Knee injuries/healing/what to do etc...

Alrightey I'm sure most of you have heard my tale of woe already. To those who haven't:

Denny kicked me in the knee over a week ago. I went to see someone on Friday about it, and he couldn't determine anything for sure at this point because it's still so swollen. He suspects injuries to my medial collateral ligament, anterior cruciate ligament, medial meniscus and illiotibial band. All structures are intact (flexion tests said so), but could be damaged, we don't know the extent at this point.
Oh, and lovely - my bruise is calcifying in my IT band!
I have been up and hobbling around on it, but that has been painful. I caught it a couple times yesterday (leading me to believe that there might be meniscal damage) and it nearly sent me through the roof!!

When I asked him when I could ride again, he said to not even think about it for a "long while." Whatever that means. He said we'll talk more about it on Monday.

Sooo!!

I'm sure there are others here that have had knee injuries - if you would be willing to share, how long was it before you were back in the saddle?

Would it be terrible for me to go hop on Denny bareback and just walk around?

If I am off for a while, my friend suggested I call up a girl we used to teach and ask her if she would want to ride him. This girl is a lovely little rider whom I absolutely adore. She hasn't ridden in a while though and I'm concerned that Denny would be too much for her. Besides that, I am very protective of my horses and it might kill me to see her do things on him that I would be unable to do soon. (I.e. I would like to be the first one to jump him)

I might be getting ahead of myself as we don't know how bad the damage is at the moment, but hey, why not discuss it?

Being someone who is prone to accidents - broken wrist, collar bone, many stitches all over body, I've never injured me knees.

I am terribly sorry for what you are going through, and I have no stories or advice to share.

But I do wholeheartedly understand being over protective of your horse, I am the same exact way.

Before you count your chickens before they are hatched, wait and see what the dr can say about your knee, if you can get xrays and such - find out what the final ruling is.

My daughter sprained her ankle at her first ice skating lesson. Needless to say, that was her last ice skating lesson. She wasn't able to ride for 6-8 weeks. Stank. But, riding earlier could have caused another injury and could have slowed down the recovery.

Are you starting physical therapy after the swelling goes down?

I am with MIEventer, I have broken numerous bones but never hurt my knee that bad. I did have Denny fall on me one time many years ago but I just kinda ignored it when my knee swelled up. I am probably not the best person to ask because I tend to ignore the Dr. And just do what I want to anyway. Just wait to hear what he says about riding. I also think that riding bareback would be fine so long as you trust Denny to behave himself. ;p I understand about not wanting someone else to try something new with your horse that you want to do yourself. Even if it does come down to her riding him, there is no reason why she should try to really advance his training. Her riding would be more of a refresher course every few days, right?

Is he sending you for an MRI or CT scan? Those are the only two that can determine soft tissue damage. I ope you feel better :( wait until you know more before you get stressed out about someone else riding your horse. I know the feeling, I don't even like other people riding the horse I am lease since I sold my horse because I work so hard. Good luck! Keep us updated on how it goes tomorrow!

I've done very minor damage to my knees when I was downhill skiing. I just limped around for a week and was back on the slopes the following weekend.

For serious knee injuries though I have heard that what is hardest on them is the weight being put on them. A great exercise one of my friends did was use an exercise bicycle BACKWARDS. Apparently, doing this backwards is easier to do until your knee and associated soft tissue is ready for going forwards.

Good luck. Hopefully it's not so bad as all that.

Well as someone who has a reccurring knee injury, let's see if I can help.
My problems began in late 04, I tore some cartilage in my knee after it "gave way" and sent me underneath my mare. In early 05 I had surgery and although my knee felt weak (and now and then sore), I was fine until 07 with it, when it did it again and more severe. I've now been diagnosed with an unstable patella... and will have this injury reoccur until they operate. To have that operation I have to get to a ridiculous weight of 60kg (yes I'm overweight)... and with a genetic disorder, I'm finding that operation out of reach for awhile!
Horse riding wise, when my knee would give out (which happens every 3-4mths when I had no broken leg, now it happens every week, but not as painful as it normally is)... I'd be out of the saddle for a good month, to 6 weeks. But that's cos it takes me about a month to be back on track again and be able to live normally (ie, off crutches and able to walk)... I guess someone who is fitter than me, may not struggle as much as they wouldn't have as much weight going onto their knee.
I find that when I do get back up in the saddle, I need to have a good length to my stirrups. I used to have them a hole shorter than I do now, so I found that I'd have to ride for awhile with the longer stirrups before I could have them shorter again. I then learnt that having them longer meant I could ride for longer lol.
It all depends really... I take to the side of caution simply cos I have my life put on "hold" every time my knee gives way. I can sympathise with the pain you're in and I'm hoping you get the correct treatment - MRI scan to make sure the damage inside isn't requiring surgery, and lots of physiotherapy. The bad news is, that with knee injuries, once you've done it once, normally from there on there will be a weakness to the area. So you have to work hard to keep the strength in your leg.
I hope for your sake, your time out of the saddle isn't too long!
All the best Allie!
x

Well I am someone who has just torn all my ligaments on both sides of my left foot. Now I did this on a trampoling landing on it wrong! It buckled under me so that is how it got even worse. Now this really sucked cause I had planned a full 2 weeks of riding and I had to cancel all of it. And even longer because I needed more time to heal. But the fact is that it wouldn't be worth it to get back on a horse and risk but probably hurt it even more! So just take a break and let it recover! I just decided to go back and look over my riding and how I could improve and look over my notes in some horse studies and continue them even further!

Thank you everyone for your support. I really appeciate it.
I will know a little more tomorrow, but the pain has gotten worse on the medial side, which I'm worried about.
Will update later!!

Omg, you've done almost the EXACT same thing as me. I tore the medial meniscus in my left knee whilst playing netball. I was lucky not to snap my ACL and it doesn't need surgery (thank god). But I was on crutches for a week and a half (I even graduated uni in them!) and was forced to wear a MASSIVE knee brace for three weeks.
Just when I came out of the knee brace into a compression bandage, I decided to go horse riding again. *headdesk* What an idiot! We were just walking but she spooked at a roo and took off. Cause I didn't have the proper gripping power in my legs, I fell off and was almost back at square 1. *sigh*
In the meantime, I've been getting my instructor to exercise my lease horse in schooling lessons while I recover.
What I'm saying is....take it slow. The most important thing is to take the time to heal before trying anything, cause you might end up worse than you already are!
Don't stress the knee out too much and you'll heal MUCH faster and be able to go back to horse riding in no time!

Btw, 5-6 weeks depending on the extent of the injury is plenty of time to recover and begin exercising again.