Okay, once again on Newschoolers asking for advice… Medical advice!
This past spring pass I twisted my left knee coming off of a rail and heard/felt the dreaded popping sensation. There was some pain, but nothing horrible. I sat on the ground for 20 minutes trying to decide if I was completely fucked. Something felt wrong for sure. I skied down (slowly), but any sort of twisting motion with my knee caused a lot of pain, so I pretty much just pizza’d with my right leg to make it down to Norms.
I went into ski patrol. They did a “lachman’s” (half-assed ski patrol version) and said that I was mostly okay, likely just sprained or tore my LCL or meniscus. They wrapped me up and told me I should probably get it checked out if insured (I am).
The entire trip was pretty fucking baked. I didn’t have a car this year and was sleeping out of a hammock.
So I pretty much just gave away all of my groceries, left my skis with a homie, and took my backpack on the bus down to Portland, where I stayed a night at a friend’s before taking an early flight back home to MN.
Fast forward a few weeks, I got an MRI. Here is the radiologist report:
FINDINGS:
Menisci: No discrete tear.
Cruciate ligaments: Proximal ACL appears irregular and discontinuous compatible with high-grade tear. PCL is intact.
Extensor mechanism: Intact.
Collateral ligaments: Intact.
Bones and cartilage: Bone marrow edema at the posterior lateral tibial plateau without discrete fracture line. Bone marrow is otherwise normal. Cartilage appears maintained.
Not good. The dreaded fucking injury. ACL. Fuck.
How can this be??? It has only been a month out from injury and I am walking around pretty much fine with minimal symptoms, except for some soreness and certain knee positions, and feeling a bit weaker/less mobility.
Here is my situation. I just got a new job in Duluth, MN. I have been working as an engineer on a project for the feds for the last month. Duluth does not have a lot of knee surgeons, especially ones I would trust for a pretty intense operation like an ACL.
If I go down to the cities, I would have at least a weekly visit with my surgeon post op for a while. This would make it pretty hard with my new job.
Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions on how to move forward? I know I need to talk to an orthopedic person and get them to read the MRI, rather than just going off of what the radiologist has told me. I just wanted to hear if anyone has any suggestions/has had a similar situation.
FYI I had an ACL reconstruction in 2016 with my patella tendon on my right knee. It took about a year to get back to skiing.