee has issues. Sheeesh! 

Custom orthotics made a big improvement for me for my knees and back!  I've also found that Max cushion running shoes have made things possible I never thought I would be able to do again. Between my Knee on my right, and fused foot on my left, and a couple bad discs in my back. The shoes and inserts have been game changers as they say!  At one point  I thought I would never be able to run again, but the max cushion shoes made it possible.  I'm not going to be able to go out and run miles. But before I was thinking I couldn't run if my life depended on it, so a big improvement.  

For walking around shoes, I wear New Balance More Trail running shoes and along with custom orthotics . Hoka also makes some good max cushion style shoes. But not big enough for bigfoot. For people who have old injuries and such I recommend trying some max cushion style shoes out and see if they help. That is of course after seeing a Dr. and making sure there are not any injuries that need to be fixed or heal first. You might have some odd pains at first as You get used to them But after a week You'll know if they work well for you. 

When I had an infection in my foot from an earlier surgery  , they scraped out all of the fat and some bone, etc.. So I was walking bone to floor for years until the Fat has finally came back enough that it is no longer painful to stand barefoot on a hard floor its been 11 years and just recently I have the fat or whatever back in my foot that is between the bones and skin. The max cushion shoes along with orthotics made for me, made it possible to walk pain free with shoes on, and without I was close to using crutches if I had to be barefoot . Sandals for showers. Overall my knees and back, and feet limit me less now with the shoes and inserts.  

The good news is it doesn’t sound like an ACL tear. Usually people with ACL tears are more messed up and describe the buckling sensation. Given the pain on the outside of the knee and the lockout difficulty, it sounds more like meniscus/MCL. Sometimes you can tear a flap of the meniscus and it will get folded up under the joint. I think they call it a bucket tear. Those can cause nagging issues and recurring injuries. 
 

The bad news, you need to see a Dr. Get an MRI and find out if it need surgical intervention. If it does or doesn’t, still schedule a PT. One of the issues with injuries as an adult, even the ones that don’t require surgery, is you lose your movement patterns and muscle memory from limping around for even a few weeks. Then your biomechanics are all thrown off and the knee will be more prone to injuries. 

I reckon you have a partial ACL tear and some meniscus damage. 
 

I lived with a partial tear of the ACL for about 5 years, then last year I didn’t do anything dramatic, just cased had a hard landing from a jump and ‘pop’ there it goes again… this time I’m completely disabled by it. 
 

I had surgery in August last year, had a hamstring graft. Now 9 months on, I’m cycling ten hours per week, fitness is back up, I’m rowing 1-2 times per week & resistance training. It feels great, but still a little tight. Last week I tried running fit just twenty minutes, and the knee protested for the remainder of the week! 

I folded my leg up sideways from a low side crash a year ago. For 3 months my knee would swell after a day of riding or anytime I used ladders at work. It would swell worse at work and sometimes I was limping all day. I started using the spin bike at the gym and after a year my knee is way better. It still hurts if my foot is planted and I twist my leg and it pops like hell, but overall it feels pretty good.

As someone 5.5 months post op from ACL reconstruction, sounds like you did yours in and now possibly some meniscus damage.

Here's how mine went: First time, I got my foot caught in a rut while nearly low siding. Entire weight of bike (and me) came down on my leg. There was a pop and a ton of pain, but I got moving ok a few hours later. I raced the next day (though it was definitely stiff). Got an MRI after that weekend and it was ”>50% tear of medial bundle". So a partial tear, but probably stretched it all out pretty damn good.

I took a couple months away from riding, increased my leg strength and got my ROM back. Did a few races no problem... Then about 4 months after the initial injury I dabbed my foot coming into a corner trying to avoid hitting another guy who was going over the bars. That was it... Way more pain than the first time even with it being a mild incident. It was so mild in fact that everyone on the side of the track was confused as to why I was laying my bike down and curling up on the ground in pain. To them it didn't look like anything happened! That's all I needed to know that my knee was done.

Got surgery 2 weeks later and the pictures my doc took during the arthroscopy indicated my ACL was completely shredded at that point. Luckily, I had virtually no other damage.

I tore everything in my left knee in 2020. I knew immediately 

A pop followed by swelling is ACL, you need a MRI but start building those muscles up ready for surgery.

This ^ my surgery was put off because of Covid and it actually benefited me because I was able to rehab and work out to build my muscles up which then helped me after surgery. 

I don’t know, man. It’s your knee; you tell us if you messed it up..

I twisted my knee pretty bad riding last week, immediately knew that something was messed up badly in my knee. Couldn't load the bike in my pick up and couldn't walk all that well either. I seen a sports doc, he thought its my ACL and I'm scheduled to get an mri Thursday. 

I've been having a hell of a time with getting my mobility back, gets better everyday but seeing some of you guys say you raced the next day makes me think I have more going on. If anyone that has done an acl before has any input I'd appreciate it 

I know I said I raced the next day but it was probably a pretty dumb move. I had just driven 7 hours north for that weekend of riding and I didn't want to give it up.

Also, it totally depends on one's own biomechanics. McGrath raced his whole career without an ACL... Other folks can't walk without one. Then there's a whole spectrum between those 2 extremes with how you might handle it...

You may not have torn your ACL. Could be less severe... Might be way worse. Just need to get that MRI done.

I tore my ACL, MCL and Meniscus in 1997 and felt 3 pops. I was playing flag football and when I stood up and put weight on it, it gave out and I fell back down. I got it looked at that night and saw an orthopedic doctor the next day. Joined the Army in 2004 and had total knee replacement last year. Get it looked at instead of VitalMx Doctors. 🤣. Hope it’s nothing serious. 

If it wobbles it's the ACL and or MCL

https://www.instagram.com/p/CU0Y2_GFCmy/

100% this^^^

1000% this.  My ACL was still intact when I had total replacement.  My Meniscus got worse and caused the advanced arthritis in my knee to get replaced.  Prior to replacement, the inside of my knee was all of the pain was.

This is pretty much what happened to me, fell on my out stretched knee and had the worse pain I've had besides breaking 3 vertebrae. Did mine trail riding so getting out of the woods was a bitch. 

Was able to walk barely, doctor said it was sprained and drained a ton of blood out of it. Was starting to feel good a month or two later then a stepped wrong and it hurt like hell went back finally got an MRI a month later and found out I did my ACL and a small Meniscus tear. 

Doctor told me I can schedule surgery whenever I want as I wasn't going to hurt it any worse so I decided to wait until the winter when riding season was over. 

5 years later I still haven't gotten it repaired, I ride MTB and Moto and I've only had it shift maybe 5 times, once from jumping down with a bike out of a pickup when the ramp fell off and a couple times riding or just jumping weird. Usually is sore for about a week but still can walk and ride fine.

Everyone once in a while the meniscus feels kind of weird like it catches a little, so I just bend my knee again and its perfect for another few months. I have some nerve issues from when I broke my back so I have slightly limited movement in my left leg (clumsy running and doing any kind of like tennis or something) so its not like I was a hardcore athlete with an ACL either. 

My advise is don't wait on surgery and do it instantly and deal with the pain all at once, its hard to be like I am and function perfectly except some minor pain every once in a while and then go to surgery and be in pain and recovery for 6 months. I will probably get mine repaired next year.

No worries. Just a charley horse. Trust me, I know, I post on Vital.

Go to the damn doctor