Thread: Torqued knee from Turkish Drop

So I finally hurt myself doing a Turkish Drop. It's not TOO bad, it sorta comes in waves. I have NEVER had a problem with my knees, so I think that will help the healing process.

Anyway, I torqued my knee out while doing a drop. I can put weight on it and walk on it, but it hurts so bad. It feels like when you "almost" sprain your ankle, but it's not quite so severe. Twisting the knee in the opposite direction it happened doesn't hurt. Every other direction (especially where the knee is in and the foot is outside the leg) is excruciating. If I concentrate and keep my leg muscles contracted and step on even ground, I can walk without limping.

For those who have had this happen, how long did it take and what did you have to do, for it to heal? I've iced it a few times and take turns walking and resting it, and I'm refraining from doing any twisting motions with it.

I haven't experienced this injury, but what about following the general guideline for injuires - RICE, i.e. Rest, ice, compression, and elevation, plus anti-inflammatories like aspirin. I have heard that it helps with healing if your diet is rich in antioxidants.

I've had knee problems my whole life (doc says the ligaments are loose in my knees, plus weight doesn't help). RICE is good to follow the first day. I also put on a stretchy knee brace when I'm not icing. It helps to hold everything together, compresses things a bit, and keeps your knee muscles warm. I'll wear it for a few weeks (under my day clothes and around the house, but not in bed) or until the pain goes away. Sometimes it only takes a few days for the pain to go away, and sometimes it takes a couple weeks. When the pain goes away, I slowly start to strengthen both knees again with several exercises, and I slowly increase the intensity over time. I've noticed that the stronger my knees and legs are, the less likely I am to have a knee injury. When I slack on keep my legs strong, I tend to hurt one or both of my knees again.

To strengthen my legs and knees, I do squats, do several reps of going in to releve in different positions, leg lifts while I'm laying down on my back and also on my side, wall squats, and a host of other things. I only do turkish drops now if I've been keeping my legs and core conditioned, otherwise I never fail to hurt my knees or my back or neck or something.

This happened to me. Both kneecaps were pulled off center, though one was worse than the other. Your choices are:

1. Seek advice from a qualified medical professional and follow their recommendations. The treatment would likely involve surgery, or at the very least some sort of cast/brace. Best case scenario is that they might recommend physical therapy.
2. Do nothing, and hope for the best.

There's much to be said for #1, since a qualified medical professional can tell you exactly what kind of injury you sustained, and offer you options on what to do about it. Expert advice can be very valuable. If you have insurance, that will certainly cover most of the costs. Of course, many people hesitate to do this because they are uninsured or can't afford the deductibles, or maybe they don't trust surgery. But I do think it's a good idea to at least consult an orthopedist to get an understanding of how extensive the injury is, even if you end up deciding to NOT pursue whatever treatment they recommend.

I personally chose #2, so I'll tell you what happened in my next post.

(continued from previous post)

Over time, the worst of it healed, but both my kneecaps remained off center. I could no longer sit or kneel comfortably on the floor, walking up a hill was painful, and so was going up a flight of stairs. Therefore, I had to quit doing floor work, and I had to quit doing yoga because too many poses placed my knees in positions that they couldn't tolerate. I reached a point where walking on a level surface was fine, and no longer hurt. I could do normal dance as long as I didn't try to do spins on a "grippy" surface such as carpet, and level changes of any kind were out of the question. A 4-hour workshop with Mahmoud Reda (or anybody else who incorporated a lot of Arabesques, half-turns, and other pivoting steps) would leave my knees in agony by the end of the day, even with appropriate shoes.

Six years after the injury, these problems persisted. I was getting rolfing to deal with other issues (long-ago car accident), and one day my rolfer decided to plunge into my knees. That particular experience was quite psychologically amazing (but that's a whole separate story), and the net of it was that she GREATLY improved both knees, nudging both back into correct position, but I still couldn't do floor work, yoga, or excessive pivoting. My knees remained weak. I might go a few months being able to walk upstairs or up hills without pain, but then I'd have several weeks of pain doing these things.

A few years later, I went to a new-to-me massage therapist who had trained in myofascial release. She felt drawn to do fascia work around my knees, and over the course of several months of work managed to "fix" the remaining problems.

I haven't tried yoga since she did it, but I'm wanting to. I can kneel on the floor now, and get back up from kneeling position. I no longer have pain going up stairs or hills. I HAVE done 8 hours of workshopping in a single weekend with Mahmoud Reda, which I couldn't have done before the myofascial release. I don't know whether my knees will tolerate floor work - I no longer have the required strength and flexibility in my legs because it has been many years since I last did floor work. I'd have to do a lot of conditioning exercise with my quads before I could discover how my knees feel about floor work.

My approach worked for me, but I'd encourage anybody else to consult an orthopedist at least to find out how severe the injury is. I really should have done that myself.

For now, until you can get an orthopedist to examine you:

• Keep icing your knees for a few days, until the likelihood of swelling is past.
• Consider wearing elastic bandages to give your knees some support.
• Avoid walking up hills or stairs, and avoid doing anything that involves pivoting. Avoid driving a car with a standard transmission because working the clutch will put stress on your knees. Avoid doing anything that hurts. REST your knees!
• Elevate your legs as much as possible, but do it in a way that protects your knees. For example, you may need to put pillows under your calves or knees.
• Get as much sleep as possible. Sleep is very, very helpful when you have a new injury.

I did this a couple of years ago. It took about 6 months for the pain to completely go away and another 6 months before I could get into certain positions on the floor. (I didn't displace anything, basically pulled a muscle on the inner front edge of my left knee.) I used RICE to start, then switched to heat when it bothered me. Kept the idea of being gentle with myself and when it hurt, to stop.

Unless you totally isolate your knee, chances are it will take some time to heal. Patience is the key. but, if you don't see any improvement in the next couple of days, you might want to go get it checked out just to make sure there is nothing else going on.

{{{HUGS}}}

Ice for the first few days (reduces swelling) then switch to heat (helps healing). Anti-inflams are also a good idea. Do not limp - walk slowly but correctly so as not to cause something else to compensate and get damaged.

If you are still having trouble after a week or so - see a medical doctor. Many years back I wrenched my knee and thought I'd just be staunch. Then I met someone else who had injured her knee years before - in her case she said the lack of ability to move much ended up wasting her leg muscles - then when she finally saw someone it look a very long time to heal because of the muscle atrophy. I then saw a doctor and from there a specialist. I'd damaged the cartilage and it needed minor surgery. Day after the op - pain was gone and I could walk without a limp - and up stairs.

Another vote for seeing a doctor here. Knee damage can be tricky to diagnose from symptoms, especially if it's a smaller injury causing intermittent pain, so the usual action is to get an MRI to learn more about the problem, physical therapy to keep the knee moving in safe, gentle ways while it heals, and possibly also a cortisone injection to give the healing process a push in the right direction. If money is an issue, the physical therapy usually does not involve specialized equipment, and many of the exercises can be done on your own after the initial visit(s), so some pennies can be pinched there. As for the rest, any injury needs time to heal, but some knee injuries like torn cartilage don't tend to heal themselves very well without intervention, and it's a lot more expensive to need invasive treatment later because you didn't address whatever happened properly right afterward.

It's hard to say how long it will take to heal--depends on what the injury is, how quickly you personally recover, and how diligently you do what you're supposed to. Rushing your recovery rarely makes it happen faster or better.

I had one kneecap pop out of place when I was in high school as the result of torquing the knee, too. I saw a doc and, which was his specialty, had a big and heavy plaster cast for a while, but took it off early on my own. With a combination of that injury and general, untreated knee pain, I had trouble on and off for years and years. With that experience, I echo those who recommend as much rest as possible, cold during the first days/warm after that and NSAIDs. For me, knee braces (neoprene with side stays and a patella opening) have been very useful during activity.

Ok I've been RICEing throughout the days, taking breaks and walking around. Going downstairs is no problem, it seems lifting the knee (to take a first step or go upstairs) is what is most difficult. I've been setting my laptop faaaaaarrrrr at the end of my knee so the heat from the fan will warm it

I woke up this morning and it feels better than yesterday. So I'm going to give it a week of letting it rest and treating it to the best of my ability. It the pain increases or stays the same, I'll go see someone. My mother is a physician and she was there when the accident happened. Knees aren't necessarily her specialty, but she said it didn't raise too much concern--but that I should definitely keep an eye on it.

Thanks everyone!

I know it's different in the States but honestly, I'd see a doctor now. I know so many people who have ongoing troubles with damaged knees from a variety of backgrounds (sports, dance) and they frequently do not get *better* without intervention. You only get two, you need them both and replacements are very expensive and don't always work as well as the originals.

I've had chronic pain in one knee for years after an injury and then over use. When I went to sports medicine doc recently because of nightime hip pain I was diagnosed with IT band syndrome (in addition to greater trochanter bursitis). The doctor prescribed an IT band strap. I wore for 16 hours a day for 6 weeks and now wear it when exercising or dancing other than performing. Not only has the night pain gone away, but that knee has improved so much that I can do deep squats and floorwork again. Might be worth looking into after the accute injury is healed.