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Knee Ligament injuries 27-Oct-2006 At 11:51:07 AM SteveC

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Howdy All, I recently injured my knee in a triad of snowboarding, bouldering and trailbike incidents. The snowboard gave me a lateral strain, about 2 weeks later while landing off a boulder i heard something like a fresh carrot snapping, this I believe gave me a medial meniscus damage and possibly anterior cruciate ligament damage. Being a glutton for punishment, I followed this up 4 weeks later with a motor bike incident, there was a sharp snap in the knee and I couldnt walk for 2 weeks. This was the ACL and no doubt further damage to meniscus and cartilege.

Firstly I would like to say: impatience is not a virtue! If i had let the original sprain heal properly I would not be facing this mess, anyone could have told me that but it is up to the individual to listen of course.

So what I would like to know is if anyone has actually torn their Anterior Cruciate Ligament and whether they had the surgery to reconstruct it or is it possible to keep climbing without it.
I have had a series of quacks look at it, fisrtly an Orthopaedic Surgeon who wanted to cut me up, remove all the meniscus and replace the ACL.

I have seen a Sports Medicine Physician who has organised through one of his preferred surgeons an MRI next week. Interestingly he believes the ACL may not be completely torn while the first surgeon demonstrated with the Luchmann test that the tibia can come forward with a definitive clunk. He also thinks that the amount of swelling is consistent with articular cartilege damage on the femural condyle.

My Ostepath is quite adament that I dont have surgery I understand that removing meniscus means that there is basically bone on bone action, but is this better or worse than having, say, a bucket handle tear of the meniscus which is jamming up the joint. At the moment i cannot straighten the leg past around 170 degrees and can bring my heel no closer than 4 inches to my glutes without feeling pain.

Hopefully the MRI will give me a definitive diagnosis. But Id like to hear any advice others may have in regard to their own experience with knee injuries. especially tips on strengthening and rehabilitation, and further complications after surgery or without surgery. And any thoughts on glucosomine supplement for ligament repair.

In the meantime I will be dangling off the campus board!