Hunt cut short... knee injury

[Jason Snyder]

I'd go see a doctor and try to find out what caused the inflammation in the first place. You can treat the symptoms all you want, but without isolating the cause you're hust chasing your tail.

Glad you made it out okay, and glad you realized where you were within your limits. Good luck healing and rehabbing.

 

[sk1]

I understand the insurance thing but I agree and still recommend a doctor even if you're not going to get a shot.....knees are not something to play around with especially at 24. If you have a minor tear in something and go back out thinking you're healed you could be making things so much worse for yourself and your knees for your hunting future. My buddy ignored his knee pain even though he could barely walk so he could finish the season, went to the dr after eating tag soup with a torn meniscus and ACL. Dr said he didn't know how he could stand let alone walk or even hike a mountain. The dr also indicated his opinion that they started small and got significantly worse due to being ignored.

I know that may be a unique case, but I'd go to the dr even if its only to confirm its what you think for peace of mind....small price to pay in the scheme of things.

Wish you well on the recovery

 

[Jager]

sk1 is exactly right, I did exactly the same thing and made matters a lot worse. If u have bursitis there is something torn in there, hence the swelling.

You may go through periods when everything feels great and begin to push hard, but with an underlying issue, the bursitis will just keep coming back.

I had my last acl repair done 4 months ago. Know being a fitness nut, I have been back running pretty hard and it is just too soon, the bursitis has flared up again after surgery. Any meniscus and ligament damage causes an unstable knee, which over a short period of time will lead to bone wear in the joint. I am talking from painful experience mate, see an orthopedic surgeon. Forget physio and the like that a gp will prescribe, get an MRI done and off to the surgeon.

 

[HellsCanyon]

Yeah yeah.... you guys are right and I know it. I had my shoulder surgery done by a very very good orthopedic surgeon who has done a lot of work on pro athletes. I'll see about getting in to see him soon. I'm probably looking at maybe getting back on insurance in a few months so it may have to wait until after the season. Don't really have any hard backpacking trips planned from here on out and I'm going to pick up a brace before I do anything else. It's not the smartest thing but it's the best compromise I can do at this point until I get the insurance figured out. Thank you again for the solid advice all.

Mike

 

[Ironman8]

Your Dear Leader will take care of you with that insurance

 

[7mag.]

Good luck man. Sounds like you are in a tough spot. Be careful, and don't push it and make it worse.

 

[Jager]

Best of luck with it mate, yes a good brace is a great idea.

 

[Brock A]

Get that thing healed up! In the mean time...you can just road hunt ;-)

The beard is looking fierce. If you wouldn't have said something in your video, I would have never known your headlamp had a red light on it!

 

[HellsCanyon]

Get that thing healed up! In the mean time...you can just road hunt ;-)

The beard is looking fierce. If you wouldn't have said something in your video, I would have never known your headlamp had a red light on it!

Haha least I got a few rifles that'll let me reach out away from the road a ways! Least enough to have to bust out the BT1 for the packout!

And yeah this is about the longest I've had the beard, gotta keep rolling till I'm done with both wa and Colorado deer tags!

Mike

 

[HellsCanyon]

Well it's been 4.5 days since my knee got hurt. I'm pretty much back to a 95% normal walking gait. Been icing 2-3X a day and taking some healthy joint supplements as well as Vit C and some Ibuprofen. Now that I'm back to almost walking again I'm starting to feel what parts of the range of motion is hurting and it's still the same as before, about 20* of bend in the knee. I can squat down in a catcher's stand no problem at all and duck walk, but it's that slight bend when climbing or descending stairs. Either way I'll be picking up a good knee brace here soon and will continue to ice it at least once a day. Will plan on getting into the doc after Nov 1.

Mike

 

[boom]

let me think outside the box. similar thing happened to me. but i was at work. i was climbing into my truck from a meeting, and i felt the first twinge of pain. my knee felt warm to the touch. then WHAMO! pain to the nth degree. not just pain, but my knee felt locked up.

you know what got me? friggen GOUT! the pain can go away fairly quick.

not saying you have gout. but if you do..the pain isnt gout. the pain is a symptom of gout. just cuz the pain went away, doesnt mean your gout did. it is there, jjust damaging your joints. my doctor knew very little about it. she just precribed powerful anti imflammation meds. and some crazy good pain killers. they work so fast together.

but i insisted to see a rhuematologist, and now i am on a daily med to protect my joints. i love hunting. i love hiking in to hunt. i needed to take care of it.

just ask your doc.just in case. probably not gout, but you sure did describe it very similar to my situation. i was jogging alot and thought it was a sore knee from that.

 

[HellsCanyon]

Bringin this back up for those that helped. Back on insurance a month ago and finally had a doc apt. Knees have been very good over the winter.

He confirmed what I thought is done. Conditioning solely by doing hill climbs on a mountain bike likely got my muscles in fantastic shape, and my tendons/joints couldn't keep up at that pace and got overworked to the point of injury. Said my knees feel solid as a rock and I need to change up my training for this season to more strength training and heavy pack hiking to evenly train my muscles and my joints.

Definitely worth the peace of mind by getting it checked out professionally!

Mike

 

[tstowater]

Glad to hear that you are doing better. Point to all of us that a proper training program is very important.

 

[Warren1726]

I'm a little biased since I'm an exercise physiologist. Anyone who is putting a lot of strain on their knees through activities like hiking with heavy loads, needs to be doing some serious strength training utilizing big lifts like squats and deadlifts. Otherwise, you are inviting this kind of injury. Just my 2 cents. Glad you're doing better.

 

[HellsCanyon]

Well... Last week I ran 1.5 miles on Tuesday. And another 2 miles on Wednesday. Felt decent but could tell it's been a few years and a long inactive winter.

Went for a run yesterday, I'm running on irrigation canal road so it's mainly dirt/gravel. I started with a 1/4 mile warm up and noticed my knees were a bit sore. Stopped and stretched for about 5 minutes and felt better but still noticed that my knees weren't great.

Ran the 2 miles and felt good. Can already tell I'm getting better but last night and today I am limping pretty good. Left knee is decent right knee is dang sore. Both on inside front. Gonna get back to the doc and get X-rays.
I had some muscles get fused on a micro scale to my shin bones back in high school and it feels similar now to what it did then. I'm about the least flexible person I know and without that full flexibility and range of working motion I think I'm hurting myself.

Will update this again as I get more info.

Mike

 

[HellsCanyon]

For those wondering about the micro muscle fusion, research Deep Crural Fascia and it's relationship to shin splints. It's not an area fully researched but there's a lot of evidence supporting it and it aligns perfectly with what I've dealt with historically.

Mike

 

[akshayv]

On vacation I started noticing that my heels hurt and thought my feet are tired. Nope, Plantar Fasciitis was my diagnosis. My doctor told me to get shoes with an arch and I found orthofeet shoes and now my feet won't let me wear anything else. I'm on my second pair of these Chicane shoes and I love these shoes because they are very comfortable.